Badass Therapists Creating Practices That Thrive
Welcome to Badass Therapists Building Practices That Thrive, the ultimate resource for mental health professionals ready to step into their power, grow their practices, and create a career they love. I'm Dr. Kate Walker, a Texas LPC/LMFT Supervisor, author, and business strategist who's here to show you the path to success.
Formerly Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses, we’ve rebranded because, well, we’re way too big for Texas now! This community of badass therapists is growing nationwide, and we’re here to help you create a career and practice you love, no matter where you are.
Every week, you'll get practical advice, proven strategies, and motivation to help you build a thriving practice—one that gives you the freedom to live your life on your terms. From mastering marketing to designing scalable systems and becoming a clinical supervisor, this podcast is your roadmap to leveling up without burnout.
Hit subscribe and get ready to unlock your badass potential. Your thriving practice starts now!
Badass Therapists Creating Practices That Thrive
119 How to Utilize Ethical SEO for Your Counseling Practice
Unlock the secret to ethically boosting your online presence with expert guidance from Dr. Kate Walker and Jennifer Marie Fairchild. This episode is your roadmap to mastering SEO strategies tailored for counselors, ensuring that you can ethically grow your practice without compromising your professional integrity. Discover practical tactics to enhance your website's visibility using tools like Google Search Console and learn how to attract the right clients by harnessing the power of relevant keywords.
Join us as we reveal the importance of ethical advertising in counseling, as outlined by the Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council and the American Counseling Association (ACA) Code of Ethics. Dr. Walker and Jennifer Fairchild delve into the complexities of state regulations, comparing mandates from Texas and New Hampshire, and discuss how to maintain transparency and verifiability in your public communications. Explore strategies to ensure HIPAA compliance and the responsible use of client testimonials to maintain an ethical online presence.
Whether you're an LPC associate navigating the digital landscape or an experienced counselor refining your online strategy, this episode is packed with insights on balancing ethical standards with effective marketing practices. We explore the nuances of social media use, the ethical considerations of client interaction, and how to optimize your content for search engines while keeping accessibility at the forefront. Tune in to elevate your counseling services and reach greater heights of success in your practice.
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.
Hey, I'm Dr Kate Walker, and welcome to this recording of a presentation that Jennifer Marie and I will be giving at the TCA conference in Dallas, texas, in 2024. I am Kate Walker, I'm a PhD, I'm an LPC supervisor and an LMFT supervisor in Texas. And Jennifer, tell them a little about you, hi.
Speaker 2:I am Jennifer Marie Fairchild. I am a PhD candidate at Texas Tech University. I am also a clinical mental health counselor candidate in New Hampshire and I'm supervised by Sarah DuPont. She's a licensed independent clinical social worker and I'm an LPC associate here in Texas, supervised by Kate.
Speaker 1:Now we will get into all of that in a second, because I know everybody's wheels kind of turn a little bit when they hear credentials and they should, so hopefully we will answer all of your questions, even though we can't interact in real time. So I'm going to take a second and put my glasses on and share the screen so you can see what all of this looks like, because this has so much to do with advertising, right, and how we represent ourselves. So here's what Jennifer's credential looks like and here's what my credential looks like, and, just in case you forgot, what we look like when we're not in a room with a light shining on our head room, with a light shining on her head. So take a look at that. And, jennifer, tell us a little bit about how you list your credential, because I think this is a great way to start off a presentation about SEO whether you know what SEO is or not yet, and I promise we'll get to that. So talk to us about that.
Speaker 2:So my credential obviously starts with my professional identity, my name, and it's funny. When I started the PhD process a professor said I really hope you like your name If you'd like to get married, if you would like to get divorced, you need to do all of that now because this name sticks with you. So, like it or not, that's what I will forever use. The MA just stands for the highest level of degree I've obtained, which is a master of arts and counseling. So you can see I'm sort of dual licensed in two states. Not sort of I am dual licensed.
Speaker 2:New Hampshire calls their counselors something different. They have licensed independent clinical social workers. They have LMFTs and then their version of LPC is a clinical, a CDMHC, a clinical mental health counselor. As of right now I'm in candidacy status, which means I'm basically an LPC associate. They have a very similar process to getting your supervisor status. You do 3,000 clinical hours under supervision, one hour weekly. So it's a very, very similar process and I have to see clients that are in New Hampshire. I am not in New Hampshire but their board realizes that we are an age of technology and we can see people virtually. So that's how I came about that I work at an IOP out of Utah and see clients that way, and then recently started my journey as an LPC associate here in Texas as well Excellent.
Speaker 1:And we're taking this step by step because there is so much confusion right now. And if you're watching this presentation, you're interested in advertising, you're interested in what this looks like to the public, and that's great. You should be. So you notice that with her credential for the Texas credential it has supervised by and my name Well, that's because that's a Texas rule, so New Hampshire does not have that rule that she must put her supervised by in the same type, size and font right. It simply says you need to list your proper degree and your proper credential. Now we will talk a little bit in the coming slides about being clear about your state, like which state these credentials represent and, yeah, you'll find out more about that. So, thank you and let's keep going. So the agenda I literally just copied and pasted from what should be in your program and we will talk about exactly what it says here. The first part we'll talk about the ethical implications of SEO. Part two we're going to talk about effective SEO tailored to counseling practice marketing that maintain ethical integrity Not sure why there's a line there, probably spacing, I don't know and how to enhance your online visibility responsibly. And then, finally, we'll talk about how to evaluate the alignment of your SEO strategy with ethical principles and counseling in order to meet your business goals. Right, because that's, at the end of the day, what we all want to do. Right? You wouldn't be online, you wouldn't be concerned with marketing, if you didn't have some goals in mind, and we will talk about that. But wait, there's more. See what I did there. Okay, the sham. Wow, anybody remember that? I don't know.
Speaker 1:So, yes, we will talk about common questions from newbies to private practice. So those folks who are new to private practice, and since I am a supervisor, since I teach the 40 hour training to become a supervisor in Texas, I want to talk to you supervisors and associates out there so that we get that perspective as well, because LPC associates are allowed to own their own business in Texas under supervision. Well, supervisors have had lots of questions about, okay, what can I do? What am I supposed to do? And likewise, lpc associates want to know what can my supervisor do? What are they allowed to do? So, for all of you techies out there who are like, oh my gosh, this is the presentation I've been waiting for.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is not going to go into coding at all. This is not about hidden text, where people hide text, that are keyword optimized in the same color as the background. It's not about keyword stuffing, it's not about cloaking, it's not about you know, any of that sort of back office type of stuff. That would be sneaky. So if that's going to be a deal breaker for you, I apologize.
