Joyful Life Institute Inc 105 Kathryn Drive, Lewisville, TX 75067

"Dr Richards is great. Her expertise with trauma has bern highly beneficial in my life"

"I had dramatic improvements after receiving services from Dr. Richards. Everyone around me noticed a difference in my behavior, but most importantly I recognized the difference within myself. It's been about 3-2 years since my last visit but I will forever benefit from the discoveries we uncovered with my trauma, management of my emotions, and mental detachment. One year of therapy has jumpstarted a whole new me in many ways and I will forever apply the work I did with Dr. Richards as I continue to grow in this journey. Best wishes everyone!"

"I was quiet pleased with my experience. She used what is called the "EMDR method" for me to process through my car wreck trauma. It was excellent and I very much recommend it for anyone with PTSD of any kind. I was very sad when I had to stop treatment because she didn't take my new insurance and was too expensive for me to self-pay. I also did a women's group therapy with her. I don't know if I got much out of the group, but it appeared the other women were benefiting greatly. The only/most frustrating part for me was the payment process, however I did switch insurances a few times during my treatment so that didn't help."

"One of the worst therapists you could go to within the area. Save your time and money and find another one."

"Here is what to expect from a Dr. Richards appointment: You walk in 10 minutes early to your appointment and you can hear her typing on the computer or talking to her dog while you wait for her to open the window to check you in. At the exact time of your appointment, she will open the window and take your payment up front, this is considered part of your appointment as well. So she will spend anywhere between 5-15 minutes trying to charge your card with the busted card reader she has, and again, this time is considered part of your appointment time. She will then unlock the door to let let you in. There is a sign on the door that says "No food or drinks allowed" which doesn't seem to apply to her. If you do ask if you can bring a bottled water in because you are thirsty and have a dry mouth because you are in a counseling appointment and have to talk the whole time, she will deny you of that, even if she is drinking something herself. On top of that, she will likely get frustrated with you for asking and will refer to the sight on the door as if you are blind and did not see it. You will then go in the counseling room and she will start to ask you some questions about your life, how your feeling etc.. She will be on her computer the entire time typing up notes, so if you answer too fast, she will ask you to repeat yourself constantly. Now mind you, I have been to somwhrere between 20-30 appointments and I just got out of the "evaluation stage" about 2 appointments ago. It is VERY slow going, I felt like I only got 15 min worth of a 45 min appointment nearly every single time I went. So in a nutshell, if your appointment is at 2:15 and she takes 15 minutes to check you in, no matter what, your appointment will end at 3:00. She also likes to argue with you on subjects she has no clue about and she seems to refer to a TV show for her source of information. For example, at my last appointment, she argued with me for over 15 minutes about whether or not you need a liscense in the state of Texas to be a general contractor. I grew up in the business and even ran a framing company for a while, she knows this information, but was very persistent that I was wrong because she saw something on Dateline. I was sitting there thinking "are you kidding me, is this a joke?!?" I just couldn't believe that she was being so argumentative about a subject she has no clue about because of something she saw on TV!! Now here is the big kicker, and the bail of straw that broke the camels back. After that last appointment, I went ahead and scheduled 2 more appointments because I wanted to mull over what just happened before I make a rash decision and cut her off. Well, I thought about what happened and discussed it with multiple people and came to the conclusion that this counselor would be more of a problem for me, rather than a solution, so I did miss both appointments without calling. Now, I had been using my mothers card information, with her permission, to pay for my appointments because I got a divorce a year ago and have very little money, but I never had the actual card with me so she had to enter in the last 2 payments in manually (mind you, all the other times I paid, I had a card with me, so to be fair, I cannot apply the check in complaint above to the last 2 sessions because that was more of my fault for the long check ins). I never gave her permission to keep the card info because it was my mothers and need to ask permission before I use it, mostly out of courtesy. Well, evidentially, she DID keep that card info and charged me $300 for both missed appointments without my consent or my mothers consent. To reiterate, SHE WAS NOT AUTHORIZED TO KEEP ANY PAYMENT INFORMATION OF ANY KIND, but somehow, she did keep it and unlawfully charged my mothers card. I am only writing this because I feel like people should be warned. I wish I would have seen somthing like this before I wasted all of my time and money in her office. I am more than happy to answer any questions that anyone has, just send me a PM."