Blogs

2023 Session Wrap-up: Portability

By Portability AAMFT posted 15 days ago
With emergency orders related to COVID expiring and the continuing demand for mental health services with many states experiencing provider shortages, easing portability barriers remained a key topic in many 2023 legislative sessions. The following states made recent updates relevant to MFTs and portability: Alaska: Alaska has a Telemedicine Business Registry. All businesses that plan to engage in telemedicine services with a resident in the state must have a valid Alaska business license and submit the Telemedicine Business Registry application. Applicants must register as a business, not a licensee and several licensees can practice under one ...

Access MFTs Announces Upcoming Work in Maryland and Kentucky

By Portability AAMFT posted 15 days ago
Access MFTs is pleased to welcome Metro MFT to the effort to advocate for increased MFT portability in Maryland in 2024. To support the efforts, AAMFT has contracted with Public Policy Partners, a firm with a proven track record of working with health care groups and licensure portability issues. In 2024, the Access MFTs effort will also be gearing up efforts in Kentucky and reuniting with the Rotunda Group following successful lobbying efforts in 2018-2021 related to telehealth, MFTs in schools, protecting MFTs from board consolidation, and essential advocacy efforts needed during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

CAMFT and AAMFT Offer Comments at Recent California BBS Meeting

By Portability AAMFT posted 08-21-2023
Access MFT partners the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT) and the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) joined together in giving comments at the California Board of Behavioral Science (BBS) meeting on August 18 in support of a potential future transition to the national exam to help ease portability barriers. Prior to the comment period, staff from the Association of Marital and Family Therapy Regulatory Boards (AMFTRB) presented on the national exam and addressed questions from the BBS Board. A recorded webcast of the meeting from the California BBS can be found here .

Access MFTs Adds New Industry Partners and Supporters

By Portability AAMFT posted 08-11-2023
The Access MFTs Portability Effort continues to gain momentum. Staff has met with leaders, regulatory board representatives, and lobbyists in 25 states in the process of finalizing the selections for phase 1 states (action in 2024) and those for phase 2 (future action). Access MFTs is pleased to welcome the Georgia Association of Marriage and Family Therapy as a partner for efforts in 2024. As GAMFT President Kara McDaniel remarked in their recent letter of support , “Our state is uniquely positioned to share borders with five other states. Many of our clients have families that live in those states and greatly desire a joint therapeutic relationship ...

CAMFT Joins Access MFTs Effort

By Portability AAMFT posted 07-27-2023
AAMFT is pleased to announce that the California Association for Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT) has joined as a partner in Access MFTs, the AAMFT-led strategic portability initiative launched in fall of 2022. Designed to reduce barriers to licensure portability for MFTs across the United States, the Access MFTs plan utilizes a model of licensure portability that allows for flexibility to address unique challenges and environments in each state. With this strategy, the goal is rapid advancement for the MFT profession, addressing areas where MFTs are working and want to work as a priority. “While California did recently address its portability ...

Understanding Licensure Portability

By Portability AAMFT posted 03-31-2023
What does a strategic portability effort entail? Licensure portability is the ability to take an individual’s qualifications for a license in one state and apply them for licensure in another state. There can be many barriers that cause difficulty in this process, some of which are outlined in this Family Therapy Magazine article . A strategic portability effort looks to identify those barriers and mitigate them as much as possible to create a much easier portability process for those within the profession. How does a strategic portability effort differ from a model portability law? This Family Therapy Magazine article ...

AAMFT Board of Directors Adopts Strategic Portability Plan

By Portability AAMFT posted 01-01-2023
During its Fall 2022 meeting, AAMFT’s Board of Directors voted to move forward with a strategic portability effort that will identify barriers to license portability and work to mitigate them, with the goal of creating a much easier process for those within the profession. This effort will take place in several phases, with target states selected for each phase based on: barriers to MFT licensure portability; the number of MFTs potentially impacted; interest of MFTs in working/migrating to the state; client population; legislative body receptiveness; and grassroots and professional services support. To begin this process, AAMFT has secured a research ...

The Gifts of COVID

By Luree Benjamin posted 03-09-2021
“There is only one journey. Going inside yourself.”-Rainer Maria Rilke For me, like many, the pandemic has been a time of deep reflection, acceptance, and personal growth. It has been a time for slowing down, welcoming change, and a season of respite, endurance, self-reflection, and self-acceptance. Thoreau reminds me, “there is no companion so companionable as solitude.” I can say that I know that each day will offer its gifts, and, as George Herbert suggests, I can “take the gentle path,” as I embark deeper into this inner excursion. As a member of the 2020-2021 Certificate of Leadership cohort and with the DiSC assessment tool’s ...

Reducing Anxiety Symptoms: Self-Help Solutions

By Anthony Centore posted 11-30-2020
Reducing Anxiety Symptoms: Self-Help Solutions Visiting a counselor for anxiety therapy isn’t always convenient for many people. Sometimes it’s not even convenient to receive help over the phone or computer. That’s why it’s crucial we learn some self-help techniques to reduce anxiety symptoms whenever the need arises. These techniques can sometimes significantly reduce or even eliminate many common symptoms associated with anxiety. What Is Anxiety? What Are Anxiety Symptoms? Dr. Crystal Witmer, PsyD, a counselor at Thriveworks Counseling , specializes in the treatment of anxiety and says anxiety is a normal response to life’s stressors and is ...

