10 Best FREE iPad Apps for a Productive Private Practice

In this guest post counselor and consultant Clinton Power shares his top iPad App picks for managing a private Practice

I just love my iPad mini. It goes everywhere with me and has become such a valuable asset in helping me run my therapy and coaching business in an efficient and productive manner.

So I’ve compiled a list of my top 10 best iPad apps that help me run my business day-to-day. And best of all, they are all FREE!

Please note that any apps below that save to the cloud are not HIPAA compliant and I don’t advise you use them for storing any confidential client data.

1. Dragon Dictation

I don't know about you, but sometimes my hands and fingers just get too tired and sore from so much typing all the time. This is where Dragon Dictation comes in handy.

Dragon Dictation is a voice-recognition software that helps you translate your spoken speech into words on the page. They even say that spoken dictation is 5 times faster than typing.

The app does require an Internet connection to run, however it is surprisingly accurate. A great way to start dictating your emails and SMS messages without typing and no more tired hands and fingers!

2. DropBox

If you haven't heard of Drop Box, you've probably been living under a rock. DropBox is the phenomenal tool for syncing your folders between multiple devices.

You can work on your document on your laptop or desktop, and then keep editing on your iPad and you know that you're always working on the most recent version of your document.

But did you know you can also store audio and video in your DropBox and watch them on the run?

I find dragging audios of therapy and marketing training that I am listening to into DropBox is much more convenient than having to add them to iTunes and then sync with my iPad or phone.

The folder lives on your desktop and you just drag any files you want to access into the folder and voila! It's on your iPad ready for you to access.

3. Evernote

Now I don't know how I could run my life or my private practice without Evernote.

If you haven't heard of Evernote, it's the incredibly powerful note-taking system that syncs all your notes with the Evernote cloud so you can access them on your iPad, smartphone and desktop computer.

You can save typed notes, PDFs, Word documents, audio notes and photos.

It has a powerful search feature that can even search photos of text and your handwriting.

You can also create notebooks and notebook stacks so you can organise your notes via categories and sub-categories for easy searching.

I love the checklists feature so you can create checklists you can use over and over again for important organisational lists that you repeat.

If you haven't tried this app, dive in and discover how much you didn't realise you needed it.

4. Penultimate

Penultimate is a very cool natural hand-writing app that allows you to take handwritten notes and save them for later.

Best of all it syncs with Evernote, which means your handwritten notes are searchable in Evernote, with it's searchable technology. If you love doodling, drawing mind maps or just getting back to the feel of natural handwriting, this is the app for you. I do recommend you purchase a stylus to use with Penultimate as it does give the best results.

5. Buffer

I'm having a love affair with the Buffer app at the moment.

Buffer allows you to queue up your social media posts to be delivered at a schedule determined by you.

This is a huge time-saving tool as I can share all the interesting content I'm curating at once, but it won't be delivered to my social media networks until the next scheduled time I’ve chosen.

Now I don't use the iPad app so much for creating the posts. I much prefer to use the Buffer bookmarklet in my Chrome browser, but the iPad app is great for seeing what's queued up for my accounts, as well as view the statistics for my recently shared posts.

This is a free app, but I pay the $10 a month for extra social media accounts and unlimited posts in the queue.

6. Mindjet Maps

Mindjet Maps lets you easily enter ideas, tasks, and meeting notes into intuitive visual maps that help you quickly organize concepts and prioritize action items.

If you've used a mind map before, you'll be familiar with how great it is to brainstorm in a visual format to help with the expression of your ideas.

Anytime you're stuck for ideas or just need to start thinking in a more creative way, Mindjet helps you explore and expand on your ideas by forming quick and simple visual representations of your thoughts.

You can also add photos to your mind maps and then share them to DropBox so you can collaborate with others. Cool!

7. Titan Downloader

You know all those amazing TED talks that you don't have time to watch right then-and-there when you come across them? Well the Titan Downloader allows you to download them into the Titan video library to watch at a later time.

It's pretty easy to use. You use the in-built browser, go to the page where the video is and click on 'save video'. The video automatically downloads to your library and you can view it when you're offline. It will keep downloading in the background even as you do other things on your iPad.

This is a great way to store video content for you to access later. You can also password protect your library so no one can access your videos.

I preferred the paid version (0.99c) as it is ad free and much a little less clunky to use.

8. Adobe Reader

iPads can already read your PDF's without needing the Adobe Reader, but the cool thing about this app is you can annotate and add comments to your PDF documents.

