Speaker 1: So I'm going to wrap up with seven tenets of telehealth that will help you be more effective, more comfortable, and have more longevity with telehealth. So the first one is, you are not a telehealth therapist. You are a therapist that does telehealth. Nobody is looking for the therapist that is closest to their house. People are looking for a good therapist. So location is not the central piece of what people are looking for in a therapist. Telehealth is just how you deliver. So don't try to make yourself into a different therapist. All of the schooling you did, all of the experience you have, all of the things your clients love about you, that's you, that's what you're delivering. So as a therapist, you are the same person. Telehealth is your office. It's just an address, but it's online. The only thing that's different, I can't emphasize this enough, is that you gather the skills to be a good technician to deliver online, but you were already the therapist you need to be. So don't worry about becoming a telehealth therapist. Be a good therapist that's good at telehealth. You and your clients are facing this together. If you come in hating telehealth, it's going to show, and it's going to just ooze out of you onto the client. You have to be the leader of, well, this is what we have. So we're going to do good work, and we're going to do it like this. Kind of like a parent has to be the brave one for a child who's maybe reluctant to do something. Right? Like, it's going to be fine, and this is how we're going to do it. Okay, you have to kind of take that role just at first, because then your clients will follow you. If you're comfortable on it, and you're looking at the camera, and you're doing, I talk with my hands, I'm doing that just like they would see me do in the office, they become comfortable with it very, very quickly. So you set the tone. Practice, practice, practice. Practice with friends first. If you feel like you're not sure how you're coming across, have one of your boldly honest friends. Give them a link to sign up for a session. And try, like, I have two different cameras that I tried today. I have a light that has all kinds of different lighting things that I can do. There's all kinds of different variables. So practice with all of them. Practice and see what you like to do. See how you come across the best. That way you're not flustered. You can just come in and set up, and you're ready to go. Have a backup plan so that it's smooth and seamless. Okay, this isn't working. I'm going to give you a call. Sit tight. And then have a sense of humor about it, right? If something goofy happens, like, you're going to see everybody's pets, and that's pretty funny. A kid is going to walk in the background. Something silly is going to happen. If you get all wound up about it, you're going to throw off your rhythm and throw off your client. So have a sense of humor. Some variables are just interesting. And just know that you're doing the job you are trained to do. This is really important. Don't wander in and out of work mode. Be intentional with your schedule. If you work Monday through Friday 10 to 5, work Monday through Friday 10 to 5. Don't mess around with it. Have intentional appointment, intentional breaks, and intentional days off. And when you have declared a dedicated work hour, dress for work. It's a little startling, but you might not know what is visible on screen to your client. That's why you want to check with a friend. The other piece is that if you flop around in your jams all day, you're not going to feel like you're at work, right? So go ahead and wear bunny slippers. Nobody can see your feet. But don't be in clothes that don't feel like you're working. It's a small adjustment, and I like my sweatpants just as anybody else does. But dress like you are going to work. And it really does change your mindset. And make sure you're taking the breaks through the day just like you would if you were in your office, just because you're in your kitchen doesn't mean that you don't deserve a break or you don't get to get up and walk around. Prioritize in your self-care movement and meditation. We are so still just in general, but we are even more sedentary on telehealth than we would be sitting in our office. So prioritize movement. I think everybody should meditate, but now especially it's really important. We need to be able to settle ourselves down and become really present with what's happening for ourselves. If you're taking a 15-minute break or a lunch break, scrolling through social media is not a tech break. You've already been on screen a lot. Save that for another time. It's not a good idea to just to have your work be on screen and your recreation be on screen. Do something else. Connect with your colleagues. And this is really important. A lot of us, and I think it's changing, but a lot of us were kind of schooled in the idea that therapy is a self-sacrificial art form. And it's not. If we don't take care of ourselves, we're not going to do good work. And our colleagues are getting isolated. And if you have knowledge of a client who's having a hard time, reach out and check in with them. If you're a seasoned therapist, if you've been doing this for a while, even if you've never met them, if you know that there's somebody who's new to the practice, reach out to them and just say, hey, I've been doing this for a while. I thought I'd just check in with you. How are you doing with this? I have many therapists that I have checked in with that are just kind of, they're either newer to private practice, or they're newer to the field, or they've been doing it for a couple years, but they're just getting their wheels under them. And they are so appreciative and so excited, both. And it renews my energy, and it also feels good to be reaching out to my professional community and making sure that I'm supporting them. Suffering is not a competition. And if you start talking to somebody who wants to tell you how hard it is for them to do telehealth, gracefully get off the phone and call somebody else. This is not, we cannot suffer for our art and for our clients. It's a hard job. We should be paid to do it. But we should not be suffering. If you are suffering, get help. Speaking of, invest in yourself. This is a great time for you to seek your own online therapy. Again, you're going to search first for a good therapist who's licensed in your state. Secondarily, their office is online. So check that out, see how it's done with somebody who's good at it. All therapists should have a therapist. We don't have to be in therapy all the time, but we should have somebody we can call and check in with. And spend the little bit of money up front to get a really good monitor, really good lighting, really good camera, a comfortable set of earphones or earbuds that you can rotate in and out, a good chair. Spend a couple hundred bucks. Get yourself comfortable so that when you go to work online, you can slide right in. That will pay you back so much. Just make sure that you have set yourself up. Invest in yourself. So as we wrap up today, just remember, you already know how to do this. You're already a therapist. This is just a different way to deliver it. This has been a very stressful, very difficult time for everybody. And we have been there and ready to support and ready to help people through it. We have been accessed by people who would not normally access mental health services. We've been able to do this. And once this virus, when the dust settles on this and physical health is attended to, the emotional toll this has taken is going to need to be addressed. And we are the ones to address it. We can do this and we can do it this way. So even if you go back to your office and you're seeing people face to face, you can keep telehealth because it's a way people can reach you. It's a way you can serve people that you could not otherwise serve. We are more accessible. We are becoming more normalized. And this is actually a time that we can really stretch as therapists and as a community. You are already the therapist that you are. Keep doing that. You know what to do. You're just going to do it through the screen. Thank you for listening. And good luck with all of this.