Working as a private practice counselor from the road

[Chenopod]

I am in private practice inNew Mexico and want to work remotely from the road.  Does anyone have experience or advice in this area?”

 

[RvDreams]

Welcome Chenopod to the CRVL forums! To help you learn the ins and outs of these forums, this "Tips, Tricks and Rules" post lists some helpful information to get you started.

Most of our rules boil down to two simple over-riding principles: 1) What you post should provide good information (like your introductory post), and 2) Any response to someone else's post should make them feel glad they are part of this forum community.

We look forward to hearing more from you.

 

[nature lover]

Welcome to the forum. I don’t know much about your business and how you would do it remote but I sure know we have a wide customer base here on the form that need counseling. me first

 

[RoamerRV428]

ASK every client you have to go virtual and ON the road with you IF they like ya enough to even bother going there over the internet and paying you for your experience! IF YOU can get alot of those private clients to 'go with you' money in the bank literally from the get go.

Other than that if you become a cyber therapist, there are tons and tons out there so that will be a bit of marketing and more now in being against the 'tons and tons' already on the net.

I would chat up my client list NOW and bring them with me thru Zoom or camera or whatever it is online LOL and start there.

best of luck

 

[maki2]

You sign up with an agency that has a website. They post the profiles of the counselors who are handled by that agency. The agency will tell you what the rules are. Of course they take a percentage of the income. But that way you do get referrals to new clients. You need more than one cell service provider so you can have reliable connections. Setting regular office hours needs to be done. If you move to another location you do it on your day off.

I can't advise you on the licensing requirements. That would be in the range of giving someone legal advise and I am not licensed to do that  ; )

 

[gizmotron]

This is interesting. So earnings while in another state than your resident state. So is that the state that the client is in or the state that you are in?

I have an unmentionable activity that makes me money, and it is not a 70 year old male jiggalo. I can declare as a professional but then need to pay all business taxes of federal earnings along with income tax. But if I just stay a recreational status I just pay income tax. But that gets to these states that have no income taxes. If my residential state has income tax then it gets to be a bookkeeping nightmare.

If a state does not have income tax then I have to pay the tax in my residential state that I earned in the non tax state. If that state does have tax then I must file in that state so that my residential state won't tax me for it. So I typically do these non business activities between Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, Idaho, and Washington. So I must file in California, Oregon, Arizona, and Idaho. What a pain in the neck. Now I'm attempting online out of Canada. That comes in thru BitCoin. It's processed with PayPal. So they report to the feds yearly withdrawals. So that means I just pay in my residential state and the red tape almost all goes away. If they would only make this easier. Fat chance of that.

 

[jacqueg]

I am in private practice inNew Mexico and want to work remotely from the road.  Does anyone have experience or advice in this area?”

Seems like this would depend a lot on which state you are a resident of and what their rules are for governing your practice. First thing I would do is call your state, and have a long chat with whomever. State it just as you did here - "I'm thinking of doing this, and was wondering what rules/regs would apply." Then listen hard.

The only other thing I would say is that if you are planning on staying on federal lands, DO NOT advertise your business with decals on your vehicle, local signs or local notices. If you are making money on federal land, they will want a cut of it (depending on how much you make). Now plenty of nomads do engage in hobby businesses/private practices, etc., while they are on staying on federal lands, but they DON'T ADVERTISE.

 

[RvDreams]

I deleted a whole bunch of posts. Play nice people. If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.

Back on topic

 

[eDJ_]

There has been discussion of this in this thread in (Off-Topic & chit chat)   "Education & Skills needed to work from your rig".   You are welcome to ask questions and add information in it.  The thread was started because so many from such divergent back grounds were wondering, "How do I do it" ?

Education & Skills needed to work from your rig

 

[Morgana]

Sounds like something you should also review with your professional organization, to make sure you've got all ethical and best-practice bases covered. I imagine these would include privacy (including security of your internet and phone connections), reliability / reachability, and always being able to provide a pleasant and non-distracting environment ... also finding a new placement for any current clients who don't want to go along with the new arrangement.

A few years ago, I had to get my freelance business compliant with the (then-)new European data-privacy law (GDPR). In my case it was simple because I rarely handle confidential information, but it was still a lot of work. The US is probably less strict on some of this stuff, but the counseling field is probably more strict than most.

From what I've read, online counseling has become much more popular since COVID. I'm sure the professional orgs have worked out standards on how to do it. I don't imagine the privacy/reliability aspect will be cheap; this is not something you can do over public wifi. Good luck!

PS I didn't see the now-removed posts; hope I haven't hit a sore spot.

 

[GotSmart]

My diabetes doctor offered me a on line session, but I have to be in the state of Tennessee for that   

Research. The laws are strange.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Professionally you have already been given good advice:
- talk with your professional organizations,
- sound out your current clients.

Technically, for the resources you need to get and stay connected to the internet, the best one I know of is the Mobile Internet Resource Center:
https://www.rvmobileinternet.com

 

[maki2]

The original poster made one visit to the forum, stayed online in the forum for a half hour. Has not returned.

If you are trying to offer advice to that person regarding their question they are apparently not seeing what you post in this thread.