If there is one thing I’ve discovered in being an online therapist, it’s that there is no typical day in the life of an online therapist. Fortunately, that’s just how I like it!
As the independent business owner of Beginnings Counseling and Consulting, on any given day I’m the staff counselor, life coach, accountant, marketing director, PR representative, administrative assistant, IT person and more. Though that might sound really intimidating, I like that it gives me incredible freedom to create the business I think will serve my clients best.
Though there are many different ways to conduct online therapy, I operate through 4 means: live videoconference, live chat, phone, and email. All these methods are facilitated by the online practice management and therapy tool I use – counsol.com. You may recognize the name as they’ve recently been verified by OTI! I’ve been using counsol.com for months now, and it’s the only system I’ve ever seen that completely includes everything I need for a session: PayPal support, note-taking applications, intake forms, client session reminder emails, quality video feed and more. It even stores securely old chat sessions so that I can review them before a client meeting!
Although I don’t have a client session on every given day, most days, if not all, I have a client email or call to respond to. My advertising hasn’t changed much since my pre-online practice days. I list my practice in Psychology Today much like many brick-and-mortar counselors, but instead of a local address, I give my website address and write “Online-Only Practice.” Though I still get a lot of confused calls looking for my building, I also get a lot of people that call to say, “I hear your practice is online. Can you tell me more about that?
… read the complete story ~ http://issuu.com/onlinetherapyinstitute/docs/tiltissue11/46
This article first appeared in the Summer 2012 issue of TILT Magazine ~ Therapeutic Innovations in Light of Technology.
Click here to read the entire PDF version of the A Day In The Life Of An Online Therapist article.
Stephanie Adams, MA, LPC provides E-Therapy and E-Coaching at Beginnings Counseling and Consulting. She also serves part-time as the staff counselor for the Sexual Assault Resource Center. Stephanie runs the blog and social networking site Beginning Counselor and is the co-author of The Beginning Counselor’s Survival Guide. Her next project is an innovative business education program for private practice therapists called MBA In Private Practice.