Speaker 1:This is going to stick to strategies that are practical for counselors, that make sure that you stay ethical, but keep in mind you probably want to be profitable. All right, now, what would you like us to cover today? So if we were live, that would be my question and I would say, okay, take two minutes and write down three questions. What do you want to make sure that we answer today? Because you know what's the point of sitting in a presentation if you don't get what you came for. Now we don't have that luxury because I'm recording this in August and you're watching this, I guess, after October.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure when you're going to be watching this. Hopefully it's still in 2024. Because if you're watching this in 2030, all of this information will be outdated. But I'm going to talk about why I don't want you to email me soon, but we much prefer that you tag. So if you tag me in the Facebook group Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses, you tag. So if you tag me in the Facebook group Texas counselors creating badass businesses or on Instagram at Kate Walker training, we much prefer that, and there's a reason for that, and we'll get to that before the end of this. So part one glasses ethical implications of SEO practices and counseling practice, marketing, discerning between strategies that prioritize integrity and those that may compromise professional standards. Now we've got to start with a definition of ethics. I mean, we all know what ethics are, at least that we have a conceptual, we have an idea of what they are. Right Ethics, virtues, sins, you know, aspirations, whatever you want to call those. But Jennifer's going to talk about bioethics bioethics as opposed to just plain old ethics.
Speaker 2:So in our first box we can see, when we begin thinking about bioethics, these are going to be the ethical implications of our biological research and applications. And what this does is it combines various disciplines such as medicine, philosophy, law, sociology and theology in order to kind of conceptualize that basic framework. Two promotional messages say and show the truth and do not create unjustified expectations, which we are all hopefully very familiar with, the ACA Code of Ethics and the Texas Administrative Code, and both actually address this. And then three, the services and advertisements should be provided exactly as they are presented and marketing communication should be more consistent with reality, because the target public of these advertisements encompass people who are sick and in the desire to get well. They are very vulnerable and they will buy any service that seems to comply with their desire to improve their health state, even if that particular service is not good or sustainable for their illness. And that always reminds me of the snake oil salesman you know back in the 1800s. So that's basically what that's talking about.
Speaker 1:Go ahead. No, no, no, that's all. Oh, go ahead. No, no, no, that's all. So, even though it's bioethics and this is obviously taken from a journal geared toward medical research we can't deny that our population is similar, right? Folks who are looking for help are vulnerable, just like someone seeking help from a medical professional, and so when we look at our responsibility, it reminds me of our responsibility with protected health information. I remember I went to a presentation on HIPAA and how we self-audit every year, and the presenter explained OK, you know, here's why you guys, mental health professionals, are held to an even higher standard. It's because mental health records are more valuable on the dark web than medical records, and that just blew my mind, right? So, even though we have these standards of care and Jennifer's going to talk about these in a second you know we have law, we have rule, we have codes, we have best practices. Just always remember our population needs protection, in the same way that someone who is going to, like Jennifer said the snake oil salesman right, we want to make sure that we are not that and that we are communicating clearly, and I know nobody would do that, right? So we're also talking about when you do stuff on accident, right? Nobody's saying that anybody has nefarious motivations here. We just all want to make sure that we're doing the best we possibly can to serve the public and protect the public.
Speaker 1:So let's do a little introduction first. I knew I was about to skip this. So what is SEO, search Engine Optimization? Well, it's basically, if your website is optimized, your site will rank, it will show up in relevant searches and potential clients will find you. Okay, what does that mean? That means, if your site is ranking, you need to be able to check your rankings. If it means it will show up in relevant searches, that means you need to check page views and something called CTR or a click through ratio. And finally, number three you want these folks who are clicking and searching to actually be potential clients, right? So I'm going to give you an example, all right, so what am I looking at? Is it a heart scan or, you know, some kind of a medical thing? Absolutely not.
Speaker 1:This is called Google Search Console. So Google Search Console is going to help us understand those three things I mentioned before. Now I'm going to stop the share, just because I know you're like, oh crap, what were the three things she mentioned before and I'm going to go back and I'm going to show you. Here are the three things we want to make sure our site will rank. Take a picture of this, because I'm about to take it to a different screen. It'll show up in relevant searches. Potential clients will find you. So we're going to check rankings, page views and CTR. All right, you got it. You got a picture of it. All right, here I go.
Speaker 1:So Google Search Console I'm using Kate Walker Training as my example. When you go to it the first time, it actually usually lands you here on. This kind of that means nothing to me, absolutely nothing. So I'm going to go to search results and I'm going to highlight some things. So I'm going to unclick that and I'm going to put these two up. So three things.
Speaker 1:So total impressions that means how many times my website appears in front of your face. Click through ratio means the number of these people who actually click in an average position, which is also what we're referring to as rank. So again, this doesn't mean a whole lot to me, because my website has a lot of stuff going on. So this is almost just like somebody looking at somebody's entire life and saying, oh well, that's their entire 57 years, right? Okay, that doesn't really mean a whole lot.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to go down here to pages and what pages is going to do. It's going to tell me how my pages are ranking. So this is my main page, katewalkertrainingcom, and we can look over here and see the click through ratio. Wow, it's not 4.2% anymore, it's actually higher. That's good because that means people who are looking for this site or who come upon my site are actually people who want to click. Yay, awesome, 19.5. I wish that would go way up, right, but I'm going to explain kind of what happens with that sometimes. So other pages I've got, you know, we could go through all of these. These are pages on my website and I can see how they are doing. That means the impressions Remember, that's how many times it shows up in front of your face.
Speaker 1:Click-through ratio, the higher that CTR means. That means the right potential customer or client found that and they act and we know that because they clicked. And then the position over here. That's the ranking. Now, another thing I can check here are queries. I want to know what people are typing in and I'll talk more about this with you. So query if they actually put in kate walker training boom, they're gonna me and the click-through ratio is super high. That means you know, five out of 10 people looking for Kate Walker Training actually meant to do that and my rank is high for that search term.
Speaker 1:Yay, there are some other search terms that I want to rank for, and when I say rank for that just means rank high for right In the Google search. I want to be number one. Yay, I'm number one. That means the right people, that when I say right people, I mean potential customers, the people who actually want my services. They're finding me. And that click through ratio Yay, it's high and I'm number one. So all of this information gives me the answer to those three things.
Speaker 1:Let's go back to that. If my website is optimized, it will rank and that just means rank high. I just left off the word high, so I checked the rankings. It will show up in relevant searches. So that means people who are searching for the thing I'm selling will find me. So I looked at my page views and the click-through ratio and making sure that, again, those potential clients will find me.
Speaker 1:So this is something I it's kind of funny because people are like well, what do you mean? Like the, the right kind of client, or your ranking, or something like that? I'm going to show you something. We're going to go just back to the Google machine, okay, so we are now in something called an incognito window, and I know it looks scary, it looks like the dark web, but in theory your incognito window doesn't. I know it looks scary, it looks like the dark web, but in theory your incognito window doesn't have any cookies in it. It doesn't have your habits built in. So you should get a pretty good kind of pure search. So I'm going to put in Kate Walker and you're going to see what I mean by a relevant search.
