Pros
I worked at Lifestance for 6 yrs. It was actually okay from 2020-2023 but when they switched to AMD for an EHR and started hiring all of these people that had nothing to do with mental health as directors that is when it got really bad. I have a doctorate in social work and I was told by a director that I shouldn’t list my doctorate because only a doctorate in counseling or clinical is legit. When I first started we had to see 30-35 clients per week to maintain productivity standards. I had been burned out and my boss made me go thru some client’s notes on trivial matters and even when the client complained about showing ID and I wasn’t empathetic, the director tried to get me to still work with the client when I thought the relationship was too ruptured and she didn’t listen when I said I was burned out and was unempathetic. I never got promoted because of her since she started in management and made sure that I never got to be a clinical director. I was salaried when I was hired in 2020 but was retaliated against when my raise was delayed for 8 months and I went stop reminding them and they forced me to become fee for service and have no insurance benefits. You barely make much when you see 35+ clients more and not get paid for no shows or late clients. Oops this was pros wasn’t it. Well being able to mostly control my schedule was great and when I was salaried I could get paid for trainings even if I saw the appropriate member of clients per week, I loved that and through my colleagues’ help, I was able to become an EMDR consultant. I stayed because of low self esteem and after they treated me cruelly with me always having to ask for my raise and go through a barrage of interviews to get it every year, I had enough, I realize that I deserve better.
Cons
They don’t care about clients. Turnover is high and most clinicians are newly licensed. The embarrassing thing is I go to the Lifestance holiday parties and mostly meet admin that have been working for only a month or so. Old employees who stayed around are extremely rare. My last month, I only got called in because I deliberately was not meeting my client quota as I was quitting. They pretended to care by saying that they were concerned that I wasn’t seeing enough clients to maintain my health insurance. They recently implemented a single sign on that is frustrating since you are constantly kicked off your screen when you are writing your client notes. No compensation for the time you have to do their online trainings constantly on phishing and writing up your notes or meeting your manager to find out why you didn’t get the raise that you were promised. Guess what? After 6 yrs, I was given no exit interview and I just filled an online survey on Lifestance that was ignored. Oh, and they asked me 2x for any equipment that I had and I was never given any work computer or keys. They are so big that they don’t document this stuff and so there was no way I was giving them my personal computer they I do my work on that I bought out of my own pocket,
