Therapy at Atlanta Relationship Institute offers counselling for marriage, break-ups, and other relationship problems.
The overall approach to your counselling is to maintain overall health within the relationship by providing education, support and skills that are universally applicable.
With such a wide array of approaches, our counsellors provide psychological care as well as practical tools for maintaining healthy relationships”.
On-line services also claimed that atlanta relationship institute is part of a nationwide operation, with locations in several other cities including Miami , Austin.
Here are some points about the Therapy at Atlanta relationship institute-
1. Atlanta Relationship Institute is a for-profit business.
It does not offer free or low-cost counselling. The headquarters of Atlanta Relationship Institute is located at 1610 Peachtree St NE, Suite 630, Atlanta GA 30309.
It offers online counselling only. On-line counselling is cheaper than face-to-face counselling because there are no operating costs of an office.
There are also no employees to pay – just the owners, who presumably work full-time out of their homes.
2. It claims to have a team of experts.
The business is listed as a multi-disciplinary professional counselling service, meaning that it claims to use a team approach to counselling.
However, in mainstream psychology it is generally agreed that having more than one therapist from the same discipline working on a case usually does not work well. In addition, employees or owners of Atlanta Relationship Institute also refer to themselves as experts.
3. The therapists are not licensed by any state agency in Georgia
The official state website for licensing purposes lists no Psychologists, Psychometrists or Marriage and Family Therapists with an address in Atlanta who are registered within the State of Georgia.
4. It has been in business since at least 2009.
Atlanta Relationship Institute was founded in 2001 and records show web domains were created in at least 2009. It is unknown whether the founder of Atlanta Relationship Institute had a previous business which is now inactive, or whether they started another counselling business which is now inactive.
The most popular treatment therapy the therapy offers is called “The 5 Love Languages”, a book by Gary Chapman written in 1995. The book teaches that healthy relationships are based on a person’s love language with their partner.
The book states that couples who use this system for communication and learning how to love each other with their partner’s love language, improve their relationships. In 2008 Gary Chapman published a sequel entitled “The 5 Love Languages of Children”.
5. It claims to address relationship issues as a team.
“We understand that your need for healthy relationships goes beyond counselling or therapy. Often, people come to us because they have been through a painful experience that they want to put behind them so they can move on with their lives”.
It does not state what team members it has, although the owners of the business may be some of these ‘team’ members.
6. The company has filed for bankruptcy
The company was established in 2001, and filed chapter 7 bankruptcy in March 2013 , listing $0 in assets and $1,000,000 in liabilities. Its business is still operating and the original owners still appear to be running it.
Its previous incarnation under a different name was registered within Georgia in October 2001 and dissolved in June 2010 .
A list of therapists working for Atlanta Relationship Institute appears on their website. They are listed in alphabetical order only.
It is not clear whether this list of therapists is complete. Also, therapists working for Atlanta Relationship Institute are independent contractors who work for themselves, not the company – they are not employees of Atlanta Relationship Institute.
Therefore, this list should be considered a directory only and not an endorsement by Atlanta Relationship Institute of any therapist on the list.
7. The business has no rating with the Better Business Bureau
The business has no rating with the BBB, although many similar businesses do have a rating – the fact that it does not could be an indication of problems with customer service or billing.
It does not provide face-to-face counselling, which would be significantly more expensive to the client than online counselling. It is also more difficult to evaluate whether or not it is providing a service of standard quality.
8. The business does not have an A+ rating with the BBB
The business has no A+ rating with the BBB which indicates that there have been consumer complaints against them, or that they have failed to respond to a complaint.
Some of the Better Business Bureau’s ratings include: A+, A, B+, B, C+, C, D and F. When a business receives an F rating it is usually because of bad customer service or unethical practices which were too severe for an F-rating.
However, as some businesses do not have any BBB rating at all, this needs to be taken into account as well.
