Achieving Joy

"My therapist was fine, however the billing department failed to communicate my amount due until it was over $1,500. It took weeks for me to actually connect with someone who could explain what was going on. The woman I spoke with condescendingly made statements about people getting “easily confused with how deductibles worked.” Before this, I’d been in therapy for years and never experienced anything like this, but I remained polite. I tried to use my HSA card to put something down in good faith on that call, but her system wouldn’t accept it. She expressed concern that I’d run away and not satisfy the debt, despite the fact we’d only just connected after weeks of “phone tag.” She sent over a promissory note, which I took to get looked over by my professional counsel but she was pressing me to hurry and sign. Today, I satisfied the debt and I just want to let people know what I went through, especially considering how much of a nightmare it was for me in this vulnerable chapter of my mental health journey."

"Tifphane Riley consistently rescheduled appointments last minute or showed up 15+ minutes late. When she did log in late, she did not acknowledge this or apologize. Like other reviewers, Achieving Joy made a billing mistake with my account, overcharging me by $800. I called them multiple times, they were unresponsive, and it took until I filed a BBB complaint threatened to call the DC Attorney General for them to take action, and six months later they finally refunded me. The worst part of my experience with this practice was the "care" I received: after I disclosed to Dr. Riley that I had recently experienced a traumatic assault, she slowly ghosted me. She told me she would continue to treat me, then she changed her mind and said Joy also wanted to meet with me. Over the course of weeks I exchanged multiple emails trying to get them to decide whether and when my next appointment would be. They never followed through, and I was never able to get another appointment to begin trauma care. Being ghosted in response to saying I needed care for an assault is just beyond unprofessional, it's malpractice. I'm totally bewildered at how they are in business."

"NEVER EVEN met with a therapist but was charged nearly $200 for RESCHEDULING an appointment. When I called they kept telling me speak with “billing” who conveniently never answered the phone. Truly unprofessional—would not recommend this office to anyone. Still waiting to get refunded."

"Terrible experience. I was referred to Achieving Joy after my former therapist recognized my needs shifted from self work to relationship counseling about and with my partner. They are LGBTQ+-friendly and it is also very important to me to have an African American therapist. I filled out the intake form that included providing my insurance information. I had three appointments total with Tifphanie Riley. The first appointment was rescheduled. We spoke, the session itself was fine. I had another session 2 weeks later, nothing really to write home about - we were still getting to know one another. It felt awkward, not as natural as I felt with my former therapist. I had another session about 2 weeks after that, she was having technical issues and we had to start later than expected. There were also multiple times during the session where her video froze, or we disconnected and once when her video cut off completely in the middle of my speaking. The day before my 4th session (which happened to be two days after a VERY stressful move into my new home) I received an email from Dr. Riley stating that there was a balance that needed to be resolved. Prior to this time, we had not discussed payment at all. When my insurance information was collected, I assumed this was covered through my insurance. I was referred by my old therapist so I did not look too far into their website outside of looking at the therapist profiles. My old therapist was so upfront and transparent about payment, I truly assumed that was the ethical norm for therapists. I was three sessions in when I was informed that each session would be $152.50. The sessions were not remotely worth even a quarter of that for me. I would have never continued with her if I knew that but I decided to give it her multiple chances. Back to how Dr. Riley informed me of the balance - she emailed me because the bank account I gave them did not have sufficient funds because I was not expecting that payment to be coming out of my bill card (and I had just spent $800 more than expected because I hired trash movers). I immediately transferred the requisite amount to the account, let her know, asked her to send me invoices, and cancelled my remaining appointments. She sent me 2 invoices and I was billed for one of those 2 sessions. Three months later, I have now been charged for all three sessions and have been sent the invoices for all three. I say all of this to say - it just is not worth it. I am going back to my old therapist. I prefer professionalism and transparency in all of my associations, especially with something so intimate as therapy, and I just was not provided that here. As an attorney, we have a professional code of ethics that we have to abide by and the doctors I usually deal with are very thorough in their dealings and ethical considerations. That was not my experience with Achieving Joy. I would not recommend."

"I agree that they can be late, but I think they’re wonderful and have been going here for almost a decade."