Almost every mental health therapist has dreams of starting their own practice. After all, there’s nothing like waking up every day and walking into YOUR practice to help your CLIENTS. However, as amazing as that is, the back end of your business still requires attention, which can admittedly be difficult to juggle. So what’s the solution for trying to manage it all without compromising the services you offer or neglecting your business operations? For many, it’s hiring a virtual assistant for therapists.
What Is A Virtual Assistant?
Before we jump into what a virtual assistant can do for your therapy practice, we’ll go over what a virtual assistant is.
A virtual assistant is a self-employed professional who assists individuals and businesses virtually. Although many VAs provide secretarial and administrative services, that’s not the only thing they can do. In fact, many of them provide website design services, do content writing for blogs, or are bookkeepers. Therefore, before you decide to hire a virtual assistant, it’s important to decide what exactly you need so you look for the right person(s).
With that in mind, start to think about what a virtual assistant can do for your therapy practice. Take a moment to assess where you spend your time in your business. Are all the tasks you do revenue-generating? Are all of the tasks you’re doing things that you know how to do proficiently? Probably not.ย Hiring a virtual assistant is helpful because they can help you re-shift your focus on tasks that not only make you more money but that you enjoy and are good at. ย
Scale With A Virtual Assistant For Therapists
According to Mental Health America, from 2019 to 2020 over 50 million adults in the United States experienced mental illness. Their 2023 findings also revealed that there are 350 individuals for every mental health provider, which suggests that there aren’t enough providers to meet the needs of the population. In other words, mental health professionals, like yourself, are in very high demand!
In order to help therapists, psychiatrists, and psychologists manage everything that comes with running a mental health practice, it’s best to hire a virtual assistant. That, combined with utilizing automation tools, can help you scale your business without also experiencing burnout.
5 Ways A Virtual Assistant For Therapists Can Help
The right virtual assistant can help you accommodate the needs of your clients and manage the many back-office tasks that are crucial to keeping a business afloat. By helping you with some of the tasks mentioned below, you won’t have to stress about how you can provide your clients with high-quality services and keep up with clerical functions. Your HIPAA-compliant virtual assistant will make sure it’s handled.
#1 Your VA Can Do Administrative Tasks
Imagine for a second that your virtual assistant for therapists was able the help you with:
- Processing medical insurance claims that are compliant with law requirements
- Updating your practices paperwork
- Assisting with medical record requests
- Completing data entry
- Verifying insurance benefits
- Maintaining financial records/helping with bookkeeping
- Organizing and updating existing patient accounts by obtaining, recording, and updating patient information in the Electronic Health Records system
- Sending invoices
- And more!
#2 Handle Customer Support Tasks
It’s no secret that a lot of businesses drop the ball in the customer service department, but this doesn’t have to be the case for you Your virtual assistant for therapists can:
- Answer/return phone calls
- Send and review emails from leads, clients, etc.
- Work with clients to schedule and coordinate appointments
- Provide resources to clients
- Send new patient paperwork and ensure it’s properly completed
- Provide chat support
- Do follow-up calls to those on a wait-list
- And more!
#3 Provide Social Media Assistance
These days, if you’re not active on social media people will question if your business is still in operation. Therefore, it’s important to post on the platforms where people in your target market may be hanging out, so you can hopefully convert them into paying clients. According to one source, you should spend at least 8 to 10 hours per week marketing, but that’s difficult to do when you’ve got other priorities. In such a situation, you’d want a virtual assistant for therapists to step in and assist with various tasks, such as:
- Creating social media content for various platforms (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.)
- Coming up with captions
- Scheduling posts using scheduling tools
- Monitoring and responding to comments
- Replying to direct messages
- Reviewing analytics to identify how well content is performing
- Identifying keywords and/or hashtags that’ll help you get in front of your target market
- Coming up with different strategies to boost engagement and increase followership
#4 Set up Email Marketing Campaigns/Sequences
Many business owners neglect email marketing because they see it as too tedious and technologically-complicated. Others forego it because they simply don’t understand how powerful it is. However, neither scenario is a good reason to not utilize it to propel your business forward. Email marketing is cost-effective, helps with customer engagement, compels leads to take action, and improves brand awareness. It’s also a great tool to have in your back pocket when social media platforms occasionally go down.
If you hire a virtual assistant for mental health therapists, they can help with the following tasks:
- Creating email marketing campaigns
- Double-checking that the design and layouts of emails are user and mobile-friendly
- Monitoring email performance, and coming up with ways to increase engagement through messaging and design
- Coming up with new content strategies
- Adding leads to an email list
- Segmenting contacts into smaller, targeted groups
#5 Assist With Technical Tasks
For many, handling the technical side of their business is a complete drag. But nonetheless, those tasks still have to get done if you hope to keep up with your competitors. Some of the technical tasks your virtual assistant for mental health therapists could help with include:
- Updating website plugins
- Setting up workflows to maximize efficiency
- Assisting with platform integrations
- Creating landing pages
- Editing audio/video files
- Online course set-up
If you’re spending more time doing paperwork and less time working with patients, then it’s time to hire a virtual assistant for your therapy practice.
Imagine What “More” You Could Do With A Virtual Assistant
You probably could add another service to your practice, such as group therapy. Maybe you’d like to start participating in speaking engagements at schools, workplaces, etc. Or it’s possible you don’t want to do anything work-related at all and would like to spend a little more time per week with your family. These types of things become feasible when you hire a virtual assistant for your therapy practice.
Imagine what things would look and feel like if you were able to focus only on tasks related to helping your patients. Yes, that means not doing the social media, bookkeeping, and all those things you self-taught yourself along the way. Hiring a VA means you can do so much more without you sacrificing even more of your time.
A Testimonial From A Therapist
I had a great experience with Imperative Concierge Services! Jessica and her team were not only professional, but I felt like my needs were met and I had a chance to interview candidates based on my those needs. She and her team were very responsive as well! I cannot stress enough the need for professional, precise assistant services and I definietly found that in Imperative Concierge Services! It has truly helped to grow my business.
Brandi Lewis, M.Ed, LPC from Reach Counseling Solutions, PLLC
Hire a Virtual Assistant For Therapists
If you’ve decided that you’d like to hire a virtual assistant for your therapy practice, then congratulations! We know it can be a little scary to even begin thinking about introducing someone to your private therapy practice. Fortunately, we’re here to make the process as seamless as possible.
Partner with Imperative Concierge Services to hire a virtual assistant for your therapy practice.ย
We know that the key is to hire right and know what to look for. We work with our clients to find out exactly what they need, then we assign them to a virtual assistant who’s experienced, dependable, and knowledgeable. If you’re navigating the hiring waters on your own, it can be overwhelming, but if you partner with a firm that knows what to look for, you can save yourself a lot of time and money.ย
The Benefits of Working With A Virtual Assistant Agency
When you decide to work with a Virtual Assistant agency, you get to enjoy the following benefits:
- Affordability: Our flexible solutions allow you to only pay for the hours you need.
- Flexibility: Whether you need a few hours per week or someone to work unusual hours, we’ve got you covered.
- Wide range of skills: If you need one person to do email marketing and someone else to handle customer support, we can make it happen.
