Mental Health Providers in Shelby, North Carolina

When I first started going here I thought it was great. Christine Helton helped me identify what the root cause of many of my problems is and came across as very caring and empathetic in the first few months. After awhile though it felt like they were getting tired of hearing me discuss the same problems over and over again. They cut a few of my sessions a bit short and seemed uninterested in talking, so I stopped going here. I tried some of the coping mechanisms she suggested but none of them ever worked, so I've been just working through my issues on my own. She did a better job than people at other clinics I've been to in the past but that's a low bar to clear. There were times where I felt like she would talk about her own problems for far too long, and in any other type of situation I wouldn't mind listening but this session is supposed to be about me, it's what I'm paying for, and I get sometimes you may use your own experiences to empathize with others to kinda show "hey I know what you're going through" but I got the feeling she would over do it at times to the point where I felt like I was her consular. Another thing I didn't like when I would see Christine Helton is she would occasionally ask me "So why haven't you killed yourself?" she would ask this question a fair bit (sometimes rephrased a bit) and I have heard other people use this question or similar ones to try and spin it into something motivational. Maybe that's what they were doing, idk. But for me personally that is a horrible question to ask me. I don't have a good answer or a good reason to not kill myself. Every second I'm alive is physically and emotionally painful, I'm disabled, my life is going nowhere, I have no friends, my family has hated me since I was born. I would be better off dead, but for whatever reason I have always clinged to this little strand of hope within me that things will one day get better, so I just endure and go on. When posed with a question like this all it does is give me suicidal thoughts and pushes me towards trying to justify killing myself (even if that's not the intention). It's incredibly harmful!

After waiting nearly a month for an appointment scheduled for March 3, 2026 at 1:00 pm, I was told the morning of my appointment that Foothills Consulting Associates was "not accepting new patients at this location." Seriously? Then why the hell did staff call me multiple times to confirm I would be attending, why did I get multiple email verification links, and why did I download and complete all their new-patient paperwork? I wasn't even offered the option to schedule with one of Foothills Consulting Associates' other locations. I got nothing—no explanation, no apology, no alternative, just a bullshit line about "not accepting new patients at this location." That's it! If they're really not accepting new patients, then how are there new patients out there leaving reviews? It's laughable. This is beyond unprofessional—it's disrespectful and a total waste of my time. After reading several reviews of patients experiencing the same treatment, I've contacted the appropriate state medical board, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, and federal agencies that oversee medical facilities and patient care standards to report this kind of conduct. Save yourself the headache and find a provider that actually respects their patients! The 3-star rating of Foothills Consulting Associates rings true based on actual patient interactions with staff and doctors. I've read nearly all the reviews and the owner's replies to other reviewers, and those replies are embarrassingly defensive. Instead of actually addressing the complaint, the owner hides behind generic policy language and then throws out accusations to make the reviewer look dishonest. That is not a professional response—it's damage control. You want people to believe this is about "ethical care," but your own replies show the real priority is silencing criticism and protecting your image. When a practice starts attacking the reviewer instead of answering the actual issue, it tells everyone exactly how seriously patient concerns are taken there. Patients are not stupid, and this kind of reply does nothing but make your office look more dismissive, more arrogant, and less trustworthy.