When you’re the CEO of a growing mental health practice, “doing it all” might feel like the only way to keep things running smoothly. But here’s the truth: being everything to everyone isn’t just unsustainable—it’s expensive, exhausting, and ultimately counterproductive.

Let’s break down the hidden costs of “doing it all” and, more importantly, how to reclaim your time, energy, and peace of mind.

We are thrilled to announce that our entire team of virtual assistants are now Certified Mental Health Professionals (CMHPs) here at Move Forward Virtual Assistants.

We’re the first in the industry to create and execute this certification process for our Mental Health Virtual Assistants.

When you think of a well-oiled mental health practice, what comes to mind? Compassionate clinicians, effective therapy, and a smoothly running admin team, right? But there’s another crucial piece of the puzzle that often gets overlooked—the power of a personal touch when clients call in. That’s where a mental health-specific, Live Call Service can make all the difference!

This was our first full week in the TheraThrive community with our founding members - and it was a GREAT week! If you saw us promoting TheraThrive but weren’t sure if it was for you, maybe this recap will help you decide!

• The week started out with everyone providing a brief introduction of themselves.

• During the week one member posted a question about strategies for subletting office space, that opened up a conversation with a few members sharing advice and personal experiences for different scenarios.

For many mental health professionals, the transition from therapist to business owner can be challenging. Navigating marketing strategies, managing finances, handling administrative tasks, and fostering growth require a different skill set—one that isn't typically covered in your clinical education. This is where the power of community comes into play.

Let me guess, your therapy practice has expanded and your current EHR is no longer satisfying the current needs of your evolving group practice. This is a growing pain for many practice owners and one that comes with some disruption if you decide to switch EHRs.

Our number one goal here at MFVA is to provide stellar administrative support for mental health practices so that clinicians can spend more of their time doing other things, like seeing patients, taking time off, or learning new skills.

To achieve that goal, we are always asking for feedback from our clients AND our virtual assistants who support them. One of our favorite questions is, “What kinds of tools or systems could improve your administrative processes or experiences?”

Being the CEO of your practice can be overwhelming without having strong coping strategies in place. So, in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, and our own “I Put the ME in MEntal Health” Campaign, we thought we would share some of our favorite unofficial rules and coping strategies we’ve developed to avoid burnout and excess stress.

May is Mental Health Awareness month - although for everyone at Move Forward and our clients, every month is really mental health awareness month.

Which is why this year (as it was last year) it was already May 8th when our Director of Team Experience Becca Marcus said “We need to do something for Mental Health Awareness month!…

According to the 2023 Therapist Well-Being Report, a staggering 52% of therapists are battling burnout. When you add in the additional stress of being a clinician and a practice owner, we can assume burnout is even more common. Although running a mental health practice can be a rewarding endeavor, it's not without its challenges.

We are so excited to announce our newest strategic partnership with….(drum roll please…) Dock Health- the healthcare industry’s only foundationally HIPAA-compliant task-management and workflow automation platform.

When you own a growing private practice, managing your communication channels and scheduling needs quickly becomes a daily stressor. Is it time you hire a mental health VA? Learn the 7 reasons why you need a virtual scheduling assistant!

There is so much technology available these days to make running a business easier and more productive. At Move Forward Virtual Assistants we understand you are busy running your therapy, counseling, or medical practice, so we have decided to share some of our favorite apps with you.

We know you are busy running your therapy office so we decided to highlight some of the helpful software we love.

Do you love owning your own therapy business? Or, do you feel overwhelmed, like you are missing the good parts of practicing therapy by getting lost in the cumbersome day-to-day tasks? Do you have help?

Simple Practice is a state-of-the-art and user friendly EHR system that combines and simplifies the document customization, scheduling, and billing process.

Therapy Notes is one of the Electronic Health Records systems utilized by our Virtual Assistants here at Move Forward. Not only is this system easy to use, our Virtual Assistants collectively agree that Therapy Notes provides a visually appealing and organized way to navigate patient information.

EHR software programs provide streamlined billing and tracking, handle sole or multiple provider scheduling, allows providers to simply document patient charts, provides access to patient portals where patients are also able to receive documents to sign from your practice, exceptional patient record security that is HIPAA compliant, and are easily accessible for providers and staff.