I just love being able to write notes on my PDF docs as it really helps my learning, so this app gives you the ability to do that.

It allows you to fill out forms and type in any text field in a PDF document. You can also select radio buttons and checkboxes by tapping them.

Also, you can jump to a specific chapter in your PDF document by using the bookmark feature, which is not something you can do with the built-in reader in the iPad. Easy!

9. Feedly

Since the demise of Google Reader is on the horizon, everyone has been looking for a good alternative for subscribing to the RSS feeds of blogs.

If you're not familiar with RSS (which stands for Really Simple Syndication), it's a way that you can subscribe to the feeds of your favorite blogs so you automatically get the latest blog entries without having to go to the blog.

If you're curating content and looking for fresh and interesting articles for your social media accounts and the people that follow you, Feedly is a great way to get quick and easy access to the articles you're interested in.

Feedly is a big step up from Google Reader because you can also view the feed of your favorite blogs in a beautiful magazine style format.

10. Stitcher

I'm totally addicted to listening to Podcasts. I'm listening to podcasts when I'm walking the dog, doing the shopping, driving my car or working out at the gym.

So Stitcher is my app of choice on the iPad for listening to all my favorite podcasts to keep me abreast of news in the therapy and marketing worlds.

You can save your favorite podcasts for easy access and even set them to automatically download for offline listening in case you're on a plane or don't have wifi or 3G access.

And it's easy to find lots of interesting podcasts in any area of interest you may have.

11. Pocket (A bonus app!)

Ok, so I couldn't restrict myself to only 10 iPad apps because there are so many good ones!

Pocket is a wonderful iPad app that is also available for your browser on your desktop or laptop and smartphone. Essentially it allows you to quickly copy articles of interest that you come across on the Internet for later reading.

If you're reading in your desktop browser, you can use a bookmarklet in your browser to quickly copy the article to your Pocket list with one click.

If you're on you iPhone or iPad, you can also add articles to your Pocket list by sending the article with one click to your dedicated Pocket email address.

I find this a huge time-saver that allows me to read the articles I'm interested in when I have the time to sit down with my iPad.

So that's my top 10 best free iPad apps that help me run a productive private practice. What are yours? Please add them below in the comments.

Clinton Power is a Sydney-based Gestalt therapist and the owner of Clinton Power + Associates- a private practice dedicated to helping singles and couples move out of relationship pain. He is also the founder of Australia Counselling Directory, a free directory for find counsellors and psychologists in Australia. Clinton is also a passionate coach and consultant for healthcare professionals. Find him on Twitter or Google+.

iPad Photo (c) Canstock photo

Counselor Self-Care Practices

Guest Post: Hollie L. Hancock, M.S., CMHC

Reflect on how well you take care of your own needs. Help me learn more by filling out a counselor self-care practices questionnaire.

While attending an ethics conference last week, I took the opportunity to solicit participation from my fellow counselors and psychotherapists for my dissertation research.  As I described the study, and as the words “counselor self-care” crossed my lips, a loud and obvious laugh erupted from various corners of the large ballroom where the conference was being held.  From the front of the room I saw people looking at one another, laughing, and rolling their eyes; I even read the lips of one man in the front row as he said to the woman next to him, “Yeah, right!”

Honestly, I was not surprised.  In fact, I almost expected this type of response.  The laughter, snickers, and side-ways comments are exactly the reason I am researching counselor and psychotherapist self-care practices.

As therapists, we use our education, training, and skills to help patients live more rewarding and healthy lifestyles, independently.  Ironically, many therapists seem reluctant to offer themselves the same kind of understanding and care.  Yet, in reality, it is this self-care, both personal and professional, that ultimately is the most important, not just for patients, but also for we as therapists as well.  It is quite possible that mental health professionals are one of the few professions that does not purchase or utilize their own product.

Lack or absence of self-care practices among mental health professionals appears to be almost synonymous with compassion fatigue and burnout.  The literature seemingly suggests that by mentioning self-care – counseling professionals are burned out or experiencing compassion fatigue to some degree.  Do a small research study of your own: Conduct a Google search using the words “counselor self-care”.  You are likely to find half of the top results include the word “burnout”.

