Pros
Some of the counselors and administrative staff are remarkable in their empathy and care for patients.
Cons
- The company is run like a cult. It’s a train wreck with a heavy-handed paint job. - There seems to be a pattern- it appears that fresh graduates are purposely hired so they can be molded to primarily function as salespeople for more sessions, coined as helping clients with “growth beyond healing”. Counselors are urged to ignore financial worries and restrictions of their clients and squeeze as many sessions as possible out of them. A large portion of their training comes across as sales-focused on importing the “value” of sessions at Foundations. The rest of the counselor training seems to be regurgitation of the content of old bootstrap-theory privileged theories in old men’s books displayed on the bookshelves. - The pay structure for counselors is exploitative at best. It seems to be purposely confusing so that new counselors are promised double what the industry average is when counselors actually take home, at most, 30% of the $140 (and rising) session price- half of the industry average of 60%. You’re also expected to have open availability. If staff tries to have a conversation about burnout, the blame is put on the staff. Burnout is a mindset that you have full control over in their eyes, which is a convenient way of attempting to gaslight mental health professionals. - The CEO is known both for evading criticism/accountability and for making the women on staff incredibly uncomfortable- he makes degrading and inappropriate comments to women on the staff in front of others. I was incredibly uncomfortable with how he spoke to women in the staff- especially what he was comfortable saying with an audience. He cannot seem to have a conversation without praising himself in some way or condescending in tone or word choice, and interjects himself into any space he can. He always ends conversations asking if there’s anything you need from him, but allegedly retaliates against anyone who brings forth concerns. His “check-ins” come across as manipulative and artificial. Those who express stress to him are dismissed and told that emotions aren’t reality. Based on how he treats his employees, he seems to lack basic human empathy on a deep level. - In a heavily woman-dominated industry, counselor leadership is entirely comprised of men. - The CEO speaks openly about how many lawyers he has on stand by and allegedly has sued multiple past counselors who left. He uses fear to try to keep people in line. - It’s frequently parroted by management that Foundations is the Ritz Carlton of mental health. Considering how the company is run from a business and employee management standpoint, it’s a running joke amongst the staff. Those in charge lack the basic self-awareness to see it. The vast majority of staff have been at the company for under a year, and turnover is always high. Quality companies in this field don’t have that problem. Sixteen counselors quit in 2020 alone. - There is an inflexible late cancel fee, $140- unheard of in the field- that takes advantage of already vulnerable people if they cancel or reschedule within 48 hours of the session time for any reason, including being in the hospital. Company leadership coldly claims it’s “holding people accountable”. Predatory policies like this prove that they’re not in the business of improving mental health. - Allegedly, it is common practice for management to handle employees leaving by giving them zero courtesy or thought despite any contribution to the company and letting them go on the spot or much earlier than their notice. - Leadership is known for being untrustworthy, and you can only move up in the company if you’re a duplicitous bureaucrat. A culture has been created of punishing those with constructive criticism or complaints, yet demanding everyone create positive morale from the bottom up. Those at the top truly believe that until you’ve fully backed and bought into anything told to you, you don’t have a right to bring criticism to anyone. - Foundations Counseling as a whole deeply doesn’t care for your mental or physical health as long as you’re serving their only purpose of profit. The company’s leaders dream of it being a massively respected pillar of wealth, but can’t grow to scale and the company doesn’t have the staff or basic business practices and budget utilization to exact it. They are almost always too understaffed to support the bloated marketing budget. They willingly and consistently burn out their employees. - If you value transparency, empathy, and clear communication, this is not the place for you. There is extremely little diversity in the staff and a strict dress code is in place to exude an extremely conservative persona. - The CEO and leadership don’t take Covid seriously. There was no mask policy in place for staff or clients until November 2020. In-person meetings are often required despite staff’s requests for safety measures being taken seriously.
