mental health therapist

licensed professional counselor

mental health technician

therapist

psychologist

Nystrom & Associates

Ever since the company laid off an entire department of workers within their call center a few months back, the place has taken a nose dive. The support staff at every single clinic of theirs is struggling (even though Nystrom likes to sugar coat this) to keep their heads above water after having an entire separate job within the company forced on them with no additional compensation or explanation. One day it simply was a thing expected of us all with no consideration for the already insane volume of work we put in during our work day, and no amount of "additional training to adjust to workflow" can create more hours in the day or provide an appropriate level of staffing to compensate for the changes.
Upper management liked to tell staff "Answering the phones was already in your job description" and that's why they were able to get away with it. But they conveniently forget to leave out the fact that Support Staff were taking calls on a site-specific 'Provider Line' which were calls reserved for, as you may have guessed, site specific providers. We also had the occasional patient slip through, but it was always VERY limited to calls for your area and resulted in manageable call volume. Which allowed support staff to do their tasks as assigned and provide care to our onsite clients. There USED to be points in your day when you could take a deep breath and collect yourself before jumping into the next project. This is no longer the case. Even though the company advertises that they allow for 'mental breaks' as needed and says they have an 'open door' policy that allows for staff to vent and decompress with their managers. You will still be reprimanded for stepping away from the desk and for the times when you cannot keep up even though the expectations they have of you are so outlandish it's borderline inhumane. You will have sleepless nights, you will dread coming in to work, you will fear backlash from your superiors, and you will not be afforded the patience and consideration you deserve for your concerns and own mental wellbeing/mental health. And if you can't continue to subject yourself to this treatment and end up quitting? You still receive the blame and as a final insult to injury, and will be told: "It appears as though this was not a good fit/not what you expected when joining the company. You simply weren't cut out for the job and all of it's requirements."

I shared my concerns MANY of times with my office managers and upper management during my time there and was fed the same programed response each and every time along the lines of "you will adapt... don't get yourself worked up...you'll figure out a way to better manage your time..." Do you notice a common theme?...they always push things back on YOU. it's YOUR responsibility to figure things out, even when you don't have the time or the training or the resources. It's okay for management not to know the answer to something and for them not to have the time to do something, but the second YOU can't? They immediately treat you like you're incompetent and become condescending and ask things such as "What have you even been working on then? why didn't you have time to get x,y,z done?" "Why don't you know how to do this? Did you even bother referring to our training guides?"
I should also mention, these 'training guides' are tucked away in the most convoluted maze of folders within their computers, and of course every location has their maze of folders organized differently. They can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes to track down. All the while, you are having to assist with the dozens of patient's at the desk, the phones ringing off the hook, the mountains of paperwork in the back office, the backlog of digital patient requests on your computer, and the fresh pile of paperwork your office manager just dropped in your lap before retreating back to their office, completely indifferent to what's happening in front of them. By the time you're desperate enough to go searching for the guides because you were told to "Figure it out for yourself", you dare not ask your managers for more assistance in locating them for fear of being regarded as an even greater disappointment.

There is also a no 'No Gossip' policy and surprisingly enough the managers are the absolute worse offenders when it comes to this. They would constantly complain about providers and fellow staff alike in front of us and this also was not taken seriously by HR when reported. "Maybe you misinterpreted the situation" or you were simply accused of eavesdropping. Nice.

There are a multitude of things I have to say about the absolute horror it was working for this company, but they have messed with my head so much in the time that I worked there... I don't want to have another sleepless night worrying about being too specific in my review of the company that they track down who I was and retaliate against me in some way for sharing what actually goes on behind the scenes. I've endured enough emotional manipulation and gaslighting from management; it has had a significant negative impact on my mental health. Which triggered me to disassociate through the day as well as suffer memory loss and severe anxiety attacks.
If you currently work here, I hope you've managed to find your silver lining to get you through it, and I hope you get out before they rob you of your humanity.

