Stronger Oregon - Salem Office

"Story time. I filled out the paperwork last week, and had an appointment with a therapist, that was supposed to be today. A therapist, that at least from her profile, sounded like a decent human. Well I get a call at 4:45 last night informing me that my appointment has been rescheduled for two weeks from now. Mind you, I'm in crisis, literally surviving minute by minute till this appointment. So needless to say I've had the rug ripped out from under me, and I'm upset. So I ask for someone else that can get me in sooner. Chris, the guy I talked to, is just naming names like i have all their profiles memorized, and is expecting me to pick someone. I said I don't know anything about these people, or what they specialize in, can I read their profiles. "Calm down" he tells me. I wasn't even yelling. what?! I'm just trying to explain that getting an appointment with a random therapist that doesn't specialize in what I need...isn't gonna help me. "Calm down!" First of all, when in the history of "calm down" has anyone ever actually calmed down? Why isn't this guy trained better to talk to someone in crisis? It's a therapy office! Anyway, each time he tells me to "calm down" for just being upset, I obviously just get more aggitated. By the third time he tells me to calm down, I finally screamed at him "Stop telling me to calm down!" So then he pulls out that condescending, misognistic reply of "Well if you don't calm down i'm not going to help you." I said "It doen't sound like you can help me anyway." To which he replied "Sounds like you don't actually want my help." This is how we talk to people sobbing on the other end of the phone? You don't want my help? Really? That's what you're going with? So I shut my mouth and let him try and find someone. He said he was going to call someone in the morning and see if she could take me, and then call me back first thing. But before hanging up, I called him out on telling people in crisis that they don't want help. Suddenly he can't remember saying that. And big surprise, he did not call me back in the morning. When I called back this morning, after I'd had time to go over the profiles, I gave him a list of the my top 3 choices, and whichever one of them has the soonest appointment please. He snaps at me "That's who I suggested last night!" I said "I just wanted to read their profiles! I didn't know anything about them!" "Calm down or I'm not gonna help you" Well I wasn't yelling, but now I am. So he hangs up on me. four times. Because he decided that my tone wasn't good enough for him. Then he just refused to schedule me with anyone and stopped taking my calls. Talked to his supervisor who told me that "I couldn't be so angry in therapy or my therapist wouldn't like me" um...excuse me. What exactly is therapy for then? You're either telling me that I'm too traumatized to deserve therapy, or you're admitting that none of your trauma informed therapists can acutally do their job. Never mind the fact that basically, how dare I be so angry that I was bullied by their receptionist. How do any of these people work in mental health!!! So then for the cherry on top. Because Chris hung up on me four times and refused to schedule me, none of the people I wanted were available anymore. So Now I have to wait another week to talk to the only guy they had left available. Hopefully their therapists are better than their receptionist."

"I have nothing but good things about stronger Oregon and the help I’ve received. From the intake to the communication from the staff, to the therapist I was pair with. So maybe this review is for Brooke, but I feel heard, and safe. She has been so open and willing to curating our therapy plan around what I have found to work for me outside of licensed work. The internet lag can be annoying but other than the hour feeling so short, I have only positive feedback on the help I’ve received and the staff I’ve interacted with"

"Do NOT seek therapy here. If I could give 0 stars I would. I had an initial appt scheduled and was never contacted about a reminder or for the actual appointment. I have left 2-3 voicemails since then and haven't heard anything back. If this office/company is too busy for clients, they need to state so. To just NOT show up or give any indication that someone's therapy appointment will not be happening is outright disgusting. I don't seek therapy because I am bored, myself and many others seek therapy for help and this is negligible behavior."

"I hope these are growing pains because my experience with Kim was also bad. I don't think she is the right fit to be answering calls for a mental health facility or a therapy facility. Most of us are fragile and having complications coping and when someone just treats you like you are calling to see what the specials are at your local pizza joint you feel that. I really wanted to give this place a good try and I was hoping they would try to help me as well. I had two sessions and won't be returning. Most of us are so desperate for care and support is severely lacking in our community, but we also can't just take whomever and trust that they can help us. I felt like my first two sessions were just me talking and no plan of action was discussed, no "what are you looking to get out of therapy". Very disappointing. From the frontline to the backline, Strong Oregon you need to step it up and get it together. Already three negative reviews. Sad. I am not using my real name for privacy reasons."