Wonderful Tips to Get Used to Running a Remote Teletherapy Practice

While the switch to WFH was a welcome change when it came to losing the commute and having access to your home comforts while on the clock, other disruptions made themselves immediately clear. Those who had children and pets at home found themselves struggling to find a quiet place – and with HIPAA concerns, a room with a door and complete privacy was a must. It’s likely you and your colleagues scrambled to set up makeshift desks and office spaces within your homes and then quickly settled into them without much improvement throughout the pandemic lockdowns.

Living in a noisy area or home, sharing space with family members and roommates, and fighting over the use of the WiFi are all familiar struggles for mental health providers who made the most of what they could muster for their remote practice. Now, it’s time to improve your workspace so that both you and your clients can get the most out of your services.

First and foremost, set boundaries with your housemates. After all this time of wading the unprecedented waters of remote work, you’ve likely figured out what bothers you the most and what factors are getting in the way of your practice. If it’s always too noisy while you’re on a call with your client, talk to everyone about your expectations during work hours. If needed, start the day by informing everyone of your meeting times when complete quiet is required, or dedicate parts of the house to noise and silence. Consider other rules like allowing interruptions only when the door is open so that you can ensure complete privacy and productivity.

Second, make sure to separate your work life from your home life. For many people who suddenly became remote workers, the boundaries of work expectations and at-home relaxation became even more blurred than before. People suddenly felt that they had to be accessible at all times instead of just during office hours, and working out of the bedroom or living room made it difficult to relax in those spaces. Dedicate one room to work, or if you don’t have the space, ensure you can set up physical barriers or put your work equipment away so that it stays out of sight, out of mind.

The pandemic put an unprecedented strain on teletherapy providers. Not only were you navigating the challenges of the pandemic from a personal standpoint, there was also a significant increase in the number of people seeking teletherapy services. You’re a true hero for increasing your availability and taking on a heavy workload to ensure as many people as possible can get the help they need, but you need to take care of yourself, too. If you’re suffering from burnout, you won’t be able to continue enjoying your career or provide the quality of help that you strive to achieve with each client.

If you’ve found the lack of a commute has caused you to feel less motivated in the mornings, make sure you set and stick to a morning routine. Yes, you might be able to sleep in a bit later, but don’t let that stop you from eating a full breakfast, putting on a professional outfit that makes you feel confident, and taking time to organize your desk before you jump on your first client call.

While you want to stay motivated and productive, it can also be easy to get into the swing of things and never take a break. Many remote workers have gotten into the habit of eating at their desks or working right through the day without a break. Ensure you give your brain time to process the events of each client meeting and reset from strenuous office tasks before you move into the next part of your day. If you overwork yourself, it won’t matter how comfortable it is to work from home – you’ll never be able to relax.

Boundaries and barriers for your workspace don’t stop at the physical ones. Once you’ve perfected a quiet, private space to manage your remote practice, you’ll want to ensure you improve your virtual workspace as well. The sudden switch to remote work left many practices scrambling to find software and virtual collaboration providers that could help transfer office tasks to personal computers, but the difficulties prevailed. If you find yourself using multiple software tools, filling up your computer, and losing important messages across messy inboxes, it's time to make the switch to Markee.

Many of the popular virtual practice platforms on the market have been around for quite a while, but they haven’t significantly evolved to meet the demands of the modern telehealth world. These tools were effective for instant messaging, video calls, and file-sharing during the days when practices only needed an in-office tool or were accommodating very few remote employees or clients. Now, teletherapy and telemental health providers need tools that can effectively move all of their operations into one simple virtual workspace.

Unlike competitors, Markee arrived on the scene in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. With a full understanding of how the pandemic had permanently impacted practices, Markee developers built the platform to be ultra-simple and user-friendly, yet comprehensive to address many of the pain points fully remote telemental health and teletherapy providers have. Markee provides an all-in-one workspace and meeting place for providers and their clients, so you’ll never have to switch across tabs or platforms trying to find important files or conversations.

In your new Markee virtual practice, you’ll be able to create customized chat rooms dedicated to different office tasks as well as make video calls and access everything in one place. Instead of completing tasks and meeting with clients on platforms that impose their brand on you, you’ll be able to fully brand your remote practice for everyone to feel more comfortable and confident in the experience. Use your company logo, colors, unique domain, and more to make your virtual practice as custom as your office used to be.

The switch to remote work made us feel more distanced from our colleagues than ever before. With Markee, not only will your clients get more out of the teletherapy experience, but you’ll also be able to improve your work life and better communicate with your colleagues. Feeling closer to your practice and team will help reduce burnout and improve productivity, even for teletherapy providers that weren’t always as collaborative at the office.

Therapy providers deserve the absolute best for their practices, so Markee is dedicated to offering a telemedicine solution that creates a comprehensive yet ultra-simple workspace platform. With free reign to brand the virtual practice, intuitive features for teamwork and organization, and a friendly atmosphere for clients, you won’t find a better teletherapy solution on the market.

Get started for free to see how Markee is changing the future of telemedicine tools and making it easier than ever to collaborate with your team!