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All of a sudden, everything is moving digital.\u00a0 This blog post is focusing on ways to move your therapy practice to a tele-therapy practice. Thank goodness that the Corona Virus Pandemic happened during the 21st Century!\u00a0 There are so many people whose income is going to be impacted in a horrible way, but therapists are among the lucky workers who can move to a fully virtual setting.\u00a0 And, your client’s are lucky that they can continue to be seen by you, continuing to receive the care that they need the most during stressful times such as these.\u00a0 Let’s look at the ethical considerations, platform and usage possibilities, and barriers that the people you serve may have when implementing tele-therapy.<\/p>\n
First of all, every state, licensing board, insurance company, and so on will have different ethical views. Of course, there have been changes since the Corona Virus changed our country in the past week!\u00a0 It is always best to consult with your licensing board, your liability insurance carrier, and the panels for the insurance you are in network with before moving forward.\u00a0 It is a good idea to take a few CEU’s on tele-therapy practice or listen to some podcasts and webinars.\u00a0 If you work for a company that provides you access to Relias Training, they offer a few courses in tele-therapy or tele-health.\u00a0 There are tons of online resources, too, and many podcasts available.\u00a0 The National Board of Certified Counselors offers CEU’s towards a specialty area, if you are interested in that.\u00a0 There are a few ethical concerns that would apply regardless of what state you live in, whom you serve, or what area you happen to be licensed.\u00a0 Confidentiality is one of those ethical considerations, and you will need to ensure that your area for work is free of distractions (like those kiddos who are also home now that everyone is home bound), doesn’t leak sound, and uses HIPPA compliant technology to communicate with clients.<\/p>\n
Speaking of technology, there are tons of ways to incorporate technology while still being HIPPA compliant.\u00a0 If you are looking for short-term teletherapy options, there are platforms like Zoom that are HIPPA compliant and are great for videoing, screen sharing, and even giving control to users.\u00a0 Zoom has a whiteboard that younger clients would love to interact with you on, as they can color images, write or text, and share things with you.\u00a0 There are programs, like Smart Notebook, that run well in Zoom as well, and you can incorporate even more interactive activities into the sessions with younger clients.\u00a0 If you are looking for a more long-term solution for your teletherapy practice, there are quite a few great video platforms that offer the ability for the clinician to make documentation, like notes and treatment plans, and for clients to make payments.\u00a0 Typically, scheduling is easy.\u00a0 Some platforms allow only the therapist to schedule and others allow either therapist or client to schedule.\u00a0 The therapy platform that I use in my own private practice is TheraPlatform, and I recommend this site as it has many options that I value in my practice and pricing is fair.<\/p>\n
Finally, let’s address the barriers that your client’s may have with using teletherapy.\u00a0 For some older individuals, the thought of using technology will be a barrier, but this can be addressed through a little care in helping them download or search and save websites to use.\u00a0 I will be honest that most of my teletherapy clients are millennials, who are confident using the technology.\u00a0 Even so, though, there can still be barriers, such as client’s not being comfortable on video.\u00a0 This is when you can explore the use of telephonic sessions for sessions that will not require videoing.\u00a0 Even teenagers, who are super comfortable with the technology, may have barriers, such as finding it easier to be distracted by other social messages coming in during the video session, so it is best to address these barriers by creating interactive sessions that will help to engage them.\u00a0 And, like any other therapy practice, there are the typical barriers such as priority, scheduling, finances, time, and other things that you already know how to address.<\/p>\n
Even though moving into a virtual world of therapy can be frightening or even feel inappropriate for such a personal type of work that we do with others, so much research shows that teletherapy can be just as effective as the typical out-patient, in clinic therapy.\u00a0 If you are considering moving your therapy practice to teletherapy in order to\u00a0 help curb the spread of Corona Virus and ensure the safety of your clients, then I would encourage you to find out exactly what your state, licensing board, and insurance requires before getting started; take a few courses or webinars to better prepare yourself; and consult with some professionals who have been using teletherapy in your state, and in your specialty area or licensing credentials.\u00a0 If you are still sitting on the fence, why not take a poll from your clients to see how they feel about the matter.\u00a0 I hope that this blog post was helpful to any therapist considering moving to teletherapy!<\/p>\n
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All of a sudden, everything is moving digital.\u00a0 This blog post is focusing on ways to move your therapy practice to a tele-therapy practice. Thank goodness that the Corona Virus Pandemic happened during the 21st Century!\u00a0 There are so many people whose income is going to be impacted in a horrible way, but therapists are … Continue reading Starting a Tele-therapy Practice from Home<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopeinhealingfamilyservices.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopeinhealingfamilyservices.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopeinhealingfamilyservices.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopeinhealingfamilyservices.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopeinhealingfamilyservices.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hopeinhealingfamilyservices.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopeinhealingfamilyservices.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopeinhealingfamilyservices.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopeinhealingfamilyservices.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}