Cheers

Working at Nystrom started out super great. The pay was comparable to other jobs I've had and the workload was manageable. I had a great team I worked with and it was overall fun. Then management thought they had this great idea to get rid of the call center and put phone calls back on office staff and nursing. I understand it's embarrassing to admit you messed up as management but it really made things MUCH worse and nobody really cared to listen...we just kept getting "it's going to get better, this is for better patient care". Workloads became much heavier for everyone, micromanagement became far worse, you couldn't be signed out of your phone without getting re-signed in automatically or getting an e-mail scolding you for being signed out of your phone for longer than 5 or 10 minutes, even if you had to finish up a task, help a provider or meet with a patient. As a nurse once this happened, we were told we shouldn't really be meeting with patients anymore unless it's an emergency. We were to advise them to call the nurse line...which most of them already have and waited 25+ minutes to get a hold of someone and then either got disconnected or connected with a nurse at a different building who had no idea what was going on with their care. Providers weren't happy with the complaints from patients regarding long wait times on the phone and not being able to meet with a nurse while they were there (I had providers mention this to me multiple times). The patient care went down, despite what management continues to believe. Patients were being "termed" left and right because we couldn't keep up with the volume and they rarely closed clinics to new patients so it seemed like as we added new patients, we just termed a few for no reason. We were losing staff and they weren't being replaced. The pay was no longer comparable for the amount of work we were required to do in a day. I had many other job offers that were far less stressful and at least $3 more an hour but Nystrom feels their pay is "up to date with the market". I had a lot of faith in this company when I first started and felt like I could have been there forever but as they transitioned, it became clear that the claim to be a Christian company was only a front (and likely a nice tax write off) and this company really is only about making money. They view the staff as replaceable and they refuse to acknowledge any issues with this system. I will say that the nursing management was actually very wonderful. I had no issues with them - they were flexible with hours and time off. They were easily approachable and knowledgeable about their jobs and helpful most times. I just wish it could be different because I really liked my patient base and enjoyed working in mental health a lot. I hated leaving the company but I just don't feel they are headed in the right direction and the nurse in me was upset about the poor patient care. I could not be proud of myself working at Nystrom.

Let me start by saying that I have met some incredible people here that I will have long lasting friendships with. There were a small group of people I felt supported by and encouraged me when I didn't feel valued. 

Overall, however, I did not like working for this company. I feel that the values changed over time and it was more about being a business and making money than helping the patients. It was difficult to help patients through things when my hands felt tied due to certain policies I was expected to follow. 

I worked a few positions during my time here and the front desk was the worst. The workload was immense and expectations were high so much so that you would leave feeling burnt out constantly. If they were paid to match other clinics, it might be worth it. The position I was in before I left was okay. The work itself wasn't so bad, but it could get out of hand sometimes with workload. 

My biggest annoyance with this company is the lack of communication between locations and higher management. We would roll out a policy change, but somehow not all locations would be on the same page. A patient would call in and say one location told them one thing and we would have to inform the patient that that was no longer correct. It was always a mess and confused the patients which in turn frustrated them and yourself. Leading into my next point, if staff had a question about a policy or something along those lines we would get a half answer and 'we will have to follow up about this'. Which would lead to the staff not getting an answer unless we brought it up again even if it was a time sensitive issue. That being said, our office managers are great and I know that it's not their fault as they were most likely struggling with communication issues on their end as well. 

In conclusion, I believe the company has some work to do with communication between their numerous locations and upper management. As well as making sure our focus is patient care rather than profit. If they paid more to match what other clinics are paying their staff, it might be worth it but at this time I would not recommend anyone working here. 

I’ve held various administrative positions and have thoroughly enjoyed my work. I appreciate that management is invested in your growth and development, and that there are promotional opportunities. I’ve grown a lot personally and professionally because of this. 

Nystrom as a whole prioritizes the mental health of their employees, and upper management trains their managers/supervisors/directors to do so as well, but there’s always going to be a few bad eggs that fly under the radar in any company. The employees that have written negative reviews sound like they have unfortunately had to have a relationship with one of those bad eggs. When I was a manager I was certainly a reflection of the Nystrom values and had wonderful relationships with my team. One of my favorite things about this company is how I have always felt valued and supported and I know that a lot of those in leadership roles feel the same and try their very best to provide that to their teams too.

I’ve experienced a lot of the changes that many include in their reviews, but that is to be expected with a growing company, and I personally have found that it keeps things exciting!

