therapist

registered nurse

behavioral health counselor

behavior technician

clinic manager

Eating Recovery Center Pathlight Mood and Anxiety Center

Overall I was attracted at the opportunity to focus on working with adolescents more, as it can be hard to as someone at the bachelors level in human services/mental health. I am unsure why my experience went poorly when a lot of my coworkers seemed quite okay. The first small, but not unexpected concern came when I was being moved to other buildings due to my building having a low population (and they will stretch those staffing requirements as far as they can.).
Pretty often this ended up being pretty messy as I was moving to a group of patients that didn't know me and I didn't know them, which when you're mostly working with kids doesn't go super well. Beyond that I was never offered a differential for my troubles, not a legal requirement, but it was a grumbling with a lot of us because we were well aware it saved them a pittance but would honestly have given us the acknowledgment this is kind of unpleasant. I'd been floated while in treatment planning more than once, even during my shift. There had been times one person who could make these decisions on floating me would give me one answer, only to have it overruled with really no clear reason.

I had requested to move to days a few times, partly because I really wanted to work with the patients more and get to engage with them because I regularly had a few who would ask pretty strongly for I and some of my shift mates to do mornings. While this would occasionally happen (as if I was being thrown a bone), my permanent movement was hamstrung several times. I was told by management we "were overstaffed" despite shifts being open regularly on the days I would've taken, morning staff speaking to the contrary, and a person being brought on for specifically the days I would've taken. A similar event happened a few weeks later where I was basically being pressed to accept days that hadn't really been cemented prior and I needed a few days to confirm I could move my schedule.

With the topic of compensation: I had been hired on at the lower rate due to a clerical error (totally out of my control.) and had been basically not getting my appropriate rate for several months. When I very plainly inquired about if I would be given the small amount my checks were missing I was informed that since I was hired still within the advertised range for the lower rate, I *legally* didn't have to be compensated. It felt like more of an issue of principal at this point as all of my paperwork said I was at the top rate, and I couldn't have known. 

Near the end of my time there was also an upwelling of allegations coming from patients. Some were perfectly substantiated, but others seemed to have no real evidence and yet those staff were still immediately fired. I had even been questioned over an interaction that sounded so cartoonishly evil that even my direct manager acknowledged it was ridiculous they had to inquire. While investigating these things should happen, it made me nervous to show too much resistance with patients that had certain histories/traits that might create that risk of them trying to create a rumor that could end my career before I really started it. 

Overall the company is not the worst I'd seen, or even worked at. However this constant pattern of stupid mistakes took away from what I'd come to do and impacted patient care. I hope I'm the only example of this strangeness.

When you work with a great team the job can be awesome. In my time there I watched Eating Recovery Center in Northbrook go from a highly therapeutic facility to a money hungry business. Staff that had excelled at the job often would leave due to increased responsibilities on single staff without compensation, unfair pay practices, lack of appropriate boundaries between staff and patients, and lack of professional boundaries in upper management. This has led to lack of good clinical judgment and accountability among remaining staff. Many of the entry level staff members struggled to hold boundaries with patients which often would be harmful to patients' therapeutic journeys; their lack of boundaries would frequently reinforce patient complacency in their eating disorder behaviors, thus prolonging the recovery process.

Staff that expressed burnout were ignored and not supported in maintaining a good work /life balance. When staff members’ emotional fatigue started to impact those around them, they were accused of a lack of flexibility rather than given support to build resilience in an environment where secondary trauma is common.

Further, the multidisciplinary teams constantly struggled to collaborate and communicate with one another which often led to an unsafe and sometimes traumatic environment for the patients. When upper management was alerted to these matters, they often responded in a confused or unprofessional manner. Additionally, there were contradictory accounts of how to respond to patients in crises. Although all patients are individuals requiring individualized responses, there are standard safety practices that are forgone for fear of losing money when a patient was transferred. 

It can be incredibly fulfilling work but unfortunately, at this facility, it did not outweigh the negatives. This job will make you hate mental health work not because of the patients but because of the inadequacy of how the facility is managed and operated coupled with the lack of therapeutically trained entry staff. If you want to work in a therapeutic environment, be paid fairly for your services, or be treated respectfully, I would suggest looking elsewhere. 


