Michigan therapist finds niche providing in-home psychotherapy services
Would you travel to a client's home to provide therapy? After witnessing the high no-show rates while working at community mental health centers Michigan, therapist Tomanika Witherspoon, LMSW, CEO of Growing Counseling Services, decided to do just that.
She created an "outside of the box" specialty practice by focusing on providing in-home therapy.
In Witherspoon's experience, individuals who discontinued traditional therapy cited transportation, time and family responsibilities as the biggest barriers for receiving treatment. By providing in-home therapy, Witherspoon saves her clients travel time, travel expenses and time spent in an office waiting room.
What about her own travel time and expenses? Witherspon said that she does not bill for her travel time. However, to minimize the unpaid travel time and expenses, she only sees clients within a 20-mile radius of her location.
What about safety issues? "I typically do a phone-screening to gather the client's demographic information, insurance info, and the assurance that we will have somewhere to meet privately," Witherspoon says. "Safety is generally not a concern, but if it ever becomes one, I would meet in a colleague's office."
Providing in-home therapy services is not for everyone, but Ms. Witherspoon makes it work for her and her clients.
Visit GrowingCounseling.com to find out more about Tomanika Witherspoon, LMSW's "outside the box" practice.
Have you found a creative niche, a unique office space, use non-traditional interventions, or have something that sets you apart from other private practice clinicians? I want to hear about it! Email me with "outside the box" in the subject line.
Eleven years ago I ventured briefly into the world of providing online counseling services. It was short-lived because there was not enough interest from potential clients in online counseling. At the time, there was a sense that online interventions would revolutionize counseling, and that it might even become a preferred method of treatment for many.
While online counseling, also known as telemental health, and e-therapy, hasn't "taken over" the field of therapy in the past decade, electronic delivery methods have steadily grown.
As healers, we genuinely like to do our work. Guiding clients through the therapy process and seeing them make progress is why we do what we do. But if you're in private practice, you know there's a lot going on in the back end and that it's crucial to run an efficient and organized business.