Pros
The clients are motivated and diverse. Therapist colleagues so far have been knowledgable, skilled, and a pleasure to work with.
Cons
Cons for clients: * Octave only accepts 2 insurances: Anthem and MHN, but the clients aren't necessarily aware of this. They are not good about following up about whether insurance coverage has changed, and clients can end up responsible for months of out-of-pocket service fees without realizing they were not covered. * Waitlist is long * Therapist retention is poor, so fair amount of turnover gets in the way of continuity of care * From a tech company approach of doing things their own way, the business side is not aware of ethical or clinical concerns and often reinvent the wheel in ways that are not helpful to clients or clinicians. Therapist side - Poor Retention: * I have worked here for a year, and in that time have seen more than half my colleagues resign, including a mass resignation before a major management policy change that included 5 out of 7 clinical directors * Salary is confusing and unmotivating. In April the company switched from a regular salary, giving therapists only 2-3 weeks to decide whether to stay on, and without issuing new contracts. Base pay was cut by about 17%, with "incentivizing" bonus possible based on number of clients seen per week. However, PTO is not counted towards hours, so if you take vacation it makes it hard to get the "bonus" to earn back what you would have been making otherwise. Sick time taken counts for .45 to the hour of time taken towards reduction in expected client hours. Sound confusing and upsetting? It is. * Systemic racism and discrimination at play. Multiple BIPOC colleagues left due to experiences of racism. A transgender colleague was dead named multiple times without correction or apology. To address this? DEI training for the clinicians, who are not the ones in power or the ones who have been problematic. The business side will begin their own DEI training a year after the most egregious incidents. * An overall attitude of not valuing therapists, pumping us for hours, disregarding feedback on management, clinical, and ethical issues. * Gaslighting and toxic positivity * High turnover of clinic directors / vacancies for clinic directors - lack of advocacy or representation for clinicians * High turnover of staff, upsetting for clinicians who continue to work here and see valued colleagues leave due to bad experience working at Octave * Trying to walk a balance of explaining to clients their options when clinician is leaving Octave, knowing they will likely face high turnover with new therapists
