Went to 2 couples therapy sessions with Dr. Alloway. She was utterly unprofessional and unethical. At the first session she was unusually interested in our willingness to return and continue using her services. It felt as though she was trying to make us feel guilty for being insufficiently committed to the health of our relationship if we didn't give her a 10 out of 10 response on the likelihood of us coming back. I was suspicious but we returned for a second session hoping this would be a positive experience for us. Well we were really caught off guard because the way she conducted the session was downright traumatic. I understand that therapy can be raw and emotional but you're supposed to leave feeling the experience was beneficial not harmful. The entire session was spent focused on my partner's sources of anxiety. I sat quietly and patiently waiting for my turn to speak and express my perceptions and feelings. After the session was almost over I didn't get to say very much because she constantly interrupted me and spoke over me. This woman inserted her personal opinions and beliefs into our therapy. She judged us, leapt to conclusions, accused me of things she had zero evidence of, made false equivalents of my behavior and extreme immoral circumstances, she got emotional and took a derisive tone with me, and challenged and criticized my values and parenting choices. Nothing about her advice or analysis of us as people was professional or clinically appropriate. She took my feelings and twisted them into assumptions that my behavior toward my partner and our family was disrespectful, ungrateful and selfish. She also resorted to name calling towards my partner on two separate occasions. It really felt like she judged me, decided she was offended by me and when on the offensive toward me. As if this nightmare couldn't get any worse, she also got extremely personal regarding our finances, asking us questions about how much money we make, and how we spend our money down to every minute detail. She wanted to know about every last penny we had and expected us to justify it all to her. She then proceeded to write all of our financial information down and sat there and judged us some more about how and where we spend our money, about how we're living above our means, and told us exactly where we need to do our grocery shopping because the store we shop at now is simply too expensive for us. She was literally lecturing us on the fundamentals of household budgeting, inserting her personal ideas about what we need to start doing in order to save money and what we need to stop spending money on. I'm a stay at home mom of a wonderful special needs 4 year old boy. My partner, his father and I have been together for 7 years. He is the bread winner and works full time. Dr. Alloway suggested to my partner that in order to save money, he needed to cut me off from all financial decision making, take away my debit card, and open a new bank account to direct deposit his paychecks into so that I couldn't access "his money". I don't even think I need to explain that any further. If we were married would she suggest the same thing? Why is that relevant? Its 2019! Does she think she's a psychologist or an accountant? The whole session felt like a disciplanary lecture about everything we were doing wrong. We left her office emotionally jarred and with overwhelming negative feelings. This person has no sense of appropriate professional conduct. read more
