I am an LPC who has been in practice for almost 20 years, mid 40's. I see kids 12 and up, women, men, and marriages. I specialize in trauma, personality disorders, abortion/pregnancy loss, parent-teen relationships and faith-based counseling. I office at a private practice that was started by a friend, who is also an LPC, with an office rental (not a percentage) setup. Every counselor has independent insurance contracts, sets their own fees, manages their own schedule and billing. I was the first counselor to join her, and at one point the practice grew to 34 counselors.
A few years ago, the owner asked me to help with incoming counseling inquiries. I initially said no as it sounded like a lot of work, but after being asked again and being told I would be given free office rent, I said yes. I kept up with the insurances accepted by all counselors in our office, specialties, their current availability to accept new clients and specialties. When an inquiry came in, I provided the inquiry with the ALL the names and contact information of ALL the counselors who could meet the needs of the inquiry. I encouraged inquiries to view our counselor's biographies on our website to see who may be a good fit. I refused to push clients to a specific counselor just because the counselor wanted more clients. I am a firm believer that good counselors can get and keep clients.
However, some people did not like my method. People who accepted lower paying insurances felt targeted when I sent them clients with this insurance...even if they were the only counselor in the office who accepted this insurance. Some people felt I sent better paying insurances to my friends or kept them for myself. I even provided our entire practice with our referral login credentials to allow them to see the conversations. No one looked, but they still complained.
As the person who communicated directly with the incoming potential clients, I also learned some counselors consistently did not return emails to referrals. Some counselors consistently were not liked by clients, and some counselors just have too limited of a schedule, specialties, accepted demographic or insurance list to be appealing to the public.
Here is where things began to go south. I began to feel conflicted about doing the referrals. First, it began to feel like it could fall into the category of being given a "kickback" if a client chose to contact me. Second, I was tired of the gossip and assumptions about me. I was literally just trying to do a good job. Fortunately this coincided with the owner making changes to our office and this included the way referrals were done. Happily I was willing to pay rent again in order to be free of doing referrals.
Since I was going to pay again for an office, I wanted to make change as I had developed a desire to have my own office. I had been office sharing with a colleague for years. Both she and I loved sharing but as our desire for more working days grew, we both began floating to other's offices when our schedules overlapped. Months prior I asked the owner if I could take over the large office with the window that she had offered me, but at this time she told me she was going to rent it to a psychiatrist. This hurt.
Unfortunately the only remaining empty offices in our practice were interior rooms without a window. I cannot do full-time in an interior room. The owner said out of loyalty to me, she will move my colleague out of our shared office to an interior room. I was uncomfortable with this and told her so, and I told my officemate/colleague I was not willing to kick her out of our shared office. So we were stuck at no solution.
What I did not know is that behind the scenes was lurking two horrible harpies that have pretended to be working-friends for years. The week the psychiatrist moved into our practice, one of these harpy counselors (who I thought was my friend) noticed me in a different office and asked what was going on. I said I was temporarily in that office while the owner and I figured something permanent out. I said I was ready for a full-time office, that the owner's solution was to move out my officemate to an interior room but that was not appealing to either of us.
That evening our owner sent me a message in bold lettering talking about our office culture, and then my officemate called me very upset. She said she found out that one of the harpy counselors called our owner and told her that I secretly had "beef" with the owner, that I was poison in our office, that someone from my old church (who is her client) said she would never refer anyone to me, that it is suspicious how I weathered the TriCare storm so well, that she believed I was hoarding clients for myself, that everything I say is passive-aggressive, she thinks I am doing conversion therapy, that I was trying to manipulate the other counselor into feeling bad in order to give up her own office for me, etc. I was stunned.
No beef with the owner. I was hurt she gave up the office she offered to me.
Not sure about being poison in our office. I do not think I am.
Re. the statement about the woman at my old church, the counselor violated HIPPA since I know who this person is. Second, that woman has never spoken directly to me about us leaving our church, so I assume she only knows gossip. Also, it feels like the counselor is improperly using her position as a counselor to talk about me with someone who was in my personal life. The counselor assumed the client's gossip is true.
I "weathered" the TriCare storm because two years before the TriWest switch I saw TriCare randomly drop one of my colleagues, continued to send people to her yet refused to reimburse. I decided that my home mortgage was too important to depend on government insurance to consistently pay. When they switched to TriWest, I already had only 5 TriCare clients in my caseload. She assumed I directed better insurances to myself, rather than her, after the TriWest switch. She never asked me though.
She thinks I am passive-aggressive. No. I am not passive-aggressive. I am very direct. Perhaps she receives it that way, but I say exactly what I want and feel without snark or shame. I actually believe it is kinder to be direct rather than put others in the position of guessing your feelings or needs.
No. I do not do conversion therapy. I guess she believes because I am a Christian that I am trying to convert all LGBTQ+ clients against their will. First, conversion therapy does not work. Second, it is unethical to do any therapy against a client's will. Third, not a single client has ever come into my office asking for help with their sexuality. Once again, she assumed and never asked.
She thinks I was trying to manipulate her into giving up her office for me. This one is just ridiculous. This was not a thought I had even considered. Now I would love for her to just be gone and for me to have her office, but no I never thought that before. I feel this one demonstrates how crazy the situation has become. They are ascribing feelings and intentions to me that I have not even felt.
I feel humiliated think about all the times I put in bids for connection with these two horrible women, when I felt their icy response and told myself that it was nothing. I can see messages from them where they called me "friend" but were really just being fake and pretending to be nice to perhaps disarm me to gather sincere responses to use against me.
My teenage niece had passed away and was a donor 6 weeks before all of this began. I sat beside her body for a week as it was being kept alive prepared for the operation to share every inch of her body with others. I have deeply grieved her loss from my life, my sister's life, my extended family's life and my own children's life. These harpy counselors cruelty and their fake kindness towards me has been an extra dose of pain. They knew what I just went through yet saw fit to attack me.
In the end, they have stonewalled. Once their behaviors were exposed, they refused to speak or acknowledge me. These women are COUNSELORS. They have made assumptions, built a false narrative about me, gossiped about me and are now stonewalling rather than taking responsibility. I am also hurt that our owner has done nothing. She has just told us to not talk to each other. This is so incredibly unhealthy.
I am looking for a new office. My officemate and I have spoken about finding a place for just to two of us. She does not trust either of the two harpy counselors or the owner. I am hurt, disappointed, sad, angry, confused, weary and feel rejected.
Any suggestions would be helpful.