Arkansas Mental Health Counselors Association

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Arkansas Mental Health Counselors Association

• How to Start A Private Practice
• Little Rock, AR
• August 25, 2007

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Presenters

• Christy Fitch-Francis, MA, LPC, NCC
• ArMHCA Conference Co-Chair
• 9 Years Private Practice
• Joe Young, MA, LPC, LMFT, Supervisor
• ArMHCA Executive Director
• 17 Years Private Group Practice
• Garry Teeter, MS, LPC, NCC, BCPCC, CBIS
• ArMHCA President
• 10 Years Private Practice

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Location, Location, Location

• Where to locate your office.
• Handicapped Accessible
• Parking
• Privacy
• Safety Issues
• Restrooms
• Neighbors Business, others
• Easy to find
• Near other professional offices
• Comfortable, clean, inviting, peaceful lobby and
  office

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Naming Your Practice

• Business Name vs. Your Name

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Tax Id NPI Numbers

• Incorporate Business
• Sole Practice
• Group Practice

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Financial Policies

• Setting your fee
• Billing online electronic
• Collecting at time of service vs. billing clients

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Informed Consent

• Informed Consent Counselor info
• Practice policies after hours contact
• Missed Appointments
• Records Management
• Duty to warn
• Mandatory Reporting Laws

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Intake Assessment

• Client info forms
• Treatment Planning
• Case notes

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Soap Notes

• Objective for the session In one sentence, what
  did you plan to do?
• S (Subjective) What are the most striking things
  that your client said? Often using your client's
  own words is desirable.
• O (Objective) What do you see? Use observations
  rather than inferences.
• A (Assessment) What did you conclude from your
  observations? Your assessment should follow from
  your S O.
• P (Plan) When do you plan to meet next? What
  will you do next time? What homework, if any, did
  you give? This should match the session objective
  for your next session and should follow from A.
  Sign and date your note, adding your title.

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Soap Notes

• Remember, notes should
• Be succinct, only focusing on the most important
  aspects of the session.
• Be objective. Others watching your session should
  be able to agree with what you saw.
• Be strength-based. Write as you would like to be
  written about. (Clients have the right to read
  what you write about them.) This does not mean
  that you need to lie, play pollyanna, or obscure.
  Just be respectful.

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SOAP

• CYA. Document your client's suicidality,
  homicidality, and anything you did to keep your
  client and significant others safe.
• CYCA. Every piece of information does not need to
  be in your note, especially information that
  might embarrass your client if he or she were to
  read it or it were to end up in court.

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• Objective for the session Facilitate generating
  solutions for meeting familys current needs.
• S "I am not running now." "I am afraid to know
  about sickle cell diagnosis." "I think it is
  God that is taking care of all this stuff."
• O Mrs. Smith was confident and composed as she
  talked about her accomplishments of the last
  week. She became more hesitant, breaking eye
  contact, as she addressed concerns about her
  sons possible illness.

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• A While Mrs. Smith reports a history of running
  from problems, she has increasingly been able to
  address her familys basic needs. She continues
  to run, however, from problems where she is
  ambivalent and perceives herself as incapable of
  resolving the stressor. In these situations she
  seems to use her faith as a crutch rather than as
  a support, failing to see ways she could help God
  or herself.

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• P Next Fridays at 0900. Transfer considerable
  self-efficacy in other situations to stressors
  that continue to feel overwhelming. 2/19/02
  Jeanne M. Slattery, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist
• http//psy1.clarion.edu/JMS/cdc/intSOAP.html

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Confidentiality

• HIPPA Considerations HIPPA act posted in lobby
• Locked File Cabinets
• Adolescent Children Issues
• Phone Answering
• Returning Phone Calls
• Mail
• Releasing Records

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The End