The only bone I have to pick is that front desk staff as well as managers are expected to balance a lot and I don’t believe they are fairly compensated for the skill that it takes to be able to do so effectively. I do believe that administrative staff are not appreciated by corporate as much as they should be when admin is the glue that keeps things together, running smoothly, and supporting the clinicians so they can be successful in serving our patients. Like many other companies, we are frequently short staffed, but this is a wonderful place to work, and it always comes down to admin leaving because of pay. I think things would significantly get better if they paid admin higher wages so we could increase retention and hire more skilled employees rather than marketing the front desk position as an entry level role. It does require a lot of skill! 

Enjoyed the providers. Has turned into a hostile work environment for admin staff over the last year and any feedback I gave was either ignored or turned into a complaint they had for me. When I turned in my resignation letter I was called into a small empty room to meet with two managers and an operations manager, 3 to 1. They asked what lead to my resignation, pretty standard. It then turned into what felt like an interrogation where I was asked things like “Do you know the definition of the word ‘hostile’?” I was also told “You’re leaving because you don’t like answering phone calls” and when I said that was a false statement, before I could even explain myself, the operations manager spoke over me and asked my manager “Is that true?” It was then that I knew they didn’t call this meeting to understand my reasoning, but to undermine and discredit me. My manager stumbled over themselves saying “Well, I think we’re referring to when you had stated the phones were keeping you from coming to work” 
I was completely dumbfounded by the outright lie. I had previously shared with my managers that I was feeling overwhelmed by my workload as a whole and that there was a single day or two over the span of the last 16 months where I was too mentally exhausted to perform my job duties so I took a mental health day. Not because I “didn’t like answering phones”. The accusation that I was simply leaving because I didn’t want to “do my job” was so unprofessional and degrading and spoke volumes to what lead to me describing the work environment as hostile in the first place.

I also know I am not alone because 2/3rds of our location’s admin staff has resigned over the last few months all for similar reasons.. though it is very unfortunate.
I was sought out by another clinic in the area and absolutely love it there. It’s amazing the difference it makes in your moral when you are truly valued by your employer.

Your typical expectation as a therapist at this company is to see 6-7 clients daily, you get 3-4 hours of "Admin Time" throughout the week and that is it. So, I often spent my own personal time catching up on writing the plethora of Diagnostic Assessments I was assigned to from Intake clients. This is because most clients are not long-term therapy clients, and at least half of the intakes end up being no-call/no-show appointments because clients are handed down from one therapist to the next regardless of their attendance rates. I often felt devalued and dispensable as a therapist for this company, with little to no opportunity to provide clinical input into my clients to upper management or admin staff. When you start, they have you complete a therapist profile, but it ends up being meaningless because they only schedule clients based on scheduling logistics and not presenting issues, diagnoses, personal preferences, demographics, etc. Therapists who are board approved supervisors, such as myself, are asked to supervise student interns/non-licensed staff, but then given no additional compensation for their time. Instead, management will subtract 1 therapy hour from your schedule but the financial benefits the company is reaping (from the intern) is far more profitable then your 1 hour of therapy time. All in all, maybe a good place to start your career but don't stay long. If you are anything like me, you will end up feeling overworked, underpaid, and unappreciated by the company, management, and your direct supervisor. 

Management has not been in the positions that they manage and do not realize how much the positions have changed since they were in the role - they expect high volume from a low volume position. Taking any necessary breaks throughout the day (your normal 15 min breaks every 2 hours) risks your ability to accomplish your daily goals and requirements. Falling even 1 point below your goals can result in a form of punishment. Required meetings, even if they last hours long, are not taken into consideration when looking at the ability to achieve at the end of the day. Many times, the hardest working employee in the position was unable to complete their goals but would still be punished, even if the resources were not provided for them to do so. The company claims to respect work/life balance but in the event some people have life situations come up unexpectedly, accommodations are unlikely. Very unaccommodating to death in families. Pay increases are no more than 3% of your current pay, yearly - started at the company at $18.50 and just over 5 years later, I was making $19.87 and left for another company to make over $25/hr doing the exact same thing with far less expectations and more achievable goals. The CEO of the company seems great but the employees and management have all been with the company, following the footsteps of the previous CEO. Management can make or break a company and while the company did a great job selling the company, the position, etc., but once within the company, I was able to see a lot of what goes on behind closed doors and how things are truly ran per department.