Speaker 1:So somebody who's searching for Kate Walker is going to maybe be looking for the graphic artist who writes graphic novels. Maybe they're looking for I guess it's called Siberia. Anyway, they look really cool. There's a coach, there's a business coach named Kate Walker and she actually got the dot com. Oh wait, no, that's her. So there's actually another one. I guess there's a lot of us out there kind of running our own businesses. I know there's a romance writer this is not my Wikipedia and there I am, so in my incognito window, and I'm actually kind of my heart feels pretty good.
Speaker 1:I'm appearing one, two, three, four. I'm appearing one, two, three, four, not bad. So that would be like if somebody Googled Kate Walker and this showed up in their face. So let's say we're going to click on Kate Dash Walker. Now let's do this one because I think her artwork is cool. So if that was what they were actually looking for, then the impression number remember that impression means okay, that means I showed up in their face, but they weren't really looking for me. They were looking for this Kate Walker.
Speaker 1:So it's important to know. You want to make sure you have the data that show that they're actually looking for you, they're finding you. It's like ordering from a menu, right? If I'm going to go to Starbucks and order a venti no fat, no whip, oat, milk, gingerbread, latte and they give me some kind of a peppermint mocha, like I'm going to know the difference, right, I'm going to understand, hey, this wasn't what I asked for. Google is the same way. If they hand you the wrong results, you're not going to click, you're not going to stay on the site and, believe me, there are metrics out there that can help you understand how long a person stays on your site, how many seconds they linger over different parts of your site. You wouldn't believe all of the data. Well, yeah, you probably would. You'd believe it.
Speaker 1:So let me jump back to our PowerPoint. So we're going to. We just Googled Kate Walker. Now we're going to just Google something related to counseling, and what I'm going to add here is I've got a tool called Uber suggest Okay, and I'll explain it, I promise.
Speaker 1:So here we go. I'm just going to put in counseling Boom. So the first things first. I'm going to get, and this is where I am right now. I'm in Michigan, so that's why that's showing up here.
Speaker 1:But over here you could see and I'm sure most of you are focusing on the left-hand side of the screen Google knows where I am, so it's giving me results near me. It thinks I need therapy. It doesn't. Let's see, yeah, it pretty much thinks I need therapy. Oh wait, no, it says I might have a student and I'm looking for the counseling office. It doesn't know what I'm looking for right now. It doesn't know if I want to know the definition of counseling or if I am the parent of a high school junior who just moved to town. So I'm going to show you a tool over here that I have. I don't recommend anything. You use whatever you like.
Speaker 1:This is just an example. This is called Uber Suggest and what it's going to show us is let me move this out of the way the volume, that's just the number of searches, how many times people look for counseling. That's huge. Right, and you'll have to forgive me, I don't know for Ubersuggest if this is today, if this is for this region. So for the purposes of this presentation, I'm just trying to show you it is super high. Now I'm going to draw your attention to SD and PD.
Speaker 1:This is an SEO difficulty. Just think of it this way If you're searching, if this number is high, that means if you're trying to rank high for just putting counseling out there, 73 is a super high number. That means it's going to be a very competitive word. And PV means if you were paying for it, well, that's not very high, something like counseling near me. That's a little bit higher. So all of these things mean, as I talk, more about SEO and how to do this, I want you to keep in mind we're going to make sure that we talk about search terms that are meaningful and that will actually help you, because look what happens when I put in grief counseling.
Speaker 1:Okay, now with grief counseling, I go down here to my search tool. The volume is less, but it's still very competitive. The number's high. Grief counseling near me, that's always high, and I'm going to tell you why that's important. In a little bit, children's grief counseling, that's ranking even higher. If we just look at volume, right, we see everybody. Lots of people are searching for grief counseling. More people are searching for grief counseling near me. So if I am you and I am like okay, kate's talking about optimizing my website, she's saying that if I optimize my website then more clients will find me and that meets my goal of having more clients, making more money, making a bigger impact in my community. Well then, I want the search terms that everybody is looking for. Like, yes, I was going to do individual counseling, but now I'm going to do grief counseling. Well, that's when we start getting into the ethics of search engine optimization. So I'm going to turn it over to Jennifer to talk about where the ethics and the rules come in.
Speaker 2:So I know that rules and laws and ethics are everybody's favorite topic. It's ours. We love it yes, I actually do, but some people they can be a little lackluster. So typically if we were presenting this live I would definitely not read these verbatim, just because, in the interest of you know, keeping everybody awake and alert, reading slides, I know, is not always the most effective. However, for closed captioning purposes, I want to make sure any of our users that are utilizing those services can get the full benefit. I will be reading, so bear with me. All right, claims and names and the stuff you sell. So the Texas Administrative Code, lpc rule is they go into a good job of really addressing and identifying this.
Speaker 2:681.41, our general ethical requirements. Section A states that a licensee must not make any false. A states that a licensee must not make any false, misleading, deceptive, fraudulent or exaggerated claim or statement about the licensee's services, including, but not limited to, the effectiveness of services, the licensee's qualifications, capabilities, background, training, experience, education, professional affiliations, fees, products or publications, or the practice or field of counseling. So that kind of takes us back to that very first slide. I am going into my second year as a PhD student in the Texas Tech University Counselor Education and Supervision provision program. I do not list any PhD qualifications or credentials on my license or when I present my name, because I don't have the PhD. So that's kind of one of those like I don't want to mislead clients. Our general public is not really. They're not well-versed in the specific jargon that we use. That's why we write LPC associate, not LPCA. They don't know what the A stands for and they just automatically assume you said you're a counselor, that means you can fix me and we don't want the public thinking that. So that's why that LPC rule is there.
Speaker 2:681.49 deals with our advertising and our announcements. Specifically, section A says information used by a licensee in any advertisement or announcement must not contain information which is false, inaccurate, misleading, incomplete, out of context, deceptive or not readily verifiable. The advertising includes, but is not limited to, any announcement of services, letterhead, business cards, commercial products and billing statements. Section B false, misleading or deceptive advertising or advertising that is not readily subject to verification includes advertising that makes any misrepresentation of fact or admits a fact necessary to make the statement. Misleading. Makes any representation likely to create an unjustified expectation about the results of a mental health care service or procedure.
Speaker 2:Don't put on there that you can guarantee that you can rid your client of their depression or anxiety. Don't put information on there. Like I have a very long name, it's Jennifer Marie Fairchild. Your client should be able to go to the BHEC website and search you by your name and find your license and verify that your license. And if they're not able to do that, then how are you addressing yourself If you know my name is Jennifer Marie? If I put Shelly on all of my advertisements, it would be difficult to find me and verify my license, and that's what BHEC does not want us to do.
Speaker 2:68147 states that an assumed or trade name used by a licensee must not be false, deceptive or misleading, as those terms are described in section 681 49b of this title, which relates back to advertising and announcements. And we make the joke. But it has happened. I have seen licensees and they have a legal name, mike Jones, and all of their advertisements, because they go by a different name, has all of that information and it's not intentionally misleading, but it is deceptive and it is not accurate and it's not. You're not able to easily find that.
