A Day In The Life: Meet Sex Therapist Regina Bright, LMHC

Regina is the proprietor of Stepping Stones Professional Counseling, an outpatient private practice in Mary Esther, Florida that was established in 2009 where she provides individual, group, family, and couple’s counseling. Regina is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Board Certified Sex Therapist, Certified Family Mediator, Parent Coordinator, Clinical Supervisor, and holds a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology. She resides in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, where she was born and raised, with her husband, 9 year old daughter, and three Labrador Retrievers: Roxy (Chocolate), Gator (Blonde) and Chomper (Black) one of each flavor.

Read on to find out how Regina spends her time in private practice.

A Day In The Life

July 2, 2013

7:15 AM

Woke up, brushed teeth, and got in the shower followed by the rest of my morning routine.

8:30 AM

Arrive at work, greet office manager, check e-mails, look at the Google calendar, and pull files for the clients that I see for the day.

9:00 AM - 5:00 PM

See my 8 clients for the day – in between sessions, I write my case notes.

5:15 PM

Posted social media updates on Twitter and on my business Facebook page

5:30 PM

Before heading home for the day, I visited my business page to update insurance panels and to add a couple of more books on the suggested reading page.

5:45 PM

Headed home. Greeted by my husband and daughter. My husband had the house cleaned and had a delicious meal waiting for me.

7:00 PM

Played games with my family.

8:00 PM

Took a bubble bath and put on my pajamas.

8:30 PM

Snuggled with my 9 year old – read books, told her funny stories of when she was a baby, and tucked her in bed.

9:00 PM

Checked my e-mail – scheduled clients from my Psychology Today profile and added some pins on my Pinterest page.

9:30 PM

My husband and I got in bed and watched some of our favorite recorded programs: Mike and Molly, How I Met your Mother, and Anger Management

11:00 PM

Kissed husband, snuggled with my 3 Labrador retrievers and went to sleep.

Find out more about Regina's practice visit SteppingStonesCounseling.org

If you’d like to submit a day in your life for this series, please contact me here.

Would Your Practice Survive An Employment Tax Audit? (1099 vs. W-2 part 2)

Does the state tax commission really take the time to audit small private practices? I didn't think so, until my practice was selected for an audit.

A few years ago my clinic was selected for an employment tax audit. Lucky me, right? When the auditor walked into my office suite and saw many offices with different names on the doors, he looked at me pleadingly and said, "Please, please don't tell me that these therapists are all classified as 1099 contractors."

I replied, "I won't. We're all W-2's."

There was a look of relief on his face.He then proceeded to tell me that health and mental health private practitioners are notorious for incorrectly classifying 1099 employees. In his experience many groups are set up as contract workers when they are acting like employees (I'll go over into detail about the the IRS criteria for how to classify  an employee as a 1099 vs. W2 employees in a forthcoming post).

The auditor requested access to all of my financial documents including bank accounts, accounting,  payroll information and tax documents. He asked us questions about any large checks written directly to employees to make sure we were paying our employment taxes. After a brief review of my payroll and tax documents the auditor thanked me for making his job easier and left with a smile. I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Had I hired the therapists working with me as 1099 I may have been penalized with a hefty fine and required to pay back employment taxes on all of the therapists' income. I was not in a position to shell out thousands and thousands of dollars. Had I been incorrectly classifying employees it may have put my practice in jeopardy.

Do you know the IRS criteria for classifying 1099 contract workers vs. W-2 employees? It isn't based on whether or not you want to pay your therapist's taxes or want to have them pay self-employment taxes. It isn't based on whether they are full-time or part-time workers. It isn't based on whether or not you provide benefits.

There are many misconceptions about classifying employees in private practice. I'll address theses criteria for how to distinguish between hiring 1099 vs. W-2 therapists in upcoming posts.

Watch for the next Therapist Blog Challenge coming next week, too!

Dave Dugdale & learningdslrvideo.com via Compfight

Paper Or Electronic? Why I'm Grieving My Paper Files

Call me a bad therapist. It wouldn't be the first time. But I write my case notes during sessions. It's not "writing" really. It's more like "jotting" a few important things down as I go. I sign and date the note at the end of the session and I'm done. Call me crazy, but I like to complete all work, notes, letter writing on behalf of the client during the session. I have resistance to adding and hour or so at the end of my day for case notes.

If you haven't been able to tell from past posts, I tend to be an early adopter when it comes to technology. I had a therapy website in the early 2000's. I've been on Facebook and Twitter for 4 years (which is a long time for the over 40 crowd). I love my iPhone and iPad. I developed an app. But, I haven't yet transition to electronic notes and health records, until now.

Starting today my therapy clinic is finally transitioning to an electronic records and practice management system. After a lot of research we decided to go with Care Paths.

For practical reasons it's a good move for us. Having opened a second location last Fall, it makes sense to use a web-based practice management and records system to have all records in one place, online.  I love that clients will be able to log in, fill out initial paperwork, print their own statements and forms to submit to insurance for reimbursement, or to check their appointment times. I like that we'll be able to sign notes electronically. Supervisors will be able to review and sign supervisee's notes online. I'm thrilled that we'll easily be able to fulfill request for records. As a director, I'm glad that I'll be able to easily audit case notes, outcomes reports, and files. It makes sense.

Yes, this is a good move but I am going to miss being done with my notes at the end of each session. I'm going to miss my own   handwritten visual reminders on case notes - my little arrows and stars highlighting something important. My handwritten signature will no longer matter. There are some things that you give up when you trade paper for electronic and I'm sad about that.

Do you still use paper files or have you transitioned to digital notes? Which program do you use and why? I'd love to hear your comments below.

photo credit: Cokul