Whiteboard Telehealth Guide
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This whiteboard telehealth guide provides an overview of everything you need to know about using whiteboard templates for online therapy, including step-by-step instructions on how to get started.
As a wellness practitioner or behavioral health therapist in private practice, you likely know that telehealth is an increasingly popular way to provide services. Not only is it more convenient—for both therapists and clients —it can also reduce the cost of running your practice.
Additionally, with the advancement of telehealth platforms and technologies, you can now use your electronic health record (EHR) software to provide what’s called “whiteboarding” during telehealth appointments.
Read on for our whiteboard telehealth guide and whiteboard templates.
Benefits of using a whiteboard for telehealth therapy
For those unfamiliar with using a whiteboard for therapy, the term simply means using a whiteboard template—like a digital version of a whiteboard—to provide psychoeducation, illustrate an intervention, and even provide play therapy.
There are various benefits to using this virtual tool, including:
Promotes interaction
An interactive whiteboard for telehealth can facilitate an interactive dynamic between the client and therapist. This is particularly important to capture the attention and maintain the focus of younger clients or neurodivergent clients.
Enhances communication
Whiteboard templates allow clients to visualize an intervention or concept. In traditional talk therapy, therapists use narratives to explain an idea. However, some clients are visual learners, and the whiteboard can assist that process by communicating visually.
Improves engagement
A whiteboard can assist clinicians in overcoming the virtual barrier of staring at a screen. Interactive tools can help increase engagement because it promotes interaction in a different and more sustainable way, since clients must participate.
Encourages collaboration
Whiteboards can be used to create collaborative treatment plans or observe clients in a new way. For example, a neurodivergent individual may map out their feelings on a whiteboard during the session, and the clinician can better comprehend what their client is feeling and thinking.
Increased accessibility
Importantly, therapists don’t need to be a technology expert or graphic designer to use a whiteboard tool. Most telehealth platforms have this technology built in, making it easier for clinicians to navigate these tools and improve client engagement.
Activities for whiteboarding during telehealth appointments
There are several whiteboard templates available to illustrate concepts to clients, including:
- Mind mapping: Ask your client to map out their thoughts, feelings, and emotions on the whiteboard to gain insight into how these are connected. For example, you could ask them to draw or write mental health in the middle of the whiteboard and draw a line to a word they associate with mental health, then repeat. You can then explore ways to achieve those elements.
- Emotions wheel: Using the wheel, ask the client to work from the inner circles outwards to gain better insight into identifying their emotions.
- Triggers and coping skills worksheets: Using a table with two columns, list triggers on one side and coping strategies on the other.
- Share resources: You can share your screen to collaborate on a treatment goal, refer to a resource, or visualize a concept.
- Symptom checker: Using an image of a body, you could ask the client to identify where they feel certain emotions.
- Trauma tree: You could use the narrative therapy tool for the tree of life to help a client share their life story.
SimplePractice whiteboard telehealth guide
Using the SimplePractice virtual whiteboard can help you with the following:
- Collaborate with ease: Share resources, work together, and collaborate with your clients in real time.
- Streamline your virtual care: The whiteboard is completely integrated with telehealth—no new software or logins needed.
- Stay in control: You get to choose where your clients can add to the whiteboard, or if you’re the only editor.
- Save your work: Save the contents of your whiteboard at any time as an image file to refer back to later.
How to get started
To get started with whiteboarding, follow these easy steps from the whiteboard telehealth guide:
- Begin your telehealth appointment as usual.
- Once you and your client are ready, click the share button at the bottom of your screen. If using SimplePractice,select Whiteboard.
- The whiteboard may be locked by default, meaning only you can edit it and the client cannot make any changes. If you want to collaborate with your clients during the session, click the Locked button in the upper left corner to give them editing access. You can lock or unlock a whiteboard more than once in each session.
- Your client may want to take a copy to refer to, in which case you can click the Save button to send them a downloaded version via your EHR documentation sharing function.
- Save your work at any time. If you try to end the session without saving, you’ll be prompted to save your work one last time. Save as an image file to your computer, then upload it back to your EHR if you’d like to save it in the client’s file, or share it with them.
How the SimplePractice whiteboard works
- Use the pencil to draw and write on the whiteboard. Choose your color.
- Insert a text box or enter text. Choose your font size and color.
- Select an image or drawing. Move or delete whatever you’ve selected.
- Select an image file from your computer and upload it to the whiteboard.
- Use the Shapes tool to insert six different shapes to the whiteboard.
- Using the Stickers tool, users can add nine different stickers to the whiteboard.
- Use the Vanishing pen tool to quickly highlight an area on the whiteboard.
Download the free whiteboard telehealth guide so you can have all the steps and tools in one convenient sheet to help you increase client engagement.
How SimplePractice streamlines running your practice
SimplePractice is HIPAA-compliant practice management software with everything you need to run your practice built into the platform—from booking and scheduling to insurance and client billing.
If you’ve been considering switching to an EHR system, SimplePractice empowers you to streamline appointment bookings, reminders, and rescheduling and simplify the billing and coding process—so you get more time for the things that matter most to you.
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