COVID-19 has led to the rise of telemedicine, and current trends indicate that the service will not go away when the pandemic finally ends. Much like work-from-home options are making employees rethink the cubicle, telemedicine is making patients rethink the trip to the medical center.

Credentialing is the first process in getting paid by insurance companies. A new practice has to prove that the providers are who they say they are. It is what allows you to be considered “in-network” or “participating.” Then, the practice signs a contract with the insurance company, making sure that the provider gets paid for their services.

News agencies are calling the current work climate “The Great Resignation.” Workers at all levels are leaving their existing jobs, creating what has been alternately called “a worker shortage” or “a worker revolt,” depending on who you talk to. But is there a way to keep your private practice employees from packing up a banker’s box and heading for the door?

Finding a phone system that works with a busy mental health practice is difficult enough, but making sure the practice maintains HIPAA compliance adds another level of difficulty. Fortunately, there are programs that are already HIPAA compliant, and some workarounds that keep a practice compliant even if the phone system is not advertised as HIPAA compliant.

This blog will discuss the positives of 10 popular VoIP phone systems used by the mental health therapy practices who have worked with Move Forward Virtual Assistants. The versatility of VoIP means that a busy therapy practice can contract a mental health virtual assistant using any of the following products, so no practice is locked into what the other practices are using. If one practice prefers RingCentral, for example, there is nothing stopping another from using Vonage.

We will be spending a few blogs looking at the different types of phone systems a busy mental health practice could use. But before we dive into the phone options and the pros and cons, we have to define a few terms. For those of us who still fondly remember our rotary dial phones, the new phone world is lightyears away from what we grew up with.

When a group has a day, week, or month dedicated to them, that is usually a signal that they need recognition more frequently than they get it. Holidays are designed to make us stop and reflect, set aside time in our busy schedule for looking back, looking forward, or looking inward. That kind of reflection should lead to thankfulness. That’s why April 21 reminds us that we should periodically thank the people who help us keep our business running.

For a mental health practice, adding therapists and new clients can create a large amount of stress, leading practice managers to work later and later, doing tasks that would normally be handled during the day but had to wait for more urgent tasks. Even figuring out how much of a day is spent working on specific duties can be difficult. Combining a fast-growing practice, additional need for mental health services and only 24 hours in a day, the strain on a private practice can be intense.

If you have been feeling overwhelmed by your social media marketing, then you are going to love this. I am going to give you permission to not be on all the social media platforms. Unless you employ a large marketing team, it is not possible to be active on all the platforms that exist now and still do a good job of it.

While a mental health virtual assistant may be used to working from home, more and more people are finding themselves converting the spare bedroom into a home office. Fortunately, people have learned a thing or two about working from home.

Beyond the obvious goal of scheduling, my goal is to make the person feel HEARD. In this fast-paced world with so many distractions, my job is to make the caller feel like for these few minutes, that they are the most important person in my day and that I have all the time in the world for them.

As a mental health virtual assistant, I need to get out of my own way, learn not to take things so personally, and continue to extend compassion, knowing that I did everything I could to make it a pleasant interaction, but sometimes, that’s just not enough, but that’s okay; I still care. I understand that people have bad days, but that doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. I’ll still be kind. And I hope that kindness will make a difference to ease some of the difficult situations you’re going through.

An established mental health virtual assistant will most likely come with the tools they need to get started. They will have the experience, knowledge, programs, and equipment to hit the ground running saving you even more time. Using a virtual assistant to develop successful time management skills can be a benefit to any growing practice.

She explained that so many therapists are used to wearing so many hats and doing it all themselves, but as a therapist, not only is it okay to delegate your tasks, it’s necessary to allow yourself to continue putting the majority of your attention on what you have trained for—helping others.

Mental health private practice owners are busy. What are the tasks that are draining your time and energy and keeping you from doing what you “signed up for” in the first place—helping people? A virtual assistant lets YOU help THEM better by taking the nitty-gritty day-in-and-day-out tasks off your plate.