Seeing Dr. Twentr was a huge mistake for our family during a crisis our son was suffering. She was condescending to us, unhelpful to our son and jumped to immediate unfounded conclusions in support of our son’s teacher in whose presence at a tender age he began having panic attacks. She blamed him for being afraid of the teacher and said he didn’t like school because my husband and I weren’t positive enough about her. We were fine with her until our sweet happy boy suddenly became paralyzed with fear for reasons we couldn’t figure out. We learned from other parents this has happened over the years to other children in her class. Dr. Twente made the worst experience of our lives worse and added to our family’s collective trauma. He eventually recovered with advice from another counselor. No way in the world would I ever use this unhelpful woman who did much more harm than good.

Submitted Jan. 25, 2024

I should have left a rating years ago. She was awful. I would not recommend at all. Judgemental, not helpful, takes sides in marriage counseling sessions. She is bilking money from insurance companies because she really does not practice in a fair and ethical way. Run. Fast.

Submitted Sept. 12, 2020

I would not recommend Allison Twente. She was ultimately unhelpful after I spent significant time, effort and money with the process. She was unresponsive to numerous inquiries, and she generally seemed unwilling to respond to messages. She seemed to care a lot more about collecting fees than about her patients or achieving results.

Submitted Nov. 30, 2019

Dr Twente is not the coparenting counseling for you if you have been through or suffered abuse from your spouse or ex spouse. Even after proof of a convict against me and a copy of the Henrico records she had said it’s inky one assault or that she doesn’t believe her assault. This woman needs to know a lot more about the believe victim movement. I have worked with other counselors and her power trip and ego is far greater then actually solving issues. She doesn’t respect abused women at all and needs to spend some time at a domestic shelter to see not only wants abuse does to victims but the children of victims. She protects the abuser at all costs and expects you to just get over it. No training on empathy or abusive relationships.

Submitted Aug. 13, 2019

I saw Dr. Twente for several years as an adolescent. Allison Twente talked immensely about other clients going in and out of her office. Additionally, she was often extremely directive with me and would tell me what was right for me, and I often felt judged by her. She also would lie to my parents about what she discussed with me and overlook things that I brought up in session; for example, an older girl I was friends with died and she changed the subject as quickly as possible. I was forced to continue with therapy with her but did not enjoy it or feel that I benefited from it. Rather, I think she made me even more confused about my life and lowered my self-esteem about how others perceived me.

Submitted Sept. 23, 2018

Allison Twente came highly recommended by the court system for reunification counseling. She is clearly more interested in the legal process than in healing relationships. With two sides of involved in a contentious divorce, she like many others is focusing her attention on the party with position and power. How is keeping a family separated healthy or right? Her position has an incredible amount of influence and unfortunately it seems that it is misused.
Why do they even have office staff when you sign in electronically? Their presence is definitely not welcoming.

Submitted Aug. 3, 2018

Referred by GAL during custody dispute. Highly recommend. Helped our family tremendously. We will continue to see her as needed and recommend her to others.

Submitted Feb. 6, 2018

Dr Twente was a huge help to us and especially our teenage daughter who looks forward to her time with Dr. Twente. I would especially recommend her in custody issues since she has the child's best interest at heart and takes the time necessary to truly get to the root of issues and situations before making any recommendations. She is not biased toward mom or dad, but instead is very focused on the mental and physical well being of the child. She is also very knowledgeable clinically in making these decisions. My only "complaint' would be that she doesn't always use the full hour (sometimes as short as 30 minutes) and with our insurance not accepted that is an expensive chunk time. However, we feel it was well worth it.

Submitted Jan. 30, 2018

I really believe Dr. Twente did more damage to my daughter and to our family because of her work with our daughter than if she hadn't seen Dr. Twente at all. It was only after we moved our daugher to a different counselor did she really improce! Additionally the Westhampton Family Psychology staff is rude and incompetent at filling out insurance claims. I needed to do all the work to get her paid for 8 visits, and this only after she sent me hastily to collections. The office stadd actually hung on on me when I asked questions about my invoices because they "were too busy" and it was now a "collections matter". There are so many excellent counselors in Richmond. Unfortunately Allison Twente is not one of them.

Submitted July 18, 2014