Management is disorganized, has poor communication, and NEVER takes ownership of their faults. They often claim they “do not knowing, anything” change what they originally communicated, or literally say something was not said after clear conversations confirming what was said. Management does not advocate for their employees pay raise or promotions. The pay at ERC is not competitive. In fact, it is insulting. They pay significantly below current rates for therapist. They will inform you of the job then later increase the responsibilities and try to convince you it is apart of the job for the same pay. Job responsibilities are revolving and unclear with little pay.  You can expect to work multiple programs and not be paid for any extra work. 

Current changes are disorganize causing poor patient care. Patients have discharged stating these reasons including poor group facilitators demonstrating gross incompetence causing further dissatisfaction and poor patient care.

Employees are expected to do responsibilities of management such as communicate unclear changes to team members, self audits, train employees for positions you can be passed over for, or simply be responsible for training new employees while management steps back. Moreover, there is no structured training and clear expectations of the roles and responsibilities. There is no regard and respect for your academic achievements or self care. It is clearly communicated you are expected to be stretched thin and over worked while producing excellent work.




Take ownership of your mistakes, plan better
ahead and communicate to all your employees by by showing up and sending emails to reinforced communication. Advocate for your employees. They are passiohnate and willing hard workers, your advocacy, honest  communication and compassion can demonstrate respect for your employees building loyalty. Lastly, give competence rates. Employee do talk and know they are being paid unfairly which causes more upset.

Great benefits, a lot of my coworkers were having children, which I think is a green flag.
A good portion of the team jelled well together, with just a couple outliers who couldn't collaborate if their lives depended on it.

In regard to Management:
▪ One of my direct managers tended to be evasive and nonresponsive - their strategy to tackling problems was hoping it would go away on its own. (FYI - they no longer work there)
▪ They leaned heavily on the "not in my job description" tactic which it came to having to handle patients who needed help outside of our scope of work - which happened a lot because most employees didn't know what department handled what part of the process and would often send them to us.
▪ Often times they cared more about being "nice" and keeping the peace than actually addressing issues and they definitely had their favorites - which often were the ones who were catty and equally evasive of work, but would act ultra sweet during meetings.

Despite being the only worker on my team that proactively went out of their way to try to help patients get the information and help they needed - I was told by one of my managers that it didn't seem like patient care was something I loved most...
Meanwhile, half of my team was busy trying to avoid talking to patients ever - which included letting paperwork build up until somebody at the clinic had to confront the patient and avoiding answering or making phone calls.
As well as the aforementioned managers who would often pull the "not in my job description" card, basically telling me to dump the patient onto somebody else's desk, even if that person also didn't have the information needed...
But yeah, apparently I was the one who didn't care - because I wouldn't obediently pick up my coworkers slack.

The hardest part of the job are all 'the little things' that can pile up as a primary therapist - from documentation, to patient requests, to specific patient supports. 

One challenging thing, for me, was it seemed my clinical judgment was not taken into account for some of the patients I worked with. A manager would say "no that cannot be done," but when they had a chance to meet with the patient, that manager then stated "yes, it can be done." 

The culture seemed that most staff were burned out, but it was an unspoken rule that no one really shared how burned out they were. 

Again, the emotional demand for the higher level of care is not a joke. And while the demand is high, the ability to see the progress some patients made made the work worth it. 

There can be a lot to learn at this company from working with the psychiatrists, other teammates, and the resources available on the online platform. I was able to learn more interventions that could be helpful to patients, for example, and the online resources to learn them were accessible - you only had to figure out where to find them.

I think with management being so new, they also need to learn the bounds of their role as manager and make it distinct from their role as a supervisor. I think management could also benefit from trusting their clinicians and clinician's judgments.

The most enjoyable part of the job was working directly with the patient in the one-on-one setting and even within the group setting. There are some great folks who work at the Seattle location. It is too bad most roles are underpaid for the effort and value individual employees bring to the company, especially program therapists and BHCs. As an associate, I too, was also not making enough to make ends meet with their starting salary for primary therapists. 

In all honesty if you have another offer take it! The program therapist management do not support their staff at all! There are so many things that can be done to better the role for their employees, and they refuse to try and further develop the position. They claim they want feedback to better the environment, but they do not take the feedback. You will be overworked and you will do everyone’s job! You will be a program therapist, a nurse, dietitian, house keeping, and more. They preach about mental health and ironically the importance of nutrition but their staff is not getting enough of either. The floor staff support each other because they understand, but even that gets tricky sometimes. There is absolutely no structure. They claim it’s a place where everyone works together and support each other, but I don’t see any one showing support besides floor staff. There is such a power dynamic at this place BHC and Program Therapist are looked down on as if their work is not just as valuable. The regional HR does nothing when you reach out about your concerns. This company has the potential to be great, but they refuse to listen to the floor staff’s concerns, and that’s why the turnover rate is so high. Especially for the program therapist role, working 12 hour days just to cover responsibilities that shouldn’t even be yours. It’s truly sad. If you decide to take the job negotiate your pay! They pay everyone differently even if you have the same credentials because they need people to fill those roles. 

