Thoughtful Review - Therapist Talkiatry Employee Review

Talkiatry has become one of the most top-heavy organizations I’ve worked for, with an increasingly large operations and senior leadership structure that feels disconnected from the clinical work generating revenue. Therapists are paid a base salary of $70,000 in New York, a high cost-of-living area, and until recently this was the base salary nationwide. While the company claims to offer raises, they are framed as “tenure-based” increases that do not begin until the second year of employment, require exemplary performance, and are limited to 3% initially and 2% annually thereafter. After three years, this results in a marginal increase that does not come close to keeping pace with inflation or cost-of-living adjustments—none of which are offered, despite Talkiatry being a New York–based company. You would maybe make $73,542.00 after three years. At the same time, therapists are expected to maintain aggressive productivity targets, with little consideration for predictable seasonal fluctuations in patient volume (such as December in New York). Providers are nonetheless spoken to condescendingly by GMs as weekly messages just for having off months, despite being the primary revenue drivers of the practice. I’m unsure if this practice is similar to the psychiatry side, but after a recent discussion with a psychiatrist that I work with, I’m thinking that they do. Incentive compensation is available and can help, but it does not replace the need for a fair base salary. It is difficult to reconcile leadership’s claim that there is no budget for raises while the company continues to fund large referral bonuses, expand executive and operations roles, and offer significantly higher base salaries ($90,000) to therapists licensed in California. The issue is not a lack of money, but how that money is prioritized.