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Professional: Frequently Asked Questions
- What is online counseling?
- Why should I try it?
- Isn't it a problem to not see my client?
- How will I gauge its effectiveness?
- How secure is the service?
- What is HelpHorizons' privacy policy?
- When can I work and what can I charge?
- What happens if my computer crashes or I lose my Internet connection?
- Is online counseling ethical?
- What is my liability?
- How do I bill?
- What do I charge clients?
- What services do I get with my account?
- Are there different membership levels? How much does it cost?
- What happens if I cancel my account?
- Can I get access to the client data I place into your system if I leave HelpHorizons?
- Where can I go to learn more about online counseling?
- Is there a manual or reference guide to the Virtual Office that I can download or view?
- How do I enable the Instant Session feature?
Online counseling is exactly what the term implies - counseling conducted online. Professionals may choose to work online in a variety of ways. Some use online contact with clients to supplement an already existing face-to-face relationship. An occasional e-mail exchange or an online session can be used to handle special situations or to do work between sessions. Others offer ongoing online contact, but only to those who reside within the state(s) covered by a professional's license. Finally, some professionals offer online contact to anyone requesting services, taking care to define and describe the service as an activity that is not governed by state-based licensure.
There are many advantages for the professional. Online interaction with clients can diversify your practice and create a new income stream. This Web site offers the chance to interact with potential clients by hosting chat rooms, publishing articles, answering E-mmediate responses, and being listed in our Professional Directory.
Web-based professional activity, whether it be counseling or practice management, can be done inexpensively and conveniently. You can get information updates, read professional articles, network with other professionals, pursue learning opportunities, look up client phone numbers, do your "paperwork," submit HCFA insurance claim forms, and interact with clients - anytime and from anywhere. Clients can schedule appointments directly by filling designated time slots on the schedule you post on the Web site. And all your information is stored with unparalleled attention to safety and automatically backed up on a continual basis.
There is a body of research and experience developed over the past three decades that validates the use of telephone counseling, another modality in which no visual cues are present. Telephone counseling is also the modality most-used by consumers when in crisis (e.g., via crisis and suicide help-lines). So providing counseling without visual cues is not a new phenomenon. What is new is bringing counselors onto the Internet to conduct their sessions.
Furthermore, as online audio and video technology evolves to approximate the face-to-face encounter, this "limitation" will, instead, become an "option" for the client and the professional. Although online service delivery will not likely replace face-to-face consultation, some clients and practitioners may choose to work through text-based exchanges because they are more fully articulated, can be easily saved, are less subject to interruption and distraction, fit more conveniently into the client's and practitioner's schedules, allow time for thought, and offer the virtues of an ongoing correspondence; these include the capacity for literary expressiveness, journaling, and documented monitoring of symptoms and therapeutic changes.
For individual cases, effectiveness can be gauged by the same means used to evaluate traditional face-to-face therapy: client feedback and outcome measures. In fact, being online can make these measures easier to administer and to document. More general research can also be conducted utilizing the researchable databases that online therapy can generate.
Security is the most important service we offer. We protect every transaction on the site through a highly sophisticated web of overlapping security mechanisms. These mechanisms range from security technologies (such as firewalls, logins, and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology on your Web browser) to business decisions (such as 24/7 monitoring and maintaining our computer servers at a secure hosting facility).
Please see our complete privacy policy.
This is your decision and can be changed at anytime. As you use our Web site and its Virtual Office, you remain an independent practitioner.
Although our servers are maintained at a secure hosting facility, there are infrequent mishaps that result in inconvenience for our professionals and consumers. Please rest assured, however, that all information remains secure because it is continuously "backed-up" on our servers; this is a significant advantage of Web-based practice management. For interrupted or canceled sessions, you can work out whatever seems fair with your client. The Virtual Office allows for special adjustments.
Online counseling per se has not been found to be unethical by any of the major professional organizations. As with other professional activities, it can be conducted ethically or unethically. We have posted several articles on our Web site that address this topic.
The legal framework for counseling and, more specifically, of online counseling is best determined through consultation with a lawyer who is knowledgeable about your state's statutes as well as other law, recent court decisions, and various regulations. Liability insurance will cover you as long as you are not in violation of your license.
HelpHorizons.com offers professionals the option of seeing clients that reside in the same state or country of residence as the
professional, but we leave the final decision up to you.
You have several alternatives. The Virtual Office will generate bills, file insurance claim forms electronically,
and facilitate credit card payments through our own internal billing system. You can charge for "batches" of online
contacts, either per batch or per month.
HelpHorizons.com allows you to collect credit card or debit payments for your online or face-to-face
clients and have them charged automatically through our merchant account. All your client
fees that use credit or debit (check) cards collect in your HelpHorizons.com account throughout the month.
At the end of each month, we disburse a check to you for the amount in your account,
less the transaction and membership fees you owe HelpHorizons.com (after your free
marketing trial period has ended).
What you charge your clients is your decision. HelpHorizons.com does not set
the fees you can collect from clients for your services -- you do.
You get access to a complete practice management system online, including an integrated billing module, scheduler, and secure messaging system. Unique content, behavioral healthcare news, and free marketing are all a part of the package service we offer to members.
Yes, you have access to different membership levels:
- Silver - $9.95/month. Access to your personal Virtual Office, which offers scheduling,
record-keeping, and automated billing functions; your credentials fully verified by an independent agency;
a basic entry within the Professional Directory; secure e-mail transactions: $4.00;
secure online chat sessions: $8.00.
- Gold - $19.95/month. Access to your personal Virtual Office, which offers scheduling,
record-keeping, and automated billing functions; your credentials fully verified by an independent agency;
a basic entry within the Professional Directory; secure e-mail transactions: $3.00;
secure online chat sessions: $5.00.
More information about our different membership levels is available.
You will be billed up to the point of your cancellation.
Yes. All client data can be printed out.
There are several good resources. Metanoia is generally cited as an excellent resource for consumers.
John Suler's Web site, Psychology of Cyberspace, is a lively starting point for professionals.
Is there a manual or reference guide to the Virtual Office that I can download or view?
Yes, the Virtual Office Basic Manual is available here (PDF, Adobe Acrobat reader required).
How do I enable the Instant Session feature?
To make full use of our state-of-the-art, secure Instant Session functionality, you need to
have one of the following browsers:
- Internet Explorer 6.x or higher (Windows XP/2000)
- Netscape 7.x/Mozilla 1.x or higher (Windows XP/2000)
- Safari 1.2 or higher (Mac OS X)
Important note: If you use any pop-up blocking or anti-virus software that
blocks pop-up windows, you must either disable it manually for this site, or
know that certain features of our site will not work for you (such as Instant
Sessions). Our software has been designed to make the use of dynamic windowing
technology, and without it, it wouldn't be posssible to provide the level of
services we currently offer.
Instant Session Instructions
- Open the "Instant Session Alert Window"
(it is located directly on the homepage of your Virtual
Office).
- Turn 'on' the feature in the alert window.
Note: Make sure to keep the alert window open,
as this is what keeps you available on the site. (If you
close this little window, you will become "unavailable.")
- You will be notified of a instant session via pop-up window and
a bing sound on your computer (if audio is enabled);
- Once approved, return to your Virtual Office homepage and
in your "Message Center" you will see the new session;
- Click on "Begin session with xxx" and you are chatting
immediately.
Sessions can either last 30 or 60 minutes. You will receive
your fee less HelpHorizons.com's fees.
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