For therapists
Getting started with teletherapy.
Most of what stops therapists from working online is not the therapy. It is the six small things nobody explains in one place. This is that place.
Most of what stops therapists from working online is not the therapy. It is the six small things nobody explains in one place. This is that place.
The rule is simple and it surprises people: a session happens where the client is sitting, not where you are. If a family is in Georgia and you are in Florida, you need to be allowed to practise in Georgia. That means one of three things: a Georgia licence, a Georgia telehealth registration if Georgia offers one, or a compact privilege.
Start with your own state. Florida also lets therapists licensed elsewhere register as out-of-state telehealth providers, so a Texas SLP can see Florida families without a Florida licence. The interstate compact will eventually make this easy, but as of now only a handful of states actually issue privileges, so do not build a caseload on it yet.
Every listing here shows your licence number with a link to the board, so families can check. That is not a formality. It is the first thing a careful parent does.
You need three things and none of them is expensive.
A better camera helps but is fourth on the list. Plug your laptop into the router with a cable if you can; most frozen sessions are WiFi, not the tool. The room guide has the picks and where to put them.
Before the first session, every client signs a telepractice consent. Yours should say, in plain words: what telehealth is and its limits, that they will sit in a private room on a secure connection, what happens if the call drops (you call them; on which number), an emergency contact, and that you will note where they are at each session, because your licence depends on that state. Keep it to one page. Families do not read page two.
If you take private pay, have a superbill template ready with your NPI, the CPT code (92507 for a treatment session, 92523 for an evaluation) and a diagnosis code. Families use it to claim from their own insurance and they will ask for it in week one.
Anything that touches a client's name or session has to be HIPAA-compliant, which in practice means the company signs a business associate agreement with you. FaceTime, regular Zoom, Gmail and text messages do not.
We are building the booking and the session room into this site so that most of this becomes one thing. Until then, the list above is what we would use.
Add it here. It is free and takes about five minutes: your photo, credentials, licence, the states you can work in, what you charge, and when you have openings. Write the one-line description the way you would say it to a parent at the door. "I help little kids who are not talking yet" beats "pediatric communication specialist" every time.
Once you are listed, ask for verification from your profile. We look your licence up with the state board ourselves and you get the badge for your kind of therapy. It sits on your card and puts you on the Verified page, which is where families look first. The first 100 therapists get it free for a year.
Log in ten minutes early. Camera at eye level, light on, headphones in, consent signed, their state written down. Have the child's favourite thing on the table, whatever the parent told you it is. Start with something the child can already do so the first thing that happens on camera is a win. Keep the first session short. Everything else is the same job you already know how to do.