Participate in my dissertation research on counselor self-care practices

In an effort to understand the possible phenomenon of the lack of self-care practices among counselors and psychotherapists, I am asking colleagues across the nation and even around the world, to provide responses to a brief questionnaire created for my dissertation research.  Therefore, you are cordially invited to participate in a study that will ask questions about your experiences with self-care practices as a counselor or psychotherapist. This inventory is called The DEFT Questionnaire. “DEFT” represents what counselors and psychotherapists “do” for self-care, how they “experience burnout”, how they “feel” about their self-care practices, and finally what counselors and psychotherapists “think” about self-care. The purpose of this study is to explore whether or not there is a correlation between self-care practices and burnout among counseling professionals.  Completing the questionnaire will take about 15 minutes of your time.

To be better clinicians in our roles as counselors and psychotherapists, we owe it to our patients, and more importantly ourselves, to be aware of our self-care needs, and adjust our behaviors accordingly if necessary to avoid impairment, burnout, compassion fatigue, and even post traumatic stress disorder.

I have provided the link to the questionnaire below.  I respectfully ask that you take 15 minutes of your time to complete the questionnaire.  Then, please share the link with your peers and colleagues.  I thank you in advance for contributing to the body of literature available regarding counselor self-care practices!

Fill out the counselor self-care survey here:

https://acsurvey.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_cvWrM4l8iqBWU1D

The questionnaire will be available until March 31, 2013

Hollie L. Hancock, M.S., CMHC is in private practice at Iron Mountain Counseling is a Doctoral Candidate in Counseling Psychology, Argosy University, Salt Lake City, UT

Benefits Of Blogging For Your Private Therapy Practice

I recently had a delightful chat with Australian counselor and consultant Clinton Powers via Skype about my evolution as a blogger. We talked about the many benefits of blogging as a marketing strategy, unexpected benefits that I've experienced through blogging, how to find your blogging voice, and how to address ethical concerns. I hope you enjoy the interview. Below, I've summarize the main points of our lively discussion.

What are the benefits of blogging as a practice marketing strategy?

• Grow your practice by making it easier for clients to find you
• Build your brand online
• Fresh content improves SEO for your practice website
• Establishes you as a credible expert in your field
• Online networking with other mental health professionals
• Positive impact on readers all over the world

What are your tips for developing your blogging voice?

• Start where you are
• Reject perfectionistic tendencies
• Remember that you can edit
• Re-purpose previously written content (papers, presentations, other media interviews)
• Read and model after other therapists blogs

Where do you find inspiration for blog post topics?

• Share your philosophical background
• Write about themes you're seeing in therapy
• Write about related news and current events
• Summarize new research and add your take on it
• Share other experts' content, including videos

How do you make time to write?

• Write about the things that energize you and sound fun
• Schedule time to blog once a week

How do you avoid ethical concerns?

• Don't share client information
• Don't share personal information

This interview first appeared on AustraliaCounseling.com.au

Creating Your Perfect Work Week (part 2)

In this guest blog Ashley Eder, LPC offers part 2 of "Creating Your Perfect Work Week." Ashley is a counselor and supervisor who believes we each have the potential to create a more satisfying life. Located in Boulder, CO, she works with clients and therapists through curiosity, self-awareness, and acceptance in order to create lasting change.

In Part I of Creating Your Perfect Work Week, I prompted you to evaluate how well your practice is performing as a non-monetary form of compensation. As a reminder, here are the questions for you to ask yourself to get an idea of how rewarding your private practice work week is for you now:

• Are you excited to go to work?
• Do you enjoy your clients?
• Can you maintain your personal relationships?
• Do you have time for self-care?
• Do you feel satisfied and complete at the end of the day?
• Are you resentment-free?
• Are you intellectually stimulated?
• Have you stopped doing the things you dread?

If you followed through with this exercise, you know that it really is possible to answer “yes” to all of those questions; you are ready to experiment with adding Satisfaction Builders into your week and you have a pretty good idea of where they may need to go.

Below are a handful of suggestions for ways you can re-design your practice to work better for you. Remember, the ideal practice is different for everyone! Use these ideas to get you started, then listen for your own voice to guide you in getting it just right.

