Pros
Constantly Full Caseload. Some control of your schedule. Supportive Team Members. Employee Benefits and Free CEU trainings and Supervision included. The ability to work within a specific demographic, with so many clients referred to you, you can really get a good amount of experience with a wide range of diagnoses and refine your clinical skills. The office staff handle all billing and scheduling needs, so you can just focus on seeing clients. Consistent pay, you can opt for the salary option but be advised that this means you have to see 40+ clients a week, so it is quite a bit for less pay. Commission model allows for more freedom.
Cons
Difficulty changing your caseload: When you start at NAL you may begin with seeing 40 clients a week if you do not set firm boundaries and they usually schedule them one immediately after the other, which is fine in bursts but if you are someone who needs to have rests between clients then that may be taxing. Lower reimbursements: for clients compared to different locations, since they are a larger company that includes office staff in the pay, reimbursement is about 10% less for clients than other locations. So the trade off is, more clients, but less pay per client hour. Changing hours can be difficult: as they will schedule out your caseload for a couple of months or so, so if you need to reduce or change hours you may be stuck at times. Lack of Control With Clients (Interrupts client therapy): Though it is also a plus that they do the office management work for you, it is also a Con that you do not control your calendar as you do not know when you are seeing clients each week. Also, since they do not allow for ongoing meetings to be scheduled (such as Tuesdays 6:00pm)there are often situations where I have run into clients being interrupted in their therapy for a month or more, as a therapist this is a concern since rapport is damaged and the prognosis is harmed as the flow of treatment can be interrupted. I usually try to have clients schedule out a month or more, but at some locations they have/had a three appointment limit to scheduling appointments. Faith Based Company; A big one for me was that they emphasized that they were not a faith based organization in the interview process, but throughout the training and in the bi-weekly work meetings Christian connotations are woven throughout (in team meetings they share bible verses, prayer in the onboarding, etc.). As someone not of this faith it is becoming alienating, so I would probably recommend either just being aware of this or if you are a practitioner of this faith it would not be a concern.