Emily Cardwell established a new private practice focused on offering her clients safe and secure telehealth and private client-practitioner chat — while reserving enough time to herself to spend quality time with her one-year-old child. Setting up her new practice took less than a week, and she did it all on her own.
Her practice is now growing rapidly, a fact that she attributes to how quickly her patients can feel deep emotional safety in the convenience, security, and usability of the care she offers on Practice Better.
Emily Cardwell is a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) with clients in Ontario, Newfoundland, and Labrador. Under her care, Emily’s clients work to reduce their anxiety and depression, address traumas, boost self-esteem, and increase personal resilience.
Emily’s practice is very new. She recently left a larger telehealth organization to launch her own private telehealth. Her priority is to build a practice that allows her to work part-time — with around 15 sessions each week (with ~20-30 clients) — to balance work with parenting a one-year-old.
Emily needed a platform that would give her and her clients real security, compliance, and ease of use. On Practice Better, she found seamless, low-stress care for her patients.
“When I found Practice Better, I realized there are some great features you have that the other platforms don't, and it’s a great fit for the mental health market. The [client] app itself is a huge feature for sure that the other platforms don't necessarily have. Most of my work is virtual, so having both built-in telehealth and the secure chat feature through the app was a big solution I was seeking.”
Emily Cardwell, Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
Ensuring the security of client data is a top priority for psychotherapy and of primary importance to Emily. Practice Better's HIPAA-compliant platform gives her the confidence to focus on delivering quality care without worrying about data breaches.
Built-in telehealth and secure chat through an easy-to-use client app solve big problems for Emily. There’s often personal health information that clients should not send through email because email doesn't offer compliance and privacy protection. She also valued Practice Better’s record of maintaining high standards for data privacy and user-friendliness, which are both crucial in providing top mental health care.
Since confidence and a seamless client experience are so important to Emily, it’s not surprising that she prioritizes patient ease and convenience when they're using the client app. Finding an EHR that includes a fully featured and robust client app was at the top of her list.
Emily's practice is built on a foundation of making her clients feel fully at ease. The more relaxed, safe, and welcomed the platform can make them feel, the easier it is for her to support and guide them through the psychotherapy process. That comfort the client has in the moment means there’s plenty of space to do deeper work with them, rather than constantly dealing with any anxiety they might feel about using technology or receiving virtual care.
She says that sometimes her clients will come to a session in such a hightened state of distress that if the platform is in any way challenging to use, it’s a big obstacle. Clients don’t need the extra stress if they're already nervous about coming to therapy. When they’re about to explore past trauma and events, the last thing they need to deal with is issues with their screen, trouble logging in, or hassles finding a video link.
Practice Better's simple, intuitive user interface makes the virtual therapy experience as easy as an in-person visit. And this, Emily says, has been a key to success.
Virtual care gives people more access to and more options for care. Telehealth has utterly changed the mental health care landscape, offering patients much greater access and flexibility. Emily says her clients love that they can schedule sessions at a convenient and comforting time and place for them. Some will even do their session on a lunch break and still have 10 minutes to settle back into their work routine.
For Emily, investing in telehealth also meant being able to reach clients in rural areas who might otherwise have limited options for mental health support. They can work with a compatible therapist from anywhere, with the confidence that no matter how small their town is, they won’t run into them in their daily lives.
“If you're coming to me for relationship advice or thoughts of self-harm, there's a good chance that I'm seeing your spouse in the school drop-off, or we're in line next to each other at the grocery store,” she says.
As a parent, what Emily wants more than anything is a sustainable life. She wants to grow her part-time practice while still spending lots of time with her family. Practice Better's comprehensive and easy-to-use platform allowed her to set up her practice quickly and customized to her preferences. It gave her a business in a box, without putting her in a box. She had her whole business set up and running in one week, despite the limited hours she had free at the time, and at a price point that made sense for her practice.
"I was prepared to see my first client. I think that's pretty huge. And I was doing the setup myself, all while balancing family and life. I don't think there are many platforms where you can get all that in a one-stop shop," Emily says.
Emily Cardwell's story shows how easy setting up a secure, compliant, and user-friendly telehealth practice can be with the right EHR. Since signing up with Practice Better, Emily has grown her client base and built a more sustainable practice — one that supports her role as a dedicated psychotherapist and as a mother.
Emily found Practice Better gave her:
To get your practice up and running fast like Emily:
Dreaming of building your own private mental healthcare practice? Find out how quickly you can be up and running by talking to a Practice Better Product Advocate.
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