Speaker 2:681.38, conflicts, boundaries, dual relationships and termination of relationships. Section A a licensee must not engage in activities for the licensee's personal gain at the expense of a client. And section B a licensee may promote the licensee's personal or business activities to a client if such activities, services or products are to facilitate the counseling process or help achieve the client's counseling goals. Prior to engaging in any such activities, services or product sales with the client, the licensee must first inform the client of the licensee's personal and or business interests therein. A licensee must not exert undue influence in promoting such activities, services or products. Aca Code of Ethics. So the fun thing about this is right now the ACA Code of Ethics. This year is 10 years old. We are 10 years in, we're due for review and we love the ACA Code of Ethics.
Speaker 2:I wasn't saying we don't love it, oh yeah, no, I was just saying these things are going to be addressed and modified and changed and added to and reworded in a year, so that's why it's always so important to stay apprised of all of this stuff and when they change and to know the years that these are reviewed. So C2 basically talks about professional competence. Specifically, c.2.a is the boundaries of competence and that addresses counselors should practice only within the boundaries of competence and that addresses counselors should practice only within the boundaries of their competence based on their education, training, experience and state their credentials and appropriate professional experience. I should not state that I am certified in EMDR training if I am not an EMDR trained counselor. We have to stay within the bounds of exactly what education, what experience and what our licensing credentials are. Whereas multicultural counseling competency is required across all counseling specialties, counselors gain knowledge, personal awareness, sensitivity, dispositions and skills pertinent to being a culturally competent counselor and working with diverse client populations, and that's a big component of the ACA Code of Ethics is that multicultural counseling competency. Component C.2.B addresses new specialty areas of practice. Counselors practice in specialty areas new to them only after appropriate education, training and supervised experience. While developing skills in a new specialty area, counselors take steps to ensure their competence of their work and to protect others from possible harm. So if you're in this new 10-week counseling specialty program, wait till you're appropriately trained before you start advertising that hey, I am DBT certified.
Speaker 2:C.3, advertising and soliciting clients. Section A talks about accurate advertising. When advertising or otherwise representing their services to the public, counselors identify their credentials in an accurate manner that is not false, misleading, deceptive or fraudulent. So we're really trying to drive that point home. I think email signatures are a great example of this. We forget to type it all out and this is very specific to everybody. But, like with associates, you write LPC, associate, not LPCA or whatever you know abbreviated form, because that can be very misleading and the public just doesn't know our alphabet soup Jumping back real quick with our LPC rules.
Speaker 2:681.45 is talking about disclosure of our personal health information. A licensee must not disclose any communication, record or identity of a client except as provided in the Texas Health and Safety Code, chapter 611, or any other state or federal statutes or rules. That just really is specific to compromising or disclosing our client's records. 681.41 are general ethical requirements. A licensee must not evaluate any individual's mental, emotional or behavioral condition unless the licensee has personally interviewed the individual or the licensee discloses in the evaluation the licensee has not personally interviewed the individual. It's hard to separate ourselves from our education and once we become counselors, we become counselors and it can be very easy to start evaluating others, and we should not do so unless they are our clients, because we all have family members.
Speaker 1:We would like to evaluate right, but no we should not, no, so you may be thinking with a couple of these anyway. Okay, what does this have to do with seo? Well, let me review. Remember, seo is like ordering from Starbucks, but it's also like fishing, right, and if you're a fisher person and you know how to pick a lure and this is the lure you have to have in the month of August in central Michigan and it's going to catch a walleye or whatever right, you're very precise about what you're using to attract your ideal fish. So sorry, I'm labeling potential clients as fish. It's a good metaphor, though. So when we talk about search engine optimization and these rules and ACA codes of ethics, we're going to make it make sense for you here. So, strategies that might compromise the rules and ethics that Jennifer was just talking about. So remember what I told you. With search engine optimization, it's about content. It's about what I'm putting on my website, what I'm putting on the page, and I'll get more detailed in that in just a minute. So you can imagine I don't really do this yet, but it sure shows up high in that uber suggest, and when I Google it, it's showing up number one. Remember how grief counseling showed up higher than counseling, or it was more specific, it was a little bit easier to the competition wasn't quite as high. So, even if you have not been trained in grief counseling, you might think, oh, but I could put that on my website and I could get more of those impressions. I could show up in more searches. So, ethical no-no.
Speaker 1:When we look back at our ACA Code of Ethics and our LPC rules. Now you may have wondered why Jennifer was talking about the privacy rules. Right, because you know it's like well, kate, they're just on the other side of the screen. We don't really know them, we're not taking pictures of them. Well, how many of us have forms on our website that collect information? So, okay, they are a potential client, correct. But what happens when they become an actual client? So, when and if you decide to collect information on that website and you're thinking, okay, is that a HIPAA compliant form? Is my website encrypted enough? I mean, there are several things that you can do to make something and I'm going to do air quotes, hipaa compliant right, besides a business associate agreement right. Just understanding encryption and data breaches and those types of things, but understanding that collecting information that you don't know what you're going to do with it, or you don't know where it's being stored. That can be a problem.
Speaker 1:And remember, search engine optimization. I'm putting myself out there, I'm attracting people. Oh good, they came to my website. Now they're interacting with my website. Uh-oh, Now I've got all this information. What am I going to do with it?
Speaker 1:The next one about the quiz. Right, so a quiz is kind of a funny thing. It's actually kind of a a cool marketing tool and it's it can be wonderful for search engine optimization. And you may have seen these things like um, you know, how do I know if I'm the right fit for my extrovert husband, or how do I know if my introverted self can get the right job? You know something that's going to be like five questions and then I get the answer. Well, that may be great for SEO and pumping you up in those search engine ranks, right. But I mean, how is this potential client going to know that the result isn't a diagnosis? Well, obviously you've got to take some extra steps, don't you Like? This is not a formal evaluation. This is for entertainment purposes only. This is for marketing purposes only. So, taking that extra step if you choose to use a quiz which I'm not discouraging, none of this, keep in mind, none of this is advice. It's simply giving you ways to kind of just be careful and make sure you're tightening up all of these elements.
Speaker 1:And then, finally I had to put this in here about testimonials, because if you hire a marketing manager and you ask them to help you with your SEO, they're going to say, well, you got to get some testimonials. Well, the problem with that is multi-layered, right? And if we go back to the rule Jennifer talked about earlier, anything for my gain at the expense of the client and you might say, well, it's not an expense if they give their permission, okay, well, they give their permission today, can they rescind it? What if they rescind or take away their permission? Right, do you take the testimonial down?
Speaker 1:And then, in order to get good testimonials, is that going to change how you do therapy? Are you going to challenge less? Are you going to change your theory? Are you going? I mean, it's a power dynamic when you request something that helps you from your client, so finding another way besides testimonials is probably a good idea. All right, so, jennifer, you found these questions right. These are questions that Jennifer is an LPC associate and a CMHC candidate. You're out there on the interwebs and you hear things and you know things, so talk about these questions a little bit.
Speaker 2:So the first question is can LPC associates have a web presence and where that kind of formulated itself is. We have this unique relationship with social media and the internet and putting ourselves out there, and what does that look like? Can an LPC associate have a website? As a clinical supervisor, Is that something you're okay with and, if so, like what is the oversight? So yeah, can I have a website, Kate?
Speaker 1:Why? Absolutely Absolutely. You can have a website and I have a website. Absolutely, and this is one of the reasons. You know, jennifer, I you know when we, when we think about the ACA code of ethics in the LPC rules, you'll see lots of references to paper. But really, what's being changed, right? What we anticipate as being addressed in future codes of ethics revisions? You know, they got to start talking about website copy. They got to start talking about the words on your website. So, yes, lpc associates, if you can own a business, you can have a website and there's no other way to optimize and show up.
Speaker 1:I mean, I don't want you to go back and use door hangers and business cards again. Please don't, please, don't, kill trees. So, yes, you can have a website, a web presence, right. So web presence might be a Facebook page or the Psychology Today profile. Yes, you can absolutely be on the interwebs Awesome.
Speaker 2:So, as a clinical supervisor, how much oversight do you have over my web presence?
Speaker 1:So everybody remember all of those rules under clinical stuff and as a supervisor, I share responsibility with you for clinical stuff. So remember a second ago when I said business cards, flyers, kind of we don't have that as much anymore your website copy I'm going to look at it because every word on that website psychology today, facebook, social media that is you, representing you, and I have to make sure along with you, right, because we're a team that we go through and we make sure every single word that you're using to optimize and get found by Google complies and meets our ethics and rules. So if you write it and it's about you, then as a supervisor, I get to oversee that.
Speaker 2:Awesome, all right, should you state your state. We love this one. It's a big deal because I mean you think about me. I am pursuing licensure in two different states and if I put on my documentation just clinical mental health counselor candidate or just LPC associate, the question is is how does anybody know where that is? Nobody. There's no way to know if that's in New Hampshire or Texas or Virginia or Hawaii or wherever else. So should I list the state so that it's not misleading as to where I'm able to practice?
Speaker 1:there's no code of ethics about that, and so this we'll talk about this on our next slide Best practices right, best practices are going to inform where the rules and the codes of ethics maybe, you know has a big gaping hole. And with the coming of the compact, with the advent of the interwebs, with this idea that we are seeing people licensed all over the world to think that your credential could somehow be misleading, you know, yeah, you know, if I'm just going to move to Hawaii and say I'm an LPC, I don't know what Hawaii's mental health credential is, but if I'm not being specific and I'm using that to market and remember anytime and this is my soapbox, I feel anytime I put my name out there, I am a brand, I am marketing myself, and so if it is false or misleading, then I me, I need to take responsibility for that. So my answer to this is unequivocally for that. So my answer to this is unequivocally, absolutely yes. Is it in the rules? Is it in the code?
Speaker 2:of ethics? Not yet, but I think it's implied there. Awesome. So the the big biggie that we I hear a lot is um. My boss says I can see clients where they are licensed because I am operating under their license. But can I?
Speaker 1:You know, I would really hate for a surgeon to call me up on the phone and ask me to assist in open heart surgery and say I was good to go because I was under their license. So, associates, let me just empower you right now. Sometimes your supervisor can be wrong and you will find wrong supervisors, just like you find wrong everybody's, and it's okay to question. So the problem here is yeah, that's wrong. That is just wrong information. No one can operate under another person's license. Now, having said that, there are contracts, so you may work at a hospital or you may work at an agency whose contract allows you to perform services with people in other states or in other areas, but it's because you met another criteria. Perhaps your bachelor's degree is in a certain area, or the contract says because you have this certain set of skills or this certain set of training, we allow this, but we can't call that counseling. In fact, texas says that specifically as of August 2024, that if you do counsel someone outside of the state of Texas, we don't even call that counseling, like we, that's, that's up to the other state. So your supervisor would say okay, no, no, it's totally okay for you to practice in Nevada, but they haven't checked with Nevada. Well, I would check with Nevada, so please don't fear to question your supervisor. All right? So at the end of this portion, this is really what Jennifer and I want to just shove down your throat. We are in an era where technology is here, it's moving and it is what it is, and it affects advertising, marketing, and we hear so much about what we're supposed to be doing that rules and laws and codes don't speak to. So what is your ethical decision-making model? If you don't have an ethical decision-making model or process or procedure, then pause this recording and go Google right now. Ethical decision-making model. And if you want to make it easy on yourself, put in the word PDF and that way you can download it and you can put it on your phone and you have it with you all the time. And if you're to make it easy on yourself, put in the word PDF and that way you can download it and you can put it on your phone and you have it with you all the time. And if you're a supervisor, teach that to your associates, because none of these answers are cut and dried and black and white. You're going to always have to use your skills, your intuition, references, colleagues, consultations, all the things so that you're making the best decisions.
Speaker 1:Okay, so part two we're going to talk about effective seo techniques tailored to counseling practice, marketing that maintain ethical integrity and enhance online visibility visibility classes responsibly. So how do we do that? Well, it's a I mentioned before your website copy and blogs. Are there other ways? Of course there are other ways, but we're talking about remember, we're fishing I don't know what metaphor. Let's stick with the fishing, right. So we're fishing, we are wanting folks to be attracted to our website, and so how do we do that? Well, we have to be the thing they're searching for, but we don't want to be everything they're searching for, right? We want to make sure that, if they're looking for grief counselor near me, that my website copy mentions that I'm a grief counselor and I reside in Lampasas, texas.
Speaker 1:So, as I mentioned, I'm not going to talk about all that kind of technical stuff like keyword stuffing and putting keywords in the same font color. I don't even think you can do that stuff. Google's gotten so smart. I don't even think you can do that stuff. Google's gotten so smart. I'm going to talk about the two things website copy and blogs. So let me stop the share and go to my favorite website. Now, this is my business website. It is not my clinical website. It is not my clinical website. So what I'm going to show you here you can do with your clinical website.
Speaker 1:It's taken a few minutes to load and, just because my point, what I want you to take away here is an understanding of what is website copy. So if you see a word, that is website copy, and right now Google is crawling, the little robots are crawling my page and they're reading all of the words and they're categorizing it, categorizing them. So picture these virtual file drawers. So how many times do I say grad school? How many times do I say counseling? How many times do I say LPC associate? How many times do I say hi, I'm Kate? So that's what it's reading and it's going through every single page on my website, looking at the words. So search engine optimization starts with the words on my website and you could stop there. So with your website, you could simply say, okay, it's my website, I'm going to have some fabulous copy and Google's going to search it and people will find me.
Speaker 1:So what are the three things maybe that I need to include? Well, your name, because even if you have a website name like you love, right? Or a business name and I know you guys do because you take my course and you guys have the most fabulous email addresses, you know it's like mywonderfulcounselingcom or hopeabidesforevercom I mean, I love these names and I know you guys thought of these names and dreamed of these names and they're wonderful. But when people search for you, they're gonna get your name from the person in the lunchroom at work who said, hey, I heard Joan Smith is a really good counselor and I know you were looking for one, so they're gonna go Joan Smith, counselor. So if you're going to include anything besides your business name, please include your name.
Speaker 1:Include that you're a counselor and put your location. You remember earlier, if you want to rewind and go back, one of the things that showed up very high in my little tool, right, it said counseling, but what was even higher was counseling near me, or maybe it wasn't higher, but it had a. It was. It was better. I'll just put it that way. So, counseling near me, so, grief, counselor near me.
Speaker 1:If they're looking for Jack Smith, it's Jack Smith counselor. Land Passes Texas Right now. They are going to absolutely find you, jack Smith, counselor in Land Passes, texas. So if you can include those words, then Google will find those words, and that makes Google happy, which, because Google wants to do a good job, it wants to return a good search result. Right, it doesn't want to return, you know, jack Smith from White Stripes. We love him, but he's not a counselor, as far as I know, in Land Passage, texas.
Speaker 1:So we want to make sure they find the right Jack Smith in the right location. So how do we do that? Even more and better? Right, we add blogs. So for me, if we go to actually I call it a podcast because I have a podcast, but it's a blog and Google is going to search it because it's got so many words, so many words for Google to search. So Google goes in and it's like, ah, look at all the words and it's going to read the words and catalog every single word in, you know, because it wants to be ready to go. It's like I'm going to switch metaphors again it's like the back of Starbucks, right, that barista has that back area all cataloged. So when I want my oat milk latte with two pumps of vanilla, they know exactly where to go to get that. That's Google. That's what Google wants to do.
Speaker 1:So if you think about what you need to do, just you know easily today to start optimizing your website whoops, that won't help us. Let me try that again your website and your blog. Now, it doesn't matter how you do this. You can create it, you can hire somebody to create it who is a specialist at SEO, but it's got to start with you, right? I mean, you're the only one who knows what you do, and if you read through and listen to what we were saying earlier about the ethics, then you know what you enjoy doing, what you like to do, the kind of client you enjoy. So start creating copy based on that. If you hire someone to create that copy for you who says they are an SEO expert and they're going to try to guess what you love, well, you could turn out a copy that attracts a client that isn't a great fit for you.
Speaker 1:Now, I do have an example here, and we will come back to that if we have time. I just don't want to be pressed for time here. But I do have an example of how I use my blog and how I decide which blogs to promote, right? So it's interesting to me. So all right. So ideas for blogs. People are like I don't know what to write. I, you know well here.
Speaker 1:Do this, make a guide, your guide to navigating grief how to handle relatives who mean well during the holidays, after grief happens. What is grief Behind the scenes, when you're putting on a happy face at work? And here's what's really going on inside, right? So you can take a topic of grief counseling and break it into so many things that people search for. So remember earlier, well, let's do that real quick. We'll stop the share and we'll go to back to the Google machine and we'll just do a little exploring here so I could put in how to navigate grief during the holidays. Okay, now, remember, I'm in Michigan and Google knows, knows that. So we're going to go down here. Of course, we're going to have ai first, because ai, and then we're going to have these topics, which this is a really good way to know what you want to write, because google kind of says look, this is what people are looking for, these are the things that are hitting, these are the things that.
Speaker 1:So we're going to go ahead and give you a little Reader's Digest version of the headings that people are searching for, and government entities will always come up first. Government entities and educational institutions. So we knew that. Big companies, yep, here we go. Universities, we knew that. Big company, big company. Okay, kate, when are we going to get to the agencies? Well, Washington Post choosing. Oh wait, choosingtherapycom. That sounds like a person. Oh wait, choosingtherapycom. That sounds like a person.
Speaker 1:So look at this, let's click on it, and we see that this person, right, hart Haraguchi, m-a-l-m-h-c-a, wrote an article and I just clicked on it. Now, if this person has links in their article that go back to their website, guess what I'm going to do? I'm going to click on the links. I'm going to go back to their website. So this is how copy works to optimize your website. Even if your copy gets picked up by someone else, you can have a link that goes back to your website, search engine optimized. All right, let's go back to our powerpoint. So that was the blog, right, how to's, guides, what is behind the scenes, and then your website copy. So this is really just your website. This is what you are putting down, the words.
Speaker 1:So think of, even if you don't want to do a think of, even if you don't want to do a blog, totally okay. If you don't want to do a blog, you want to make sure there's accurate data about you in the about me section. So, and don't make it so ivory tower about your education. Think in terms of the person on the other side of the screen who's typing in looking for help. What do you think they need from you? So, the about me section, your service descriptions.
Speaker 1:If you offer individual therapy, well, what is individual therapy? Well, if you offer couple counseling, family counseling, what is that? If you have decided to specialize grief test, anxiety, sports performance right, you want to make sure that you get very accurate descriptions. Now, what do I mean by accurate? Go, google it, right. Go Google sports performance, psychology counseling click and see what comes up. Google will tell you. Google's not a mystery. It's going to tell you exactly the terms that people are searching for. So use those terms when you describe your product or your copy on your website. And, of course, please put your location, please put where you do business, even if you're virtual. So this is what people don't understand. Google doesn't really, as of this recording, google doesn't really get virtual counseling yet. So, saying that you're virtual, you know you'll have to do some research on that.
Speaker 1:Google loves locations, it loves to show maps, it loves to show pictures of your office. It's very much about Google, my Business. So if you are able to have some kind of a location of record, you might have a little bit of advantage than if you are simply virtual only. And I'm talking to me, I'm virtual only and my office of record is located in Lampasas, texas. So it works. Actually, my SEO operates so that I get my ideal client first, then I guess it's based on my location. I'll get a couple of inquiries based on my location in Central Texas, but most of my clients, the inquiries, the potential clients, are searching because of the copy I put on my website. That has to do with my set, my specialties. Okay, Jennifer questions.
Speaker 2:Yes, Okay. So one of the things I've noticed is, uh, LPC associates uh love to do based on you know period, but a lot of it has to do with, like, their site and marketing and all of that stuff, and a lot of LPC associates would like to use psychology today.
Speaker 1:It's such great ranks, I mean, and we pay for that right, so they better have a good rank.
Speaker 2:Yes, and a lot of times you know you'll get referral codes and you'll get like six months of free psychology today, which is awesome when you're, you know, newly licensed and you're trying to build a client list and you don't have a lot of money. That six months free is great. So psychology today. We turn to that. How do we advertise ourselves on psychology today? And what does that look like? Because Psychology Today doesn't go. You're in Texas. Let me tailor your page on Psychology Today based on you, because that wouldn't be profitable for them. So they kind of just generalize it. How do we do that?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So you kind of get my feeling on any kind of a national directory. It's just going to be troublesome. But Psychology Today is such a well-established directory and they do such a fabulous job with their filters. You know, I'm looking for someone in Rockwall, texas, works with kids and takes Aetna, and you know I mean you can find all that. So I don't have anything bad to say about that national directory, except they do not make it easy for LPC associates to abide by the LPC rule that states you must list your supervisor's name. Pc rule that states you must list your supervisor's name. So you know, my advice here is you know, yes, you get your psychology today listing, but sit with your supervisor and craft a way to make sure that it's clear Because, remember, we're just, we're trying to avoid deception.
Speaker 1:It's not about being perfect. You know you want to do your very, very, very, very best and so you've got copy. Psychology Today has plenty of space for you to write down, supervised by. It has plenty of space for you to spell out, associate and don't just put LPCA Right. So use the tools that you have. You'll get business. I promise you'll get business. Just do your best. In fact, this you know, august 2024,. This was just discussed in our supervisor Facebook page, the Texas Supervisor Coalition. You know it comes up again and again because psychology today doesn't make it easy, but we just got to do our best, all right. Good question, all right? So let's put it all together. How are we going to evaluate the alignment of our SEO strategies right? How we use our blog, how we use our website, how we make sure Google finds the words that describe us with ethical principles in counseling practice, marketing and your business goals? So what are your goals right In this?
Speaker 1:You might say no, well, obviously I want to have lots of clients. Okay, well, think about that. When you have lots of clients, let's imagine that you have, let's just say, 20 direct hours per week in your private practice. That's 20 people. And let's say they stick with you for a month. That's 20 people for the month with you for a month. That's 20 people for the month. Now let's imagine 10% or more, so 20 people. Let's say two of them terminate. Let's say two of them quit showing up, so that's four people. So 24 people.
Speaker 1:So if you are Walmart and you're trying to market to 7 billion people, or you're Jane Smith and you're trying to market to 24 people for the month, and then you extrapolate that for the year. So let's double it, triple it, let's say 100 people. You're trying to reach 100 people for the year. Right, that's teeny right. And so imagine, let's say, your conversion rate. All that means is a potential client turns into an actual client is 10%, and I'm not good at math, but that still means you are looking at trying to reach less than 20,000 people, less than 100,000 people. So when you think of all of the people in your area or your region or your state, right, and this is why the counseling compact, I know it's exciting because we think, oh, I can go market myself in Massachusetts or Nevada or Florida. Texas has a lot of people in it y'all. And if you're able to optimize your website in order to get 100 people out of 100,000 people, that's pretty amazing and it's a great. It should make everybody kind of just to have a big sigh of relief because you don't have to have a lot of clients. You don't have to have 8 million people walking through your door. Also, you want to think about cash or insurance, because the strategies will be different. I saw a question once in Texas counselors creating bad-ass businesses. If I take insurance, is it okay to market to businesses who offer that insurance to their employees? Absolutely, think about putting that in your copy right. If you work in a town, you know Jack's Widgets and Jack's Widgets gives everybody Aetna for their medical insurance. Well, jack's Widgets, aetna. I'd put that in a bunch of my copy right, write blogs about it. So, making sure that you're, you know, highlighting what people who work for Jack's Widgets deal with. Maybe they're shift workers, maybe they work with heavy machinery, maybe there's high tech, right, so you can put a lot of things in there that would attract folks working for Jack's Widgets who will take the insurance or who use the insurance that you're credentialed with.
Speaker 1:Growing or staying a one-man show, you know it is possible that you're amazing and everybody needs counseling because they do, and so you do this amazing campaign and you blow up, right. I mean you are just getting inundated with calls. Well, if you're trying to just stay a one man show, that's going to be overwhelming. So think about that growth, because it will happen, because you are awesome and we do need great counselors. Do you want to add extra services? Do you want to I don't know become a supervisor. We need supervisors. So if you're adding supervision, then your website copy it could get kind of confusing, right? That's when you start thinking, well, do I need another website? Because if I optimize this website over here, can you see my hand For counseling? And then I say, oh, I also want to be a supervisor, but I'm trying to optimize that too. But now it's like I've got two websites and Google's crawling and Google's kind of confused because it's not really sure if you're a counselor or you're a supervisor.
Speaker 1:Sometimes it's just easier to keep it simple, but you've got to think about those goals as you're planning your website and, let's face it, it's super easy to do. You want a new website, you want a new domain name. I mean, what is it? $10 a year or something like that? These aren't high stakes financial decisions. You can do this. Think about what you like to do.
Speaker 1:So if you are going to create a blog, I hope you like writing blogs. I hope you like being consistent. If you are going to have something on your website where people can enter their information and get a download from you, get your newsletter we call that an opt-in, by the way, I hope you like answering emails. If you decide to have a presence on social media. By the way, google does not crawl social media. Social media does not necessarily optimize your website, but I will talk in a second about how it can help. Well, do you like keeping up with social media? Because if you're going to be on social media as a business, I mean, I don't know how many times I get some kind of comment like hi, I want to be your friend. Will you please answer my direct message and I'm like delete. Will you please answer my direct message and I'm like delete, delete, delete, right. So if I'm not constantly keeping up with my social media and yes, I have to have boundaries, of course you know it can get out of control, but you have to decide if that's number one, if that's where your clients are, and two, if you like using it.
Speaker 1:Don't do a newsletter if you hate newsletters. The funnel. This is why we do what we do Fishing net, fishing pole, little bitty fishing net, right. So we send out this signal to Google that we have this amazing copy that our search engine is. I'm sorry, our website is ready to be crawled.
Speaker 1:So a potential client finds you. Then they click on a thing, they check out your blog. They opt in because your website has all the right ways that this person can interact with you. They book a consultation and they actually get to talk to you and they decide if they want to go to a first session or you know what. It's not a good fit, but you're so amazing that I'm going to go tell all my family and friends about you because you have these amazing website resources. You have blogs, you have downloads, you have videos I can watch, you have a course I can take.
Speaker 1:So search engine optimization starts here. It says, hey, google, I'm what they're looking for. But it's up to you then to decide how interactive you want to get. And if you forget, why click back two slides and look at your goals, because this is what your potential client or let's call them a raving fan right? If someone's not going to be your client, we want them to be a fan who tells the world about how awesome you are. They're going to opt into your newsletter. They're going to download your free guide. They're going to watch your how-to video. They're going to read your blog. They're going to purchase your resource guide. They're going to watch your how-to video. They're going to read your blog, they're going to purchase your resource.
Speaker 1:And here's where social media can help. If you have the ability to share, which most websites, you have a little widget. You can put that in your blog. You can share. That the reader can share your content on their social media. So now you have something. It was optimized, google loved it, they found you and now it's going to get shared, because people love to be helpful. They want to find good content and share it with their neighbors, their friends and their family. So if you have optimized now, you'll get this additional bonus of folks wanting to share your stuff, which means more eyes, and not just eyes, the right eyes, the people who need your services, and hopefully we'll find you.
