Pros
The opportunity to get licensure supervision and experience. I care deeply about my clients, and work with a staff that does too.
Cons
I have been working as a master's level mental health therapist for Centerstone for over 3 years. I make $28,000 a year, after taxes take home pay is about $26,000. I was making more money working hourly jobs BEFORE I started working in the counseling field. I did not go through 7 years of college, spend over $100,000 on college, to make only $11,000 more a year than I would working at full time flipping burgers at McDonald's. I know for a fact there are staff who are working in positions that require a master's degree who are on food stamps. I personally am on "income based" repayment plans for my student loans, which I would *literally* never be able to pay off if work here the rest of my life. Also something that doesn't get mentioned often is the disparity between pay/treatment among staff. Not too long ago I asked my supervisor for a raise... and... they ... laughed. I know for a fact that even though I have a Master's degree, I make about $12,000 a year dollars less than the nurses who have bachelor's degrees (who don't earn direct income for the company like therapists do). Not to mention the yearly banquet dinner for medication providers and nurses that Centerstone pays for, I have heard first hand accounts about the "very thick steaks and really expensive wines" that are served at these events. No such thing is ever offered to therapists or case managers. At the clinics, therapists are expected to be not only an outstanding clinician but also documentation writers, all the while being responsible for a caseload of around 200 clients. I do not think this is ethical nor is it a good business practice. You are held personally accountable if your clients don't show up, and we get a lot of people that do not keep appointments, because the population we serve is primarily low income, and they have a lot of significant life stressors and barriers. I have no hope of getting the monthly bonus (about $200) if I don't get enough client hours each month. We are frequently threatened that our EARNED pay time off will not be approved if we don't meet our client numbers. There is also no company-wide policy for clients that repeatedly no show or cancel their appointments last minute; each clinic is left to figure it out on their own.There are many other problems staff enounters on a daily basis, since there is no policy on what staff and and can't do for clients who are applying for disability,different offices and providers often have conflicting policies. Most master's level therapists (vocational rehibilitation counselors are an exception) are never trained to to determine if someone is disabled or not, yet I know of instances where untrained therapists are expected to complete paperwork as if they had been trained in this area. This is unethical and borderline fraudulant.
