Donovan Holloway, Counselor

"This therapist epitomizes the proverb “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.” At the very least, Donovan was an improvement over my first therapist who encouraged me to break the law - but besting that standard is not exactly a tall task. Donovan appears to be a good person at his core who truly wants to help his patients but lacks the range and responsibility to effectively treat the maladies he claims to specialize in. 1. I began seeing Donovan to receive care for my PTSD. Unfortunately, very little healthcare providing was ever done because of his predilection to suggest that I possibly had any and every mental illness/disorder in the DSM on the frivolous basis that I displayed ONE symptom out of a dozen others - instead of asking further questions and evaluating me for additional symptoms. As a result, much of our sessions were wasted as I was forced to frequently contextualize my symptoms and behavior to get him on the same page. Even though Donovan is not a doctor and has no clearance to make official diagnoses or prescribe drugs, he had the gall to initially challenge my ADHD diagnosis (even though three actual doctors have screened and diagnosed me with the disorder) and presumptuously criticized how one of my doctors directed me to take my prescription. Perhaps if he spent less time gossiping and divulging information about his other patients to me (a major violation of trust) and was not so obsessed with his word choice/manner of speech, he would have paid more attention to the individual sitting across from him. 2. Despite being a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (a therapist who specializes in connecting patients with services and resources in their community), Donovan never mentioned the multitude of government assistance programs that I was eligible for despite being made aware of the debt and unemployment I was knee-deep in the midst of. After researching and applying for government assistance on my own accord, I will have saved roughly $10,000 this year through these programs that this LCSW never cared to mention - including Medicaid, which fully covered the cost of his therapy sessions! When I questioned him on the matter, he made several conflicting statements in a dishonest attempt to save face. 3.He will guilt-trip you into cancelling appointments around the Holidays, even though the counseling center is open. This is in addition to his bad habit of cancelling sessions at the last minute, even though patients are billed for doing the same. 4. After a few months of treatment, Donovan informed me that he would be reducing his hours at Lifestance after agreeing to work for another employer who was offering a larger salary, so he could not continue seeing me under any circumstances, which was fine. Except, I caught him a lie when he accidentally revealed two weeks later that he had not actually figured out how many time-slots and patients he would be retaining at Lifestance. When I emailed him regarding this inconsistency, he refused to answer. Roughly a month after our final appointment, his deception was confirmed when a quick search of his booking page revealed that he still had open appointment slots at Lifestance. (Thank you so much for aggravating my abandonment trauma, Donovan). As I stated in the beginning of my review, I do not think Donovan Holloway is a bad PERSON - but he is a dishonest THERAPIST who prioritizes many of the wrong things and fails to gain any ground with his brand of therapy. When he formerly worked in an Emergency Room, he had received similar feedback from patients back then, so it should not be difficult to discern who the common denominator is here. I CANNOT recommend seeing this therapist, but hopefully, this review will serve as a wake-up call for him: it’s now or never."