Best Practices
As Mental Health clinicians we have certain protocol under the standard of care. But do we follow them? Do we skip certain criteria causing us to miss the mark; often relative to the tiniest word or phrase? When it comes to social media and promoting ourselves wouldn’t it be great if there were some tools to refresh our memory! This is where I jump in! I want to highlight tips on dos and don’ts for best practices when we advertise on social media. Here are this issue’s dos and don’ts.
Do: Marriage and Family Therapist Interns: When promoting yourselves online; write your full name, full title, and BBS registration number where it will be visible as well as your supervisor’s full name, title and license number. For example, if you write Bob Joe, MFTI on the top of your website/social media or promotional page, be sure to include the following somewhere on the same page, Bob Joe, Marriage and Family Therapist Registered Intern, IMF #, Supervised by Anita Avedian, LMFT #).
Don’t: Use abbreviations as it is important to write out all acronyms in order to be in compliance with the Board of Behavioral Science guidelines. This would be wrong . . . Bob Joe, MFTI, IMF #. Supervised by Anita Avedian LMFT #.
Do: When seeking referral on social media, it is essential to be discrete and practice appropriate confidentiality protocol. Best practice would be to write: “Seeking CBT therapist for a client struggling with depression.”
Don’t: Share detailed information about your clients Avoid writing “Seeking CBT therapist for 32 year old women, recently divorced, single mom with 2 children.” Less is more and will keep you in practice for a long time!!
It is easy to break rules and difficult to always know the right thing to do with so many guidelines to which we must adhere. The good news is we can refer to BBS website if we need a refresher or come back here for another tip or two in upcoming issues.
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