Get ready to take your professional practice to the next level as we guide you through the must-do's of starting 2024 on the right foot. I assure you, by the end of our conversation, you'll have every tool necessary to ensure your paperwork and online presence are not just spotless, but also fully compliant with the latest standards and regulations. As we cover everything from consent forms to social media policies and website content, expect no less than a masterclass in precision and compliance that will serve as your foundation for the year ahead.
Navigating the intersection of technology and therapy, we confront the delicate topic of client interactions on social media, sharing strategies to keep those professional boundaries intact. With insights drawn from real-world scenarios, we discuss the importance of a well-crafted social media policy, designating a records custodian, and tactfully handling work with minors. Our conversation is rich with information that not only keeps your practice ethical but also amplifies client trust. Whether you're a seasoned therapist or a supervisor, this episode is your blueprint for maintaining a robust and transparent practice as we embrace the new year.
Get your step by step guide to private practice. Because you are too important to lose to not knowing the rules, going broke, burning out, and giving up. #counselorsdontquit.
Get ready to take your professional practice to the next level as we guide you through the must-do's of starting 2024 on the right foot. I assure you, by the end of our conversation, you'll have every tool necessary to ensure your paperwork and online presence are not just spotless, but also fully compliant with the latest standards and regulations. As we cover everything from consent forms to social media policies and website content, expect no less than a masterclass in precision and compliance that will serve as your foundation for the year ahead.
Navigating the intersection of technology and therapy, we confront the delicate topic of client interactions on social media, sharing strategies to keep those professional boundaries intact. With insights drawn from real-world scenarios, we discuss the importance of a well-crafted social media policy, designating a records custodian, and tactfully handling work with minors. Our conversation is rich with information that not only keeps your practice ethical but also amplifies client trust. Whether you're a seasoned therapist or a supervisor, this episode is your blueprint for maintaining a robust and transparent practice as we embrace the new year.
Get your step by step guide to private practice. Because you are too important to lose to not knowing the rules, going broke, burning out, and giving up. #counselorsdontquit.
Are you still doing the things that you've always done? Maybe the website copy is still advertising a group you no longer have, or it's still advertising an office location that you've closed down. You want to make sure that whatever the client sees on your website is accurate and that the links work, that it takes them where they think they're going to go. This is the Texas counselors creating bad mass businesses podcast with Dr Kate Walker, where I teach you, texans and non Texans alike, the latest research based information to hit your income goals, stay out of trouble and make a bigger impact in your community. Join me and let's fill the gaps in access to mental health care and create a counseling career you'll love. Let's get to work.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Texas counselors creating bad ass businesses, where it's all about working smarter, not harder. And here's your host, Dr Kate Walker, a yoga fan.
Speaker 1:Welcome to episode 65 of Texas counselors creating bad ass businesses. Now, this one I think you probably could have used in December if you'd had the time to actually do what you need to do. So, hey, better late than never, let's get that paperwork taken care of. And oh, by the way, if you are ready for the supervisor training, you've got to grab it this month, because we're giving away a course when you purchase one of the plans in our 40 hour training. So whether you purchase the basic plan or the pro plan or the elite plan, you will get the free course. What to charge for your supervision services? So grab it now and let's get to work. All right, hi, I'm Dr Kate Walker. Welcome to your Tuesday training. This is for step it up members and you get to participate live. So that's awesome if you are available on a Tuesday at noon. I know that's tough for people to wrangle sometimes. So if you're listening to me on a replay or in the car on a podcast, awesome for you, because you're taking time out of your day, because you want to do things a little bit better, hopefully.
Speaker 1:And today is an important one. Today is about getting your paperwork cleaned up before Q1. Now Q1, quarter one, the new year, whatever it is, you want to call it 2024. I like to go through my paperwork every single. Actually, I like to go through it twice a year. Actually I'm lying. I like to go through it every time there's a rules update and y'all. There have been three rules updates this year alone Very common and if you are a supervisor, then you have double work. So you're going to hear which paperwork to shape up. You're going to hear some new paperwork that I don't normally talk about.
Speaker 1:If you've been following me for a few years, I love to do paperwork cleanups. I'm doing a little bit new today because of technology and I'm going to show you a checklist. So I will screen share and if you're listening, you guys, don't worry, I'm going to talk you through it, no matter what, and go to the blog post at wwwkatewalkertrainingcom and you'll be able to see whatever it is I'm showing you. So hang on and I will talk you guys through what paperwork you need to clean up for 2024. Let's talk about number one on the checklist, all right?
Speaker 1:So if you are listening to me, what I'm doing right now is I'm screen sharing a checklist and I've called it paperwork to shape up for the new year, because you really should do it at minimum once a year, and I've divided it into two sections HIPAA and state regulations and website copy. So for HIPAA and state regulations, I think at a minimum you need to go through your consent paperwork and your supervision paperwork if you're a supervisor and any storage that you have that houses the information that contains PHI or protected health information. So, going through consent paperwork, at a very bare minimum, you want to make sure that you have updated to the latest rules regarding these things Services and fees, changes and cancellations, contact in case of emergency, social media policy that interesting thing about social media policy. There's nothing official in the rules yet, but LPC and LMFT boards both have a posted social media policy, what they recommend, how they recommend that you handle your clients, and so I think that's a huge clue that we need to make sure that we do our very best to include that in our consent paperwork. So things like what you'll do if your client finds you on social media. I know there are a lot of counselors that avoid social media because they don't want to be found by clients, and I respect that. Oh, my goodness, other folks I know counselors, you'll change your name on Facebook so that clients can't find you or they won't be able to recognize you. Great idea. But put something in your consent paperwork. This is the consent agreement between you and this brand new client who's signing up for therapy with you. So, again, nothing really new in the rules about social media, but both boards have a policy, so go to BHEC website and check out that policy. Also, check out Texas counselors creating bad-ass businesses.
Speaker 1:Podcast episodes. We have an episode called Uh-Oh, my Client Found Me on Social Media. So you have some strategies that you can incorporate immediately if you feel like your client is finding you on Facebook and that's not okay. But take the time right now, during this period of I know nobody's busy right now right, it's only December but take some time and go through and just make sure you have a social media policy and you talk through it with your brand new clients.
Speaker 1:Contact in case of emergency Make sure you're covering how to contact you in case of emergency, whether you want to be contacted in case of emergency and, if you don't want to be contacted in case of emergency, what your client should be doing.
Speaker 1:You want to talk about the limits of confidentiality and this is a copy paste directly from our rules. If you go to our LPC and LMFT rules, they outline specifically what those limits of confidentiality are. That needs to be spelled out perfectly appropriately in your consent paperwork and counseling via technology. Who is your records custodian? How are records handled? How are they stored? What happens to records if you pass away? Folks, we have a lot of people who take the 40 hour training to become a supervisor in Texas and one of the things we ask them to do is to designate a records custodian for their supervision paperwork, and a lot of them come back and say, oh, my goodness, what is this? This has been a rule for several years. I want to say, since at least 2015, that you had to have something in your consent form that designates who will be in charge of the records if you pass away, and that's someone who can disseminate those records, release those records or store those records for and remember the rule changed about this.
Speaker 1:It is seven years or five years past the age of majority if you see kiddos, so that is a long time that you need to store records, so you want to make sure you have that clearly stated in your consent form how and who will be in charge of that Miners and parents. You want to have a section If you see minors, how you will address things like confidentiality, the divorce decree, etc. And you need to check the contact information if your client files a complaint, wants to file a complaint against you. One of our rules is we have to have that clearly posted somewhere, and one of the options is to have it in your intake paperwork, and so, in fact, I don't even think it's an option anymore. I think it has to be there and it used to be like Department of Health and Human Services. There have been a couple of departments contacting information that we could have in this intake agreement, but now it must be B-HEC contact information Super easy to find. Just go to the B-HEC website and you'll see it listed there. Make sure that's in your consent agreement that your client signed. So don't panic. If you don't have this, it's okay. Just take a deep breath and set that as your intention for the new year getting your head wrapped around what you need to do in Q1, quarter one or that 2024 brand new year.
Speaker 1:So along with and I'm looking over here at my list again, along with that information, we want to address your supervision paperwork. If you're a brand new supervisor or perhaps you're taking the 40 hour training to become a supervisor, go through all of your templates, like that note template that you use to take supervision notes or that your supervisor uses. Make sure there's a section on there that includes a big old box where you discuss the rule so your supervisor can write down which rule you discussed and why you discussed it. Make sure that you're also including, in addition to all of this paperwork that you're checking for yourself in your client practice. If you're supervising someone who has their own private practice, you want to go over all of this for them as well. You need to do an audit of their intake paperwork all of the things we're talking about here that come in contact with client any practice paperwork, because that's what it says in the rules. Their practice paperwork must meet a certain standard. So you need to go back to the rules and see what that standard is and, as their clinical supervisor, go back and check that.
Speaker 1:All right, now one thing that's new here that I don't usually talk about is website copy. So, technically, is that paperwork? No, not really, but you do have to write, create paperwork when you are designing your website, when you are designing that content that goes out into the interwebs to help clients find you, and you must go through it. I think I neglect it, right? I sometimes forget to go through it every year. But go through and look at the marketing accuracy right, are you still doing the things that you've always done? Maybe the website copy is still advertising a group you no longer have, or it's still advertising an office location that you've closed down.
Speaker 1:You want to make sure that whatever the client sees on your website is accurate and that the links work, that it takes them where they think they're going to go right. This isn't just for the Google machine, this is for marketing accuracy and it's an ethical issue. Also, you want to make sure that somewhere on your website is your license information, your name, and so if your website is oh I don't know AchieveBalanceorg, that's the name of my website. That's been my website since 2006. I think a long time my practice has been called Achieve Balance, and so when I go to put my name there, right, somewhere on that website has to be Kate Walker in my LPC and my LMFT license. They have to know that I'm a real person and they can go and check to see if I'm licensed. If I'm licensed, do I have any judgments against me, right? Because when you go to verify a license now it's not just the BeHEC website, this is statewide then you can see a PDF of any judgment against anyone of the therapist that has been adjudicated. So make it easy to find you and verify your license. New services are you offering anything new and you just haven't added it to your website? And, of course, seo, search engine optimization.
Speaker 1:And again, I just released a podcast last week about huge mistakes that you can make trying to optimize your website and paying big companies to do all of this for you. And then you recognize, oh my goodness, they're making terrible mistakes or they're misrepresenting me or, especially if you're an associate, if they misrepresent you as fully licensed, that happens. I've been to board meetings where folks have had a complaint filed against them because they worked for a big company and somebody out there saw that they were advertised as fully licensed when they were still an associate. Well, it wasn't the associate's fault, they were working for a big company and they had no control and very little input into what was being advertised. So if you're a supervisor, you want to make sure that you go to all of these websites where your associate is practicing and verify that they are listing your associate accurately. No LPCAs, no LMFTAs those licenses are not recognized by the board. That is a marketing error and, as a supervisor that's part of the website copy you need to make sure that you go through and audit and check, especially for the new year, and I would even recommend that you set yourself a little reminder to go off once a quarter. Just go through your supervisee's paperwork and make sure that what they're delivering to their clients and their new clients is accurate and follows everything on this checklist here.
Speaker 1:So again, if you're listening to me, I just have a little checklist posted that talks about paperwork to shake up for the new year. I talked about paperwork that falls under HIPAA and state regulations, that's consent paperwork, supervision paperwork, and I put storage here just because paperwork and storage always go together, especially when protected health information is involved. You have to make sure anything that stores client identifying info is stored by a company that will agree to sign a business associate agreement with you at BAA. Then we talked about website copy for marketing accuracy, license info. Make sure that your license info is there and accurate Y'all. I actually make my license a hot link to the site where they can verify my license. It's just super easy. It's like oh, you want to know about me? Click here, go find out what you need to find out Any new services, any services you need to retire, and then, of course, checking for SEO accuracy.
Speaker 1:All right, I'm going to actually talk about one more thing, and that is sharing paperwork for your supervisors. It has nothing to do with client identifying information. In other words, it's storage that does not have to be IpA compliant, and I'm kind of proud of this one because I tried to make it as easy as possible for my supervisees to access. So I'm going to share the screen, but again, don't worry, I'm going to describe everything to you. And what you're looking at is a Dropbox folder. This is just a file folder, and you'll see at the top are Achieve Balance Forms and Letters. Well, this is actually in a bigger file called Treatment Resources Professional. So Treatment Resources is a folder that I share with all of my supervisees, and I do this because I come from a teaching background. I did student teaching and I had a master teacher who was so wonderful and she shared her big three-door drawer file cabinet with me and she was like, take it down to the Xerox machine and go crazy. I know if you are updating myself here. Y'all know what a Xerox machine is. But what I've done for my supervisees that's a little bit more 2024 is I share a folder with them where they can access lots and lots of things. So Treatment Resources for clients might be full of, just like worksheets for CBT or information they can hand a client about domestic violence or a diagnosis, perhaps. Treatment Resources for my supervisees we call that Treatment Resources for professional. They can go to Achieve Balance Forms and Letters and get the information that I just shared with you all of the updated intake forms, all of the updated anything so they can use it and build their own forms right, nothing's new out there. So if they want to use my paperwork to build their forms, or they might want to take my paperwork and show the practice where they're working so that they can get that stuff to date Also, I really like this folder.
Speaker 1:It's called Supervisors and Interns. You're going to love the name of the next folder. It's called Bring to Supervision Every Week. So if you're a supervisor, I highly encourage you to go in and edit, audit. Take a look at the paperwork you want your supervisees to bring every week. I always wanted my supervisees to bring a notes template. I wanted them to make sure they had a spreadsheet where we tracked notes. I know I'm dating myself there too. Everybody else has used good time tracking apps and then we had a list for a weekly review of clients. Now I know that's getting into that area of protected health information, but remember, this folder just has the templates. It just has something that my supervisees could print and fill out, or they could download it into their own computers and fill it out that way, and really I didn't care how they filled it out. All right, I hope that gives you a good idea of paperwork that you need to get into shape before the new year.
Speaker 1:Remember, we've had three rules updates this year. If you're a Step it Up member, you have access to the 2023 Rules Review webinar replay. That was a two-hour webinar I did at the end of September where I went over all of the new rules that had come into existence during 2023. So take advantage of that. When you do a webinar replay, you'll see the hours. The continuing education hours are right there in the title. So it would be called 2023 Rules Review webinar replay to CE. I know it's a super long title, but I want you to know what it is and I don't want there to be any confusion. So take some time, watch the webinar and skip ahead, do what you've got to do and then sit down with your paperwork and get that stuff up to date before the new year hits.
Speaker 1:All right, if you have any questions, you know you can tag me in the Step it Up group or you can tag me in Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses and I am happy to answer your questions. All right, thanks for watching, thanks for listening, thanks for taking the time and really making your career better. I know it's not easy, especially this time of year, to just sit down and focus on your practice, but you're doing it, so pat yourself on the back. I'm Dr Kate Walker. Have a great day. All right, I want to make sure that you know how to sign up for that webinar in January with Christina Deluna, because I know you want to make sure that you have all of the updates for 2024. And it's so easy to do Just go to katewalkertrainingcom forward slash free webinar and grab your free ticket and share it with a friend. It's free and you get one CE. So if you're looking for continuing education, that's super cheap. You can't do better than free right. So grab your ticket today.
Speaker 2:I'm Dr Kate Walker. Thank you so much for listening to Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses. Thank you to Ridgely Walker for her lovely voiceovers at our introduction and do me a favor when you get a second. Please like, share and subscribe and write us a review. That's really how we get picked up by other RSS feeds and we get this information out to the mental health badasses who need it. Thanks again and keep saving the world with excellent therapy. You.