5 Tips: Growing Your Telemental Health Practice
Table of Contents
These are some of the best strategies and tips for growing your telemental health practice.
Telemental Health and Underserved Groups
Tip #1: The greatest unmet need is rural, uninsured, and underserved populations where telemental health is the most feasible solution.
Therapists can deliver higher volume services via telemental health enabling them to adjust fees to meet the needs of clients.
Online Telemental Health Platforms
Online platforms are great, but they are still gig work. The platforms retain majority control of your work, issue a 1099, and you have full responsibility for ethical and legal practice.
Rather than rely upon online platforms, use them to supplement or jump-start your practice. Use online platforms sparingly.
Specialize!
Market a specialty. Trauma-Informed is not a specialty- we all work with trauma whether or not we realize it. Post-Partum Depression is a specialty. DBT ( Dialectical Behavioral Therapy) is a specialty. EMDR is a specialty. Gambling Addiction is a specialty.
Become the known local expert in a specialty. Not “I need a therapist who takes my insurance”. As a side benefit, your practice website is more likely to rank higher in search engine results.
Market Your Website
A strategy for competing with online psychotherapy platforms is to develop your business website. Gone are the days of passively waiting for clients to visit your website.
In addition, find someone to help get your site ranked in Google Search results. Again, it is more likely your website will rank higher if you target specialty Google keywords. Keywords are what users type into the search box. For example, a keyword for counselors is ” where can i find an EMDR counselor in (your city)”. That’s a great key-phrase to target.
In addition, build a digital and social media marketing strategy.
Target The Correct Telemental Health Client Base
Post-Covid-19 research suggests behavioral and exposure therapies can be effective when delivered via telemental health.
In addition, telemental health usually performs best for high functioning advice seekers, coaching, young adults.
When To Refer To In-Office Therapy
Screen and refer to in-office for acute disorders especially personality disorders.