Speaker 1:Now here's say, they come to your website, they click and they read your blog. Well, if they are looking for client services. But you've decided to add supervision and that blog was really about supervision that can get confusing. So as you get into this and you start thinking, okay, I wanna do all the things, you'll need opt-ins for each different kind of client, and I know I'm getting a little bit more advanced here and it's hard to keep it all straight, but you can always go to Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses, and you can tag me and ask questions there of me or any of the folks in there. There are lots of folks in there who know more about this stuff than I do.
Speaker 1:Now, the other thing to consider is do you have a system? I teach this all the time. So you've optimized, people find you, they've contacted you, but then they don't hear from you for a week, or their email never gets answered, or they set a consultation with you and you miss it right. So as you start thinking, okay, I'm going to do these things, I'm going to optimize my website, so I'm in the search rankings, I'm being ethical about it, I'm being open and clear and transparent well, you have another ethical obligation.
Speaker 1:If you let hurting people kind of just sit in the net I mean, what happens to a fish when you just let it sit in the net? Right, that's not kind. So we want to make sure, as you get these things together, go slowly, do one thing at a time. I'll give you a real basic suggestion. Many, many, many of you have a phone number and an email on your website. What if you just had one way of contacting you, right? So if it's just texting. If it's just voicemail, just stick with that for a while and then, when you get a system in place, add email. Then, when you get a system in place, add an opt-in. That goes someplace else.
Speaker 1:But we don't want to let hurting people hang out there thinking, okay, they said they were gonna contact me. I love their website copy. They look like they really understand me. I watch their video. This person, they're the one for me. I watch their video, this person, they're the one for me. And then they never hear from you. All right, jennifer, we've got more questions. Before we close, what you got?
Speaker 2:So there's always this big back and forth discussion about LPC associates and social media. The. You know we've established that they can have it right, but what does that look like? And I've seen everything from. My supervisor just wants to know what my social media accounts are so they can be apprised of the things I'm posting all the way to. I've seen a couple supervisors wanting access to their associates' social media accounts and that would include private accounts and passwords and that's kind of scary for an LPC associate. Do I need to give my supervisor full access to my social media accounts and include the password so they can log in and have control of it?
Speaker 1:accounts and include the password so they can log in and have control of it. So your supervisor can ask anything they want, because they are the gatekeeper and without them you cannot practice. So this is a great conversation for starting out, especially if you know that independent I'm sorry. If you know that owning your own practice is your goal, like you need a supervisor who's going to help you launch your private practice. Ask them up front how they want to deal with this very issue. Show them this presentation right. Help them understand you want to work with them. So the answer is complicated because of course, they can ask. If you don't feel comfortable, don't do it. Right, that is absolutely within your right.
Speaker 1:If somebody wants the password to my stuff, I'm saying no. If it's not related to business, if it's my private account, I'm saying no. I mean you should never know by my marketing or my counseling or my teaching how I vote and if I go to church. So those types of things. You know. If my supervisor is wanting to kind of oversee that, if they don't like the way I vote or they don't like where I go to church or they don't like the people I hang out with or what I call myself or how I identify. We got bigger problems right. So, um, I would want to know from the get-go in the interview hey, supervisor, will you be wanting to see my private account? And if they say yes, then you say why. You know, have that open dialogue and it may be a deal breaker and walk away. There are other qualified supervisors out there and I'm sorry, but if anybody wants passwords, I'm saying no.
Speaker 2:So that's a little scary, yeah, I think. I think we forget, as associates, that the interview process between associate and supervisor is a two week wait. Yes, well said, absolutely, and we are interviewing them to see if they're a fit, just as much as they're interviewing us.
Speaker 1:So absolutely, and we have an opt in for that, btw. Ok, and we have an opt-in for that, btw.
Speaker 2:Okay. So my next question is let's say I have a supervisor that's like all for it and it says absolutely you can create a social media page for your counseling services. Should that be just for information only, or should I set it up to where clients can contact me if it is a purely business social media account?
Speaker 1:So lots of things came up with this and you and I, before we even recorded this, we talked about this. Number one social media isn't HIPAA compliant, right? There's no way to secure that information at all and we cannot control if our clients comment on our stuff and yes, I'm not going to. You know the intricacies of friending and finding and following and you know all that, right. The point is, your client may find you and comment. Now, that is their protected health information. That's totally up to them to do with what they will. Your job is to make sure you neither confirm nor deny they are seeing you for services. Now, that includes if they message you, if they DM you, all of those things. You are risking their protected health information being compromised when you answer them, when you and I know they're extenuating circumstances. Go see your ethical decision-making model, but just know that. Number one, that's the danger. The other side of it is you remember what I said earlier social media does not help optimize your website, right? The way social media helps you is if people share your content. So, having a way just so that people can share but not necessarily comment, yay, perfect, right, so they can share, share, share and that stuff gets out there. Personally, when I share on social media, I'm sharing a blog, so that's my content I want people to share, so please share. I'm also using Instagram to direct people back to my website with a specific link, so we call that a call to action. So again, it's not a conversation, it's simply hey, here's what I'm doing, here's how it relates to you. Want to know more? Click here. And then they go and they find my opt-in. So you go back to your goals for social media. Then you can start deciding how you want to use social media. But I am absolutely against using social media as a communication device. It should be for just advertising only displays, pamphlet, however, you want to think about that. So here we are bottom line, and I'm going to read this out loud for our closed captioning.
Speaker 1:Making exaggerated claims or guarantees, desperate promises of miracle cures, our unrealistic results erode trust and violate ethical issues in healthcare marketing. Stick to evidence-based claims and focus on the genuine benefits you offer. Exploit vulnerabilities. Preying on patients and for us, clients anxieties or fears is unethical and ineffective. Avoid sensationalizing health issues or using manipulative tactics to drive conversations or increase your SEO rank. Engage in unfair comparisons. Focus on showcasing your own strengths instead of denigrating competitors. Ethical issues in marketing frequently arise from negative comparisons that mislead consumers. Neglect accessibility. Ensure your marketing materials are accessible to everyone, regardless of disability or technological limitations. Consider offering alternative formats like audio recordings or transcripts for written content, and disregard professional codes of conduct conduct. Many health care professions have established ethical codes. Like us, we do. Familiarize yourself with relevant codes and ensure your marketing activities comply with them. And I got that here. If you would like to download that, all right. Thank you so much for watching. I'm Kate Walker. I own Kate Walker Training. We deliver and teach the 40-hour training to become a supervisor in Texas, completely online. And Jennifer.
Speaker 2:I am Jennifer Marie Fairchild. I am an LBC associate in Texas. Clinical mental health counselor candidate in New Hampshire.
Speaker 1:Thank y'all and if you have any questions, you know where to tag us. You.