5 of the Biggest Marketing Mistakes You Can Make in Private Practice

By Anthony Centore posted 09-18-2020
Everybody makes mistakes. This is a well-known cliché. Now, when it comes to marketing and advertising, if you make mistakes it will cost you. Let’s take a look at some of the most common marketing and advertising mistakes in the counseling business: 1. Spending money on ineffective advertising Advertising can work wonders for your business—if you do it right. But when you do it wrong, you strike out big time. For example: A counselor takes a $5000-dollar gamble on event sponsorship, or radio ad, and receives a near-zero return. After betting heavy and losing, the counselor no longer has the courage (or financial means) to try again, anywhere. Therefore, ...

Here are the only two tips you need to keep your business on the right track

By Anthony Centore posted 08-26-2020
Recently, a friend who owns a private practice called me. He dove right into his reason for calling, starting the conversation with: “AJ, some of my very best counseling left my practice. I have issues with notes not being completed. Our culture and team morale are down. We have a lot of new clients come in, but many never come back. And now I’m losing money.” To this, I ask about the size of his practice. He explains that it’s a “big practice” with three offices, 18 therapy rooms, and 20 counselors. I tell him, “Dan, the number of employees and offices you have are only vanity metrics. How many clients are you helping a week? In other words, how many sessions ...

Tips for Creating a Positive Office Culture in Your Group Counseling Practice

By Anthony Centore posted 07-17-2020
In his book, “Delivering Happiness,” Tony Hsieh—the CEO of Zappos—writes that Zappos only hires people they want to hang out with. And it works. The company culture at Zappos is legendary. Are you looking to create a legendary office culture, too? Okay, maybe you’re just looking to create a positive office culture. Either way, we have some tips for you Show your team that you care. Here at Thriveworks Counseling , we truly care about our team. If someone has a problem at work or elsewhere, we do everything we can to help. We respect our employees and we value their contributions. We are honest, we strive to be generous, and we even remember birthdays ...

50 tips for succeeding in private practice

By Anthony Centore posted 01-16-2020
Over the past few years, I’ve learned and written about what it takes to succeed in private practice from office culture to marketing, technology, and more. And it has been my honor and joy to share all of my knowledge (and humble opinions) with you all. For many years, the idea of making money in counseling was taboo, but the tides are turning and people are asking, “Healthcare professionals of many flavors are running successful (thriving) practices, why not us?” While it isn’t always fun to be the face of money in counseling, I recognize that it’s part of the role. And it’s more than worth it when I meet counselors who have been able to make a living ...

Is private practice profitable? Here’s how much money you can make as a counselor in private practice

By Anthony Centore posted 11-14-2019
According to Salary.com: A licensed clinical social worker (or “mental health clinician”) makes an average salary of $70,423. A family counselor working in Cambridge, MA makes an average salary of $44,880. A substance abuse counselor working in Cambridge, MA makes an average salary of $60,295. For many, working as a fulltime therapist is financially untenable. Consider this: the average cost of a 1500 square foot home in Cambridge exceeds a million dollars. And while Cambridge can be considered an expensive city, the math isn’t too dissimilar in other cities across the country. For example: A 1500 square foot home in Bethesda, MD will run $685,500. ...

Increase the value of your counseling practice now: Here are 5 crucial tips

By Anthony Centore posted 10-10-2019
Selling your practice might be the single largest financial transaction of your life. Depending on the choices you make, your practice could fund your retirement… or it might be worth close to nothing. While it’s a much larger topic than this article can do justice, I’ll provide a few tips to help you increase the value of your counseling practice: 1. Build a stable, dedicated team. Click “Meet the Team” on the website of any practice and you’ll probably see a webpage that can’t keep up with all the staff changes. Bios and pictures rarely reflect who’s actually on board (team photos are the worst, they’re never accurate). In many practices, ...

Should I get on insurance panels? 7 rumors about accepting health insurance at your counseling practice

By Anthony Centore posted 08-22-2019
Today, it seems that many in private practice are asking the same question, “Should I start accepting health insurance?” On the surface, it seems to be a simple question, but there’s much to consider. For any counselor, the decision of whether or not to accept third party payments will have broad sweeping implications for their counseling practice, with both pros and cons. For example: A pro is that insurance companies can provide a steady stream of clients to your practice. A con, though, is that determining reimbursement rates can require some administrative work, and they can hold providers accountable with periodic audits. So, it’s a complicated decision, ...

You can create policies and procedures at your counseling practice without “going corporate”

By Anthony Centore posted 08-15-2019
Ten years ago, if a counselor wanted to talk with me, he or she could holler my name from their office, and I’d pop my head in. Today, they’d need to send me an email or schedule a call (and I might then refer them to their direct supervisor). These changes are pretty much inevitable as your counseling practice grows: New policies and procedures are often needed to ensure clients continue to receive quality care. Here are some examples of what changes might occur: You switch from paper notes to electronic health records. You develop a policy around dress code or team member conduct on social. You realize you need to update the way you respond ...