Tag Archives: online

5 Steps to Starting an Online Canadian Private Practice

Posted by: Julia Smith on March 13, 2020 11:51 am

Note: This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. 

Starting an online Canadian private practice can be a great option for Canadian counsellors who don’t want to spend money on renting an office. It also allows you to counsel clients from the comfort of your home (or when travelling J). There are many considerations when starting an online counselling business or even adding it to your existing Canadian private practice. In addition to the article: 15 Steps to Starting a Canadian Private practice, the next five steps will help you in opening your online Canadian private practice!

  1. Liability Insurance

One of the main questions Canadians have when starting an online counselling business is if you can counsel clients who live outside of Canada. Though BMS CCPA insurance covers e-services worldwide, all claims must be brought forward in Canada. This means that if a client from outside Canada files a complaint in a different country, BMS will not cover you! Since you have no control where international clients file complaints… it may be wise to only offer e-services to people living in Canada. What kinds of measures can practitioners take to ensure that they are properly marketing their services exclusively to Canadians?

  1. HST Rates

If you are making over $30 000 you will have to charge the sales tax that is required in the client’s province. That means that if you live in Toronto and have an online client that lives in Halifax., you will have to charge Nova Scotia’s 15% HST and not  Ontario’s 13% HST rate. If you have clients that are not Canadian citizens and live outside of Canada, you cannot charge sales tax. Click here for more information about sales tax in Canada. Didn’t you just advise in the previous paragraph to only counsel Canadian clients? A bit confusing… Also, what happens in the case of Canadians who are temporarily residing in other countries? Ex-pats? Snowbirds?

  1. Build a website

Having an awesome website with amazing SEO (search engine optimization) is VERY, VERY, VERY important for an online Canadian counselling business. Your website will be one of the main ways people find you. So, you will want to invest in having a beautiful website that also appears in internet searches. 

Check out WordPress.com to start creating your website ☺ And learn more about SEO and why it is so important here.

  1. EMR

It is very important that you understand Canadian’s privacy laws when it comes to online counselling. Video counselling sessions should be encrypted and the content of the video should never be recorded or stored anywhere to make sure that it is secure. Ideally, you want to be using an EMR that includes video counselling as it is easier to schedule clients, send appointment reminders, and log on to the online counselling session all from one platform. I use the Canadian EMR Jane App and love how professional and easy it is to use. Plus, you can use the code FEARLESS to try it for one month completely free!

  1. Psychology Today

Ideally, you will have a Psychology Today profile for your online services in all Canadian/US cities. But that can get very expensive! So instead, in your account, you will see the “Edit Profile” icon. Select that and then from the drop-down menu select “Target Your Listing”. You can then choose two more locations where your profile will be advertised for free!

About Julia
Julia Smith, MEd, RCT, CCC, is a Canadian private practice consultant who specializes in helping Canadian counsellors and therapists start private practice. She also owns a private practice in Halifax, Nova Scotia where she helps depressed teens build confidence, find happiness, and gain insight.
Click here to get more help with building your Canadian private practice!



*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

Making Team Work Easier – Virtual Meetings

Posted by: Dawn Schell on January 29, 2016 2:08 pm

Please tell me I’m not the only one who remembers what a big deal it was in the 90s to host a virtual meeting. I can remember a provincial meeting that was scheduled months in advance, a room full of thick wires and cables and much crossing of fingers hoping the technology would work and we would be able to see and hear each other.   I also remember feeling very excited about how this technology could change our ability to work with each other over distances.   The expense though was prohibitive. Though we could meet and collaborate virtually we didn’t often get to do so.

Fast forward to a couple of years ago. There was one virtual meeting platform I piloted for use with groups that regularly crashed. There were other problems too. We would be able to see some of the participants but not others. We could hear some people and not others. The longer we were online the more the difficulties piled up. Fussing with the technological issues took way too much of our time together.   We rapidly gave up on that system and decided the timing wasn’t right yet for online group meetings.  The concept was there but the technology did not yet meet our needs.

