The Covid-19 pandemic forced therapists to find alternatives to face-to-face therapy, and now a good portion of clients want to either continue teletherapy combined with in-office therapy, or remain exclusively online. On the one hand, online therapy makes life much easier for parents because they no longer have to travel with their child to an office far from home, lose valuable hours from their daily schedule, or organize around leaving and returning from work. On the other hand, speech therapists can benefit from making their services more flexible based on the needs of their clients.
Here are a few reasons to include teletherapy in the speech therapy services you offer:
- Grow your speech therapy practice with old and new clients (including those from abroad)
Did you know that there are parents abroad who cannot find a native Romanian-speaking speech therapist? Teletherapy is therefore a very good way to increase your income in an accessible and convenient way. In short, there is a big difference between the number of clients willing to do teletherapy and the number of speech therapists who offer online speech therapy services in Romanian, in the long term.
The accessibility of teletherapy helps eliminate any geographical and communication barriers, making it much easier for potential clients to plan and schedule therapy sessions. As a speech therapist, it will be much easier to build a large and varied portfolio of clients from anywhere in the country and abroad, without having to travel.
- Work more safely
The crisis caused by the pandemic highlighted our implicit vulnerability when working in direct contact with other people. Therapists generally form a category more exposed to risks, because they often work with children (who can spread viruses without showing symptoms) or with people who have various pathologies and may have weaker immune systems.
In addition, using public transport or frequenting crowded areas during peak hours increases the risk assumed by the therapist. Teletherapy allows the speech therapist to work safely from home, regardless of whether there are traffic restrictions, lockdowns, severe weather, or any other unforeseen external circumstances. Therapists know that if patients start missing sessions, regression happens quite quickly, which jeopardizes the long-term recovery plan and reduces the client's motivation to continue therapy later.
- Work from home or anywhere
Including teletherapy in the range of services offered by an already known and appreciated offline practice will bring significant advantages for the development of that business. Teletherapy is also an excellent way to grow for a young speech therapist who is just starting their career and is looking for clients.
It is important to maintain the same professionalism with which you have accustomed your clients in the office when working from home. Your clothing and the decor around you are important, as is maintaining a quiet and comfortable setting for the patient, without interruptions and elements that can be distracting.
The flexibility of the location from which you hold your sessions allows you to work from home more days a week, or even build a 100% virtual practice. If you live outside the city or in a more isolated area, this strategy can give you access to clients from the city, whom you would otherwise not be able to see regularly.
- Enjoy a more flexible schedule
The technology of online therapy services allows you to adapt your work schedule exactly as you wish. For example, VoxiClinic includes an appointment calendar through which you can quickly and easily manage your schedule throughout the week. Also, working online allows you to schedule therapy sessions at more flexible hours than in the office, eliminating the time wasted on physical transitions between clients. On days when you work from home, you can agree with various clients on unusual therapy hours, depending on their individual needs and schedules.
Of course, working outside of business hours is not the purpose of teletherapy, but it is good to know that you can have this option if you want to. In addition, making the schedule more flexible can be very useful when working with clients from abroad, who may be in a different time zone.
- No more wasting time going to and from the office
Commuting between home and office is not only exhausting for parents. Traveling to an office far from home means losing precious time that the speech therapist can spend either in a more productive way or relaxing with the family. Both options are preferable to time spent in traffic, which contributes negatively to our mental health and well-being.
Studies show that Bucharest is among the most congested cities in the world, where people lose hundreds of hours in traffic. This strongly contributes to the level of stress and exhaustion we feel daily. Teletherapy is a simple method to eliminate the mental burden associated with time lost in traffic, and you can have more energy for the things that are truly important.
