So good to be back after quite a hiatus. As our field is rapidly changing due to the Covid 19 Pandemic and therapists all over the world are being forced to work from home, I thought it would be a great idea to put out a few new episodes. And I couldn’t think of a better guest that Raymond Barrett. He is the founder of Telehealth Certification Institute and has been training therapist on TeleMental health for years. He is incredibly knowledgeable about how the regulations are changing in the last few days and I’m thrilled he could join us and keep us up to date. And he has put together a huge Online Therapy Summit – a weekend of classes that will provide continuing education training. The link to his site and to the summit is below: https://telementalhealthtraining.com/ https://telementalhealthtraining.com/course-offerings/product/summit-2020-full-access

An interview with Jeff Guenther, founder of Therapy Den. Jeff Guenther is a licensed professional counselor and the founder of Therapy Den – a unique directory of psychotherapists that aims to be inclusive of all needs and works to promote diversity. Who better to talk about directories, than the founder of one?! Jeff has a wealth of knowledge and his site is full of information – including a great list of questions to explore on your initial consult call. Site: www.therapyden.com Consult questions: https://www.therapyden.com/blog/a-beginners-guide-to-therapy-part-2- what-to-ask-in-the-consult

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This is a teaser for my new Podcast, Finding Therapy! Fans of The Online Counselling Podcast will find the same great content with Finding Therapy.

Thank you to the tens of thousands who have enjoyed The Online Counselling Podcast, I am glad to be back! Please subscribe and enjoy!

Today we get to talk with Dr. Carly McCord about how she helped develop the TeleHealth Counseling Clinic at Texas A & M. Seeing that there was a need in rural Texas for mental health care, but realizing that clients had huge obstacles in receiving it (digital divide, transportation, etc) and having many qualified doctoral students at the University – she worked to combine the need with her students and added in technology – developing a clinic that has provided online therapy to over 800 clients (that’s 8000 sessions!). We talk about tele-supervision and training tomorrow’s online therapists. www.telehealthcounseling.org

Forrest Pulley – Co-Founder Nicholas Fuller – Chief Technical Officer I am so fortunate to get to talk to Forrest Pulley (co-founder) and Nicholas Fuller (Chief Technical Officer) of iTherapy. iTherapy is an incredibly robust service that serves the field of online therapy. They offier HIPAA compliant video, EHR services, payment gateway, scheduling, notes and other services that are typical in the field. But they set themselves apart with their customer services and some of their higher offerings like business coaching, marketing guidance, virtual assistance and tips on how to jump start your practice as an online therapist. They’ve done a great job of listening to online therapists about their needs and then creating programs and services to meet those needs. They have a passion for serving the field and I’m so happy to get to interview them. www.itherapy.com

Today’s interview is with Martin Perry who is the founder of Nous Talk. Nous Talk is a new HIPAA compliant Audio / Video platform built specifically for online therapists. I’ve tried it out for the last month and am incredibly impressed. They are super HIPAA compliant – just not offering a BAA, but also addressing levels of HIPAA that other platforms do not – and they comply with malpractice insurers! They offer Group sessions, accepting online payments, arranging online scheduling – it’s a very robust platform and incredibly easy to use.

Synergy ETherapy

Building an online private practice can be hard enough – but what about building a 100% Online GROUP practice? Well Lisa Herman of Synergy ETherapy has done just that and she has grown this practice to Minnesota and New York and now has 5 therapists in the group. She truly is a Therapy Entrepreneur and we are so lucky to have her tell us how she did it. In the podcast interview today, we talk about hiring theraists, managing them, learning and training on the technology part of everything and MARKETING! She has some great tips on marketing! And even if you aren’t thinking of creating a group practice, you’re going to get lots of tips from today’s guest. www.synergyetherapy.com

Dr. Christopher Quarto is a licensed psychologist and professor in Murfreesboro, Tennessee and is the founder of the Distance Counseling Community Facebook Group. He is incredibly active on social media and always has very valuable information for therapists who have questions about online counseling. He’s very generous about his time and his comments are always spot on. He has also developed a framework for educators to use when training new and previously licensed therapist about online counseling. Today we get to talk about this framework, social media and some of the bias he has seen with therapists who are reluctant to add technology to their practices. I’m so happy Chris has had time to join us! www.chrisquarto.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/150248505543091/

Marc Lehman has come up with a brilliant approach to reaching college students and making therapy available to them. Dorm Room Counseling uses online counseling to help young adults through the very stressful process of adjusting to college. Transitioning from high school to a college is incredibly difficult and more so today – when teens are struggling with social norms, societal stress and academic pressures. Marc meets these college students where they are…online. Using text, email and audio/visual platforms, he allows them to access counseling in ways that are familiar to them. Sometimes college campus counseling centers are not the right fit – so he has developed this incredibly innovative approach of therapy and coaching to fill a need. So pleased that he has spent time with us today. www.dormroomcounseling.com

Today we get to know a therapist who was based in Austin, Texas – but wanted to travel the world with her family. Having a successful private practice, she worked to transition her face to face clients to begin working online with her. She then began to build up more online clients. She now lives in Costa Rica with her family and continues to work with her clients from Austin and is beginning to reach out to the population of “digital nomads” – people who work from their laptops anywhere in the world. Step by step she figured out what was needed to make this huge leap, and today we get to learn how she did it.