More recently, I have been experimenting with two different systems for virtual meetings.MeetingTech

Wiggio.com is a free online toolkit designed to “make it easy to work in groups”. The Desire2Learn company created this website based on their own frustrations with working in groups.

In Wiggio you can host virtual meetings conference calls, upload files, create polls and to-do lists as well as send email, text and voice messages to your group. It’s straight-forward and doesn’t require you to be super tech-savvy.   The company reports that over 150,000 groups are using their website. Businesses, sports teams, event planners, and non-profits are examples of groups that have made great use of this site.

Now, that doesn’t mean it’s a perfect system yet. There are still some technical issues that arise.   However Wiggio has a lot going for it in terms of virtual meeting space.

VSee.com is another virtual group meeting option I have been exploring. VSee, the world’s largest telemedicine platform, ” was created by a team of Stanford University human computer interaction scientists and network experts in order to overcome the limitations of traditional videoconference tools”. They wanted to create a platform that would “work over any network, and require minimal training”. The applications that it is being used for in terms of telemedicine are amazing.

In terms of my own use I stick to the basic free option for secure video chat.   Though it’s not relevant in the context I am using VSee for at the moment it is worth noting that VSee is HIPAA compliant. [1] You can check out more about their data privacy here – https://vsee.com/hipaa

Once again when we have been meeting in VSee there have been technical issues at times and so one group has chosen to use the back up of a teleconference at the same time as being able to see each other via this website.

Of course these days there are multiple options for hosting meetings. They certainly are easier to use than they used to be and less expensive too!   What I appreciate most about these is the opportunity to connect and collaborate with colleagues from across Canada.

Dawn M. Schell, MA, CCC, CCDP is an affiliate of Worldwide Therapy Online Inc. http://www.therapyonline.ca

[1] HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a US law that provides privacy standards for health information and records.




*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

Welcoming the New Year

Posted by: Dawn Schell on January 13, 2016 12:18 pm

It’s a new year and that often means people are making resolutions, setting goals and planning ahead.   Each time the calendar rolls around to January ‘hope springs eternal’ as Alexander Pope said. We want to get focused and clear. We want to make changes in our lives. We want to dream new dreams.    How long those resolutions, goals and plans last is another issue altogether!

In the spirit of hope I would like to share some fabulous online tools that one can use to reflect on the year that was and plan for the year to come.

One tool I have used for a number of years is choosing a ‘Word-of-the-Year’. It’s not a resolution or a goal – more of an intention for the year or a way to explore the year ahead or a guide for the year ahead.   If you haven’t yet tried this approach you can find numerous examples in the ‘blog-o-sphere’, Facebook groups or on Pinterest. Just search for “word of the year” and you will find amazingly creative ideas for showcasing one’s word of the year as well as reflections on what the word means to individuals.

There are a myriad of methods to finding and using a word for the year.

Christine Kane, a business coach, offers a Word-of-the-Year discovery tool for free. There is an introduction to the idea, an idea generator and worksheet to guide you through the process of choosing a word for the year and, of course, an action planner. Cause it’s more useful when you identify steps you can take!

Sometimes it’s harder to choose a word than others.   But each time I have chosen one I have found it to be both personally and professionally useful. As Ms. Kane says, “Your word is meant to teach you about you.” The tool is easy to use. The clients I have recommended it to find it to be helpful as they begin a new year. Just FYI – you do have to enter your email address to get this tool.

http://christinekane.com/wordoftheyear

On a similar note Susannah Conway, author/photographer/teacher, offers a helpful free resource titled “Unravelling the Year Ahead 2016”. Her Unravelling e-workbook has thought-provoking questions about the year that was and provides reflecting exercises for the year ahead. Having used this workbook with individual and group clients the feedback is overwhelmingly positive.

http://www.susannahconway.com/2015/12/were-coming-for-you-2016/

Finally, there is Leonie Dawson’s ‘Guide to creating your shining year’. Leonie Dawson is an entrepreneur and coach based in Australia. She guides you through a series of questions and reflections on the previous year and her creative questions about the coming year allow you to explore a number of different areas of life and set goals for each of these areas (e.g. physical, spiritual, financial).   For a small cost you can download her e-workbooks or order hard copies.

http://leoniedawson.com/

As with many goals/resolutions/intentions the keys to actually doing what one says one is going to do are:

  • Be accountable to someone – share your goals, hopes, dreams, intentions
  • Take small steps
  • Regularly review your progress
  • Celebrate your successes
  • Be gentle, kind and compassionate with yourself
  • 2016 – ready or not – here we come!

2016Dawn M. Schell, MA, CCC, CCDP is an affiliate counsellor with Worldwide Therapy Online Inc. http://www.therapyonline.ca




*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

Teaching a black dog to do new tricks – Digital Dog

Posted by: Dawn Schell on December 8, 2015 2:38 pm

IphoneAs the field of e-Mental Health continues to evolve it’s critical that we do research to keep expanding our understanding of how, why and for whom it works.  Fortunately, there is a great deal of excellent research being done all over the world.
More recently I came across these researchers based in Australia.   Launched in March 2015, Digital Dog is a “research group…working to use technology to solve mental health problems”. You can find a linke here – http://digitaldog.org.au. Digital Dog is a branch of world leader in mood disorders Black Dog Institute’s research programming. Check them out here http://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au

Their definition of eMental Health (eMH)? eMH “refers to services that target common mental health problems and are delivered through online and mobile interactive websites, apps, sensor-based monitoring devices and computers as well as telephone and online crisis support lines.”   Sounds comprehensive to me.

So what kind of research are they doing?

  1. Building and testing online interventions to lower depression, lower suicide risk and promote wellbeing (websites or apps)
  1. Establishing the validity of social media as an indicator of mental health risk
  1. Using the technology built into Mobile phones to measure mental health and social connectivity
  1. Harnessing technology to deliver preventative mental health programming in schools (games, apps, websites, and much more)
  1. Publishing papers to promote the usefulness and cost-effectiveness of e-health technologies

Whether it’s a positive psychology app based on values (SPARK) or determining whether people or computers can reliably detect suicidally “concerning” tweets or testing the effectiveness of web based self help programs the aim is to deliver evidence-based treatment.

And that means better resources for practitioners and clients.

You can’t go wrong with that.

Dawn M. Schell, MA, CCC, CCDP is an affiliate counsellor with Worldwide Therapy Online Inc. http://www.therapyonline.ca




*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

An Online Summer Reading List

Posted by: Dawn Schell on July 14, 2015 2:36 pm

tablet-690032_640I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Summer is the perfect time for catching up on all that reading you intended to do in the fall and winter.   A time to curl up on the nearest deck chair and luxuriate in reading.

What’s on my list this summer?

Well, for starters – the entire issue of the British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, Volume 43, Issue 1, which was published in January 2015.

The editors, Goss and Hooley, say this issue on Online Practice in Counselling and Guidance,  “looks at the impact of the online environment on the practice of guidance, counselling, psychotherapy and related services…. it explores…ongoing (technological) changes and in places looks forward to ways in which the future development of the disciplines might be influenced by current technological trends”.

Written from several different perspectives I can see it will be a very thought provoking read.   Continue reading




*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

What Lies Ahead?

Posted by: Dawn Schell on January 14, 2013 2:50 pm

It happens every year. Newspapers, television and radio programs gather together a panel of pundits and ask them to predict what will happen in the coming year. I’m not sure about the overall statistical accuracy of such panels but it makes for entertaining listening.

I thought about doing the same here in this blog post. Gather the brightest and best in the online counselling world together and ask them to predict online counselling trends for 2013. Before I could get started on gathering a panel I came across an article in Professional Psychology: Research and Practice on the Future of Telepsychology and I opted instead to share their view of the future.

Written primarily for a psychology audience the article is a call for action on the part of the psychology profession. The authors’ observation is that the psychology profession is lagging behind when it comes to technology. The authors state, “Whether psychologists embrace or resist aspects of technology, they should: recognize how advanced technologies are changing the way we communicate and process information, anticipate needed growth, and prepare to meet ensuing challenges to professional psychology.”

Continue reading




*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA