Donna K Griset – Peninsula Counseling Center of Virginia

Summary: She took our money and never gave us a refund for services our insurance covered, plus general weirdness.
We had one session with Dr. Griset, and it was more than enough.
The first red flag was a text she sent to my husband from her own cellphone. My husband was not thrilled with this — as far as we know doctors tend to employ receptionists, and their offices tend to call rather than text patients. We were weirded out but let it go.
Then we got to the office. It’s an empty, kind of non-​established looking place. There was no staff. We thought we had the wrong building. We waited outside when we confirmed it was the right place. Dr. Griset arrived a little late and opened the office on her own. I couldn’t help but feeling it was a little clandestine counseling session, which sounds completely bizarre and hilarious, but there you go.
This was an intake session just to smooth out some minor communication issues we have been having. She didn’t really have a lot of input but it was the first session, so that might be usual. It was okay — nothing stellar and no new perspectives.
Towards the end of our session, she said she wasn’t sure if our insurance would cover the counseling, and she doesn’t take card payments — another red flag: who doesn’t have a card reader these days? They literally give them to you for free to use with a smartphone. We had to go home and pick up our checkbook like it was 1985.
A few days later, turns out our insurance did cover the service. She confirmed that she owed us a partial refund for about half the payment we gave her (the refund was for about $ 80).
Three months have passed and we have not seen a penny. She got paid by our insurance company, and she also kept our payment. We called, texted (since apparently text might work), and we received nothing except a really bad attitude from her to my husband one of the times she actually picked up the phone. She angrily told my husband she had already sent us a refund check (she hadn’t). Then she just decided to ignore us. I texted her again last week to remind her that we in fact do not have a check from her and I got no reply.
What can I say, it was an intensely weird experience. She must be in terrible financial shape if she is willing to keep her patients’ money without any legal reason to do so. We have given up on getting this money back, but we thought we might warn those looking for a counselor: the empty office, her being late, not taking cards and flat out taking our money makes me think she is not herself in a very stable place economically, if not professionally.
I do not recommend her services to anyone. I can’t fathom why anyone with a counseling license has to run their business like it’s a soon-​to-​be-​defunct strip mall take away.