My life has changed considerably. I'll be able to focus much more on my new private practice and I'm full of good feelings about that. I had my first day on Thursday and saw two new patients for evaluations. Of course, both were very complex, what we call "special" populations. The second one I reviewed with my collaborating psychiatrist and agreed that even he didn't have the expertise for the case. But both of them wanted to continue seeing me, and I have two more scheduled for Monday already. This is growing quickly. And I am finding that the staff there are as good as I'd hoped - I am getting the orientation and support that I need. They are smart, capable people. As Ken says, they seem to realize that both process and environment are important.
Here's a pic of my new office. Every item in it is new - how cool is that? It's so nice after my crummy previous office with the stained carpet, the holes in the walls, the broken handle on the desk, and no window. So obvious they were saving every nickel and dime. I like this so much better. It aligns more with my personality - frugal is not me. Since we only go around once, it better be good.
Nile took his next step in black belting. This was the most assured that I ever saw him before a test. And he broke his board on the 2nd try. He is assisting with the little kids on Thursdays now, and surprise...he likes that. He's always grumbled about being around them before, but turns out being the teacher is OK.
I'm looking forward to having a much calmer life. After last week, I was already quite worried about how to fit in both of my jobs. I worked very late on Tuesday, and then they were peppering me with questions from the new job (Did you read that email? Have you turned in this form to Blue Cross? When you check your schedule, you need to look at this.) I could see that it was going to be out of control soon. Now that won't happen. So right now, their expectation is for me to be there two days a week. As soon as I have enough clients, I'll add another day and then another....until I'm at all 5 days. But here's the sweet part: I don't have to work Friday afternoons. I can use that time to catch up on administrative tasks or I can leave. Totally up to me.
Friday was a really intense day. I walked out of that awful meeting with the owner - and she insulted me personally by the way, implied that I wasn't running my CBT group properly (which I strongly disagree with; and I wasn't the only target of her insults) - went straight to my office and typed out my resignation letter. I think it was 2 sentences, just the facts with no emotions. I'm leaving on this day, thank you for my time here. Then I walked up to the Clinical Director and handed it to her. She read it quickly and said "I totally understand." Then I walked away. And you know what? The owner was there the whole rest of the day and she never said a word to me. Telling. I was in the front office about an hour later, and our PhD Psychologist said to me, "Hey, I just want you to know how completely inappropriately I thought you were treated in that meeting." and this is the only time that day I really allowed things to leak out, I just blurted out "I quit". There were three other people in the office, and their heads snapped around. Late in the day, an announcement went out. It was a difficult day, I had a full slate of patients to see, insurance companies to call. I even had two doc-to-doc calls that I had to do (which is what they call an insurance appeal. I have to talk to the insurance company doctor, instead of just the clerk.) And I lost both of those appeals. I have to say, that's usual. I had a good track record of usually winning. So I'm going to take that as a sign that it's time to move on.
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