Helping Your Clients Use New Technologies

An Introduction

At Talk to An Expert Inc., we have a simple goal: To help you help Others by using technology. 
We believe that the mental health industry is at a historic turning point and that there is a tremendous opportunity for people like you to help the millions of people with emotional and behavioral problems that are currently under-served.
Technology is not a solution in and of itself, but it can be a tool for professionals to reach hundreds or even thousands of people that they would otherwise never encounter using traditional methods.

We make software that you can use to connect with clients from your website or blog.

• ExpertDirect™ is a pay/minute software for all experts, including coaches, speakers, authors, and consultants.
• TherapistDirect™ is for mental health professionals who want online therapy that meets HIPAA guidelines.
• ExpertGroup™ is for group practices that want to bring their experts online.

Where to Get Information and Training to Help People Online

Finding the right technology is just the beginning. If you want to help people online, there is some new information and some new skills that you will want to acquire. We highly recommend the Online Therapy Institute and Online Coaching Institute as a place for you to keep abreast on this new and exciting field.

The Institute publishes a free digital magazine called TILT, which stands for "Therapeutic Innovations in Light of Technology." This is a must read for anyone interested in current trends in online therapy and coaching. We also refer people to the Institute’s archive of blog articles to answer questions on issues regarding liability, insurance reimbursement, and ethical practices. They also have a variety of training programs, certificate programs, and supervision.

We hope you’ll join our community of helping professionals!
Keep a look out for newsletters in the upcoming weeks on:

• Creating the best website for your practice
• Internet marketing for helping professionals
• Publishing e-books and forms to supplement you income and promote your practice
• The effect of the Affordable Healthcare Act on helping professionals
• Creating mental health apps

Best wishes,

Lawrence E. Shapiro, Ph.D.

President, Talk To An Expert, Inc. 

Can Mental Health Apps Really Help?

The answer to this question is an unequivocal ‘yes!’ Self-help books have shown that many people can benefit from information which supplements, and sometimes even replaces the advice they would get in a professional’s office. Apps of course offer much more than information, and can actually interact with a person to do an ever-increasing number of tasks—including changing one’s behavior.

Breathing Lessons 

Our mission at Talk to an Expert, Inc. is to help people like you help others, and we would be remiss if we did not consider apps for mobile devices as a new way to help people cope with and overcome their emotional, social, and behavioral problems. To this end, we’ll be compiling a list of mental health apps that you can recommend in your practice. In the future, we hope to develop our own apps, and also  help others to develop apps that can be used by your clients, or even people from all over the world.

Apps are typically inexpensive to download, usually costing just a few dollars, and yet just like recommending self-help books, you will want to be careful when advising your clients. The last thing you want is to recommend an app that will not be helpful.

There are thousands of apps now available which are promoted as self-help tools, making it impossible to review them all. But we will review ones that look promising, and give you an objective evaluation from a mental health perspective. That being said, we strongly urge you to try an app out for yourself before recommending it to someone else.

App Name:  Breathing Lessons

Developer/Author: Susan Bosworth is listed as the seller and the developer. Carla Melucci Ardito is the author. The introduction to the app explains that Ms. Ardito has helped people explore the relationship between the body and the breath for 20 years, and was inspired to do this by her own healing process.  Her background is as a vocal instructor and yoga teacher.

Possible Uses:  Anxiety Disorders, General Health

Comments:  The app provides a simple and informative way to present the virtues of appropriate breathing from a physiological perspective. The core of the app consists of 8 videos which teach the basics of good breathing, with an emphasis on postural alignment. Practice sessions, which would be particularly useful for clients who need to learn deep breathing to calm down, cannot be accessed until at least four videos are watched, which underscores the author’s intention for people to understand that appropriate “healthful”  breathing is not quite as simple as one might think.

Cost:  $4.99

Platform: iPhone and iPad

What Do You Like?

Do you know of any other apps that teach breathing techniques? Tell us about them or other apps you have used to address mental health issues. You can either post a response on this blog, write to us on Twitter or Facebook, or make your recommendation to us directly by writing us at:  info@talktoanexpertinc.com.

10 Reasons To Add Online Therapy To Your Practice

1.  According to the American Psychological Association, almost 25% of people with mental health problems don’t get the help they need with the current mental health delivery system. Online therapy extends the reach and reduces the cost of therapeutic services.
2. Studies suggest that online therapy is just as effective as traditional in-office therapy.  
3. There are tens of thousands of people who cannot go to an office to see a psychotherapist, including the elderly, the physically disabled, people living in remote areas, and people who have emotional problems that prevent them from leaving their home.
4. Online therapy makes it easy for both therapists and clients to communicate outside regular office hours.
5. Online therapy allows professionals to provide immediate emergency psychological services. For example, trauma specialists could be connected to a triage center at a disaster site in a matter of minutes (studies show that that early treatment reduces the chance of PTSD).
6. Therapists can provide treatment for people at the location where the problem is occurring, such as an airport for a client with fear of flying, or during an office presentation for a person with social anxiety.
7. Therapists can provide consultation to institutions such as schools, hospitals, daycare centers, and remote clinics, without the time and expense of travelling.
8. Therapists can receive supervision from recognized experts in their field from anywhere in the world.
9. The vast majority of people look for a therapists online. It makes sense that many of these clients would also want to communicate with a therapist online.
10. Talk to an Expert, Inc. provides HIPAA compliant software that makes online therapy easy to use from any website or blog or even from an email link.  Find out more at:  TalkToAnExpertInc.com.