WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
This screen only appears when you first sign up, so please take a moment and read the really important stuff that is in black. Then you can click on the link to the sign up page. The stuff in green below that link is optional reading.
Nothing replaces the hard work, persistence and networking that produce a really good private practice. If you are looking for a magic quick fix that will bring a deluge of referrals, you are going to be disappointed. There are two levels of service on this site: Basic and Premium. Basic is always free. It allows you to set up a profile that lists your office address and phone, the four main issues you focus on in your practice, the health plans you accept, the languages in which you work and your fee. You can easily change this profile at any time. You also get to try the Premium Service for free for 30 days (newly licensed therapists have a longer free period). The Premium Service also lets you list your available appointment times for the next two weeks. Anyone coming to the site seeking a referrals will see the Premium Service members and their appointment times listed first. After your free Premium Service time is up, you can purchase more time or you can just continue with the free Basic Service. The site automatically knows when your free Premium Service time is up and presents you with the option to buy more time. If you retire from practice or move out of California, just remove your zip code from your profile and you will no longer appear on the site at all.
TherapyOnTheSpot.com is a marketing tool that can help you build your practice by helping you build referral networks within the therapeutic community. You cannot possibly accept every referral that comes your way. Some prospective patients will have a health plan you cannot take, others will want to be seen at a time when you don't make appointments. Yet others may need a therapist who deals with an issue which you do not address in your practice. When referrals come your way that you cannot take, don't just tell patients you can't take their insurance or see them on Sunday. Instead, say "I'm not able to see you but I may be able to find one or more therapists who can. If I can find some colleagues who (can take your insurance, can see you on Sunday etc.), may I give them your name and phone number?" If the patient consents, go to TherapyOnTheSpot.com and click the link I AM A PROFESSIONAL MAKING A REFERRAL TO A THERAPIST. Find a colleague who takes the patient's insurance or has the right appointment time and send them the referral. You are helping the patient and you will make a colleague happy. You are also helping yourself build a network of other therapists who may return the favor when they cannot take a patient.
When you finish signing up, test the system by going back to the home page and clicking on I AM A PROFESSIONAL MAKING A REFERRAL TO A THERAPIST. Then click on your own name to make sure you have entered all your information correctly. After that, click on the links of some of your local colleagues. Remember, this is a network building tool and you need to know about your colleagues. Find out what issues they treat and satisfy your curiosity about what fees they charge.
While you are here, you may also want to check out the electronic newsletter I do for therapists. There you will find information on offices for rent, CE workshops, groups, jobs available etc. Go to www.TherapistExchange.com/mainpage.htm and then click on READ THE WEEKLY ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER.
Thanks,
Edward E. Hall, Ph.D.
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Optional Reading:
You may wonder how I got the idea for this site. I refer out more than half the people who call my office and I think this is very common among my colleagues. Often, I didn't know which colleagues had openings and what health plans they were currently accepting. Sometimes I'd get calls from prospective patients who had already called several other therapists and could not find one who took their health plan or could see them on Saturday. Often I didn't know who would take that heath plan or who was seeing patients on Saturday. I think many of those patients just gave up and no therapist got that referral.
On the flip side, more than a fourth of all my patients are referrals from other therapists. I am very grateful to those colleagues who have helped me build my practice and I like to know who they are. Sometimes I know who, but often a patient will have called several other therapists and one of them mentioned me. The patient doesn't remember who mentioned me, so I have no way of knowing who made the referral.
I also know that there are many therapists who do not have a private practice, but work in settings where they do make frequent referrals. I've spoken to some who need to place patients coming out of an inpatient program and they need to know who can see that patient within a day or two. They spend inordinate amounts of time on the phone trying to find someone who can take the patient. Other therapists work in settings where they are only able to see patients for a limited number of sessions before they have to refer out. Sometimes they are not allowed to see couples at the clinic. Still other therapists work in colleges or schools and are only allowed to do academic advising, not therapy. This site will make their referral work much easier.
I ask that you tell your colleagues and especially that you tell any physicians, nurses or other health care providers you know about the site.
You may also have some suggestions for the site. I welcome your suggestions and I have already made several changes because of the feedback I have gotten so far. Please let me know if there are other health plans that I haven't listed or other clinical issues that are not on the list. There are some things that I do not plan to do. I do not plan to list clinical methods such as biofeedback, cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic etc. You can create a link to your own website in your profile and list whatever you like on your own site. I do not want to get involved in the controversies about some methods or who is qualified to use what method. I also think there are some patients who are sophisticated enough to know what approach they want, but most are not. I do not plan to list degrees or credentials beyond the fact that you are licensed. There is no good way for me to verify degrees or credentials. In general, I want to keep the searches simple for patients and if I add too much it will be confusing and the searches will get too slow.