Improve Your Work Satisfaction

• Play with the flow of your day. You might sprinkle “mini-breaks” into your day (just 15 minutes to get some fresh air or eat a quick lunch); take a bigger break so you can leave the office to meet a friend or take a nap, or work straight through followed by extended time off. Which schedule leaves you least harried and most refreshed?
• Experiment with separating client hours from administrative hours versus weaving them together. Does it feel more natural and productive to you to chart and return calls between sessions as you get time or all at once in a pre-determined window?
• Fiddle around with work/home boundaries. Are you happier leaving work-based activities like social media and returning emails at the office, or do you prefer integrating them into your home life so that they don’t build up so much and you can maintain a connection to your business?
• Pursue the clients who make your work meaningful and refer along those who do not. Trust that it is best for clients and therapists when we narrow our focus to serving our ideal clients, and allow other clients to seek help from clinicians who would be a more nourishing fit.
• Raise your fees until you feel adequately compensated. Check out these tips on deciding to do that and how to broach it with clients.
• Re-evaluate your mission statement. Why are you in private practice? Why did you become a therapist? Align your practice with your mission.
• Seek professional support. Would it would feel good to treat yourself to expert supervision for a while? Choose a modality or style you would like to explore. Try building your own consultation network, and do not spend time with people you do not want to emulate. Get clear on who feels good to learn from and seek their support.
• Study something new. Remember the intellectual stimulation of grad school? Well now you can have that without all of the homework. Seek continuing education that encourages you to expand your niche and work at your growing edge.
• Do your own work. Take an honest appraisal of your clinical boundaries around time, responsibility for oneself, and money. This may involve a personal inventory and some existential exploration of what you truly believe about the nature of people. Then ask yourself: “Are these beliefs current or outdated? Do I choose to hang onto them or is it time to challenge them and my own habitual limitations?”
• Trust yourself. If something feels “off” about your work experience, it probably is. Hang out with that observation, let it develop, and seek consultation with trusted colleagues. Your private practice is a work in progress. With your time, attention, and care, it will continue to flourish and nourish you back.
• Imagine giving yourself permission to quit doing the things that don’t take care of you. Perhaps start by choosing one thing to let go of and observe the ripples. What happens next? Is it as scary as you thought it might be? Does your practice feel the impact? How do you feel without it? Hint: follow your resentments to find the practices that no longer serve your higher self.
• Drop the dread. If you dread a part of your job, it is not feeding you. Be creative in your efforts to automate it, outsource it, or drop it entirely.
• Question The ‘Busy’ Trap. Make room for self-care, including the necessity to do nothing on a regular basis. Identify what self-care truly means for you and allow it. It might mean making lovely meals or giving yourself a night off from cooking. It could look like an hour at the gym or an hour on the couch. It’s personal, and you get to choose.
• Lighten your load. Examine your beliefs around how many client hours you should fit into a week. Would you be more energized by dropping 2 clinical hours, raising your rate $10, and writing for your professional blog or playing in nature? Do it!

As a business owner and psychotherapist, your practice really is your life. This can be an anchor weighing you down or an opportunity to build a flexible, satisfying life. Which do you choose?

Visit Ashley Eder, LPC’s practice website

Get the FREE Private Practice Toolbox mobile app

(c) Can Stock Photo

Creating Your Perfect Work Week (part 1)

This guest post is written by Ashley Eder, LPC. Ashley is a counselor and supervisor who believes we each have the potential to create a more satisfying life. Located in Boulder, CO, she works with clients and therapists through curiosity, self-awareness, and acceptance in order to create lasting change.

A successful private practice is not just defined by how many clients you see or how much income you generate. One critical stream of non-monetary compensation is the satisfaction your practice brings you.

That’s right--as a business owner in an inherently flexible field, part of your “payment” is the freedom to create a work week that works for you.

Whether your workload is in its sweet spot or not is a personal measure; what feels nourishing and sustainable for another clinician might be either under-stimulating or exhausting for you given your temperament and the other responsibilities in your life.

Ask yourself the following questions to start creating your own ideal work week:

• Are you excited to go to work?
• Do you enjoy your clients?
• Can you maintain your personal relationships?
• Do you have time for self-care?
• Do you feel satisfied and complete at the end of the day?
• Are you resentment-free?
• Are you intellectually stimulated?
• Have you stopped doing the things you dread?

Yes, you really can expect to have a practice that is that satisfying. If you found yourself shaking your head “no” to some of the questions above, it’s time to re-evaluate how you spend your work week. Take time now to explore these questions in detail. Be honest. Where are you solid in your business satisfaction and where could you use more work? What would your life look like if you were able to answer “yes” to these questions? Can you be specific now, or will it take some soul-searching to figure that out?

Check back for part 2 of Creating Your Perfect Work Week for concrete suggestions on ways to build satisfaction with your business. My suggestions will help you narrow the gap between where you are now and where you would like to be. Expect to revisit these areas throughout your career in private practice, especially as you advance in your career and skills, experience personal life changes in relationships and parenting, and do your own work in personal therapy.

Visit Ashley Eder, LPC's practice website

Get the FREE Private Practice Toolbox mobile app

Photo (c) Can Stock Photo