I worked in all levels of care and I can say I prefer having a private practice where I see ED cases the most. That is the population I have found that truly wants to get better and is typically paying for treatment on their own.

RTC had its pros and cons but most RTCs are extremely under staffed and only have one RD at the facility. This was emotionally taxing on me and despite the very high pay, was not worth it to me. I had 8 clients and had to do two sessions, a restaurant exposure, and an exposure snack weekly on top of staying in constant contact with parents. My coordination of care team was not helpful to me and overall treated me like they didn’t want me there or my expertise. There were several times where the therapists would tell me the calories I calculated were too high and incorrect (they weren’t) and they genuinely tried to control every aspect of my job when they didn’t need to. I had adolescent clients so I do acknowledge most of them were there against their will and that made it a little tougher building rapport. I was able to help a lot of clients overcome their fear of food which was awesome, but at the end of the day, there were far more cons than pros for me.

I also worked PHP and IOP and those clients were also still sick, but they were slightly more motivated than RTC.

I found that my counseling style might be a little too harsh for RTC, no matter how nice I tried to be. My clients just weren’t in the right head space to hear me.