I have not been able to confirm that viewing or retaining a copy of someone’s photo ID is necessary for providing services. If you’ve been to some sort of doctor appointment before, they may have asked you for this. While it can be used to verify someone’s identity, it is not necessary. It can be helpful to verify someone’s residence but you should always obtain location information prior to every session. I like to know a client’s main residence in case I need to contact emergency services. Most ethical codes and best practices recommend verifying a client’s identity every session. This is done to ensure you’re talking to the correct person.
See here for scheduling ideas. Whether you schedule clients or you allow your clients to schedule their own appointments is up to you. There are therapists on both sides of this. I prefer to let clients schedule themselves rather than try to coordinate a day and time. If needed I still have the option scheduling the client myself. For instance, I could schedule a client outside of the available time slots if I wanted.
Stuff happens. You should already have your client’s contact info and info for an emergency contact. Do not rely on betterhelp to provide you with emergency contact. They say they obtain this info from the client, which is great. I believe it’s better and makes more sense to have this information for yourself. You do not want any delays. Also, the client may not have provided accurate info to betterhelp. The client is more likely to give you accurate info as a therapist anyway.
This is almost guaranteed to happen. This is because of betterhelp’s internal policies regarding action timelines. It’s no big deal so don’t sweat it but DO take action. Try not to let it become overdue if you can help it. It’s easy to send a quick message to clients to check in. And you’re being compensated for messages so it’s worth it. Some therapists explain to their clients the reason for the outreach (action timelines) but you don’t have to do that. For some, they may just send a period (”.”). If your client is aware of why you’re doing it, then that may be fine.
This is a personal preference. My advice is store it in a way that is easily accessible later on if needed. And when I say easily accessible, it’s also understood that you’re keeping note properly secure.
Some therapists use an EHR, some use the notes section in Betterhelp, while others use handwritten notes that they retain.
Refer to Session Length