I work for a tech start up (i know….) that specializes in working with children ages 2-18. I have a background in Child Centered Play Therapy, CBT, DBT, and PMT- and I am a fully licensed clinician.
I have routinely run into issues of micromanagement at said company beyond any other place ive worked in my career thus far, so much so as in them literally telling me to backtrack my initial recommendations, diagnosis, as well as how i run my entire session.
I am very passionate about working with children and its my philosophy that a core tenant of understanding how to work with children is not just being fun and playful, but understanding how children learn and communicate through play.
I was told in a performance review that while i’m one of their strongest clinicians, i need to start learning how do things the “xyz company way” and my feelings around playfulness were “ not advised” to be discussed in future team meetings.
I have never in my life had such a bizarre encounter working for a literal pediatric company. When i brought it up to leadership how I felt about the encounter- it became obvious that no one in leadership had any idea about play and development and what even play therapy was. I got “well just playing with kids isnt therapy” as if thats all play therapy does? Or that play can easily be implemented into CBT/DBT to help younger kids understand the skills better.
I know i made my death bed already joining a tech company but jfc do these tech people have souls?