While working in a therapeutic setting with professionals who are familiar to the field, it would be my hope that professional development includes validation and support for the taxing and emotionally exhausting work that primary therapists and program staff do every day. Unfortunately, for a for-profit company with resources, this is not provided. Nor is adequate pay for licensed clinicians who work with you.

Please pay your employees better. Offer more professional development with leadership staff who are willing to provide compassion and support. Not only will this increase staff morale, but in turn produce more competent clinicians and overall better client care and satisfaction.

I met so many lovely clinicians here who left within my first year. Recognize the quality of your employees and value them enough to keep them around.

The patients are great and most of the floor staff has great dedication to their jobs.  That is the end of the good points.   Management makes the work much harder than it needs to be.  The curriculum we are given to work with is often poorly written and not appropriate to the patient population.  Management will often float staff to a different unit with no preparation or guidance to the needs of that milieu.  When bringing issues to the management their response is often "this is the way it is." and then they become punitive and threatening when you have any need for accommodation.  Supervision meetings are often canceled, training amounts to watching a video that often has no Closed Captioning for those with hearing issues, and many of the computers don't have sound and you are expected to do those trainings while also managing the milieu.   Many times asking for support or bringing up issues gets a response like, You have to send an email to HR or Facilities, or someone else other than the supervisor you are speaking with.  I have yet to figure out what the supervisors are there for.  I've often had to work through lunch and if I don't sign out for a half hour lunch they automatically take out a half hour of you pay, whether you got a lunch break or not.   I've had to wait months to get signatures for my hours worked, and in one case track down a supervisor after they had left.  High turnover rate, in one year I have had 4 different supervisors.  Currently I have 3 supervisors none of whom can authorize changing my schedule.  

Many coworkers are great, although turnover is very high. Good experience treating eating disorders. Overall, the environment is cliquey and toxic. Program therapists receive very little recognition for their work and are not treated or respected as clinicians. I have never felt less valued at a job. Program therapists work four 10-hour shifts per week, and working every weekend is mandatory which makes work/life balance difficult. Oftentimes a lunch break is not possible on weekends until eight hours into the shift because program therapists are thrown into everything.There is very little support from management or leadership. The company cares more about a full census than the quality of care, which has created an unsafe environment for patients and staff, especially on weekends when the program is short-staffed. I also feel as though there has been a shift within the company to admit high acuity patients who are not appropriate for a residential level of care, which I find concerning. Covid protocols are nonexistent. At the start of the pandemic, leadership continually emphasized the importance of social distancing, but milieus and dining rooms are small and crowded. Patients on residential tested positive for covid, and BHCs and nursing were expected to care for them. While you have the opportunity to support patients through recovery, working here is not worth it for the sake of your own mental health.

ERC is highly dysfunctional. Staff turnover results in employees across all levels having responsibilities foisted upon them that were not part of their contract. Communication is very poor, because everyone feels overwhelmed. BHCs catch heat from the patients (fair complaints) but usually are powerless to solve said issues. BHCs cannot be honest with patients about the chaos and incompetency behind the scenes, so we would just placate them. Training is poor and sometimes nonexistent. Staff that had been hired 3 weeks ago were tasked with training new staff. Adolescent patients seriously suffered due to inconsistent boundary and rule enforcement. Patients (especially adolescents) need to feel that the adults who have power over them are consistent, fair, and united. Without this, patients lost trust in staff and the system and became increasingly anxious. This led to becoming rebellious, disrespectful of staff, and resistant to any treatment. The patients who were quiet and cooperative fell through the cracks, receiving little attention from BHCs. Proper training and smaller milieu size led to noticeable improvement. However, the people at the top want to make money, so these changes did not lost. Look elsewhere before you work here. Everyone at work was miserable. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Therapist 4 salaries reported	$71,500 per year
Registered nurse 17 salaries reported	$40.11 per hour
Behavioral health counselor 8 salaries reported	$21.63 per hour
Behavior technician 11 salaries reported	$19.59 per hour
Clinic manager 3 salaries reported	$80,000 per year

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