I have had the unfortunate experience of working under one of the most demanding IT management teams. They set unrealistic expectations, and when concerns are raised, they are perceived as a challenge, with no resolutions ever reached. The IT leaders tend to offload their responsibilities onto their staff, leaving us to handle critical tasks while they sit pretty in their office to attend unnecessary meetings. The compensation is laughable, especially considering the senior-level work being forced upon you while it is not your responsibility.

The workload is overwhelming due to the large number of sites and few number of IT members, leading to significant burnout across the team. When we voice concerns about these issues, nothing changes. Several top-performing team members have already burned out and resigned, and the turnover rate is high. The stress level increases due to the constant pressure from clinics, doctors, and staff, each believing their issue is the highest priority, which makes it increasingly difficult to manage. Most issues are deemed "urgent" when they are not, and IT leadership fails to provide support in these situations, often pressuring us to complete tasks immediately so they can look good in front of their boss. Turnover will be constant until something is changed within the IT leadership team.

Additionally, there is a complete lack of appreciation for the hard work being put in. Eventually, I stopped putting in extra effort, as it felt like a waste of time and energy. It’s hard to stay motivated when leadership does not show any concern for the team’s well-being or contributions. I would strongly advise against working here: RUN away from this place, DON’T WALK.

I started here almost 5 years ago and loved it. Now I just left, sad to leave my office and all the people I work with but happy to no longer work for a company consumed by their need for PROFIT. If you work here you will not be compensated well, you will be expected to take on other job duties for other departments because turn over is so high in EVERY department, as a provider - especially a salaried provider - you will be expected to have a jam packed schedule and you will need to keep poor, vague clinical notes because there isn't time during work to chart well and if you need help they'll tell you to do your charting after hours instead of giving you some admin time. There will be lots of scheduling errors because admin staff turn over is so high they never get good at their jobs. They also won't give you more than a 3% yearly raise and that might not even happen now because they opened 15 clinics this year and can't staff them with admin staff or providers so they are losing money. 

Don't work here. Don't tell patients to come here. This company cares about profit and that only goes to upper management. Trust me they have really nice cars, huge houses but their unmarried staff have to live with roommates, take a second job or live with their parents. That includes providers. I am so disappointed in this company and in the Nystrom family. They are hurting so many people by their greed. Also - the site management team was told not to say anything "incriminating" in emails - says a lot about their morals and ethics if you ask me. 

I have worked for Nystrom & Associates for a total of about 1.5 years. I left for a few months during the summer for school reasons, but found myself coming back. If it were not for school, I would not have left to begin with. I absolutely love working with Nystrom & Associates. I have built lasting friendships and have worked with excellent mentors, everyone there wants you to succeed. I like that I am always learning new things regardless of what position/role I am in, and there good opportunities for advancement. I find the work days go by fairly quick as there are always different things to do. I absolutely admire the company culture, and especially the local office culture in the Fargo-Moorhead region. We often arrange potlucks and holiday festivities, such as secret santa and employee appreciation week. I love that they offer PTO that is inclusive of sick and vacation time, it is not separate. I have not had any issues with taking time off, and I really feel they value our health and work-life balance. I have the flexibility to leave to attend appointments. The only semi-negative things I have come across are that the starting pay for an entry level job is a bit on the low side, however they do offer fair raises and since returning I feel I am absolutely compensated appropriately. The other is that for me personally the benefits weren't outstanding for the price, however they do offer a variety of different plans to meet the needs for you and your family to chose from.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Mental health therapist 266 salaries reported	$82,596 per year
Licensed professional counselor 56 salaries reported	$66,795 per year
Mental health technician 64 salaries reported	$22.51 per hour
Therapist 68 salaries reported	$67,191 per year
Psychologist 168 salaries reported	$98,557 per year

Working at Sagent Behavioral Health: Company Overview and Reviews

Sagent Behavioral Health

Sagent Behavioral Health Ratings

Popular jobs at Sagent Behavioral Health

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected