Marriage & Family Counselor, Greenville NC
Portal Help
Ahh, the client portal. This is the hub of my therapy practice- and my office assistant. Because my practice is divided into the therapy division and the education division, the client portal allows me to keep everything separate.
When I am running short on time, I don’t check my business email account or phone calls- I will check the client portal to any messages from clients. This allows me to better respond to everyone.
True Confessions: Just because I’m a therapist, it doesn’t mean I’m immune to the pitfalls we all face in life. When I get backed up, too busy, or just fatigued- I do get VERY behind on messages, text messages, voice mails, and emails. So I prioritize communication in the portal with my therapy clients over over places when that happens.
To help you out, I’ve created videos and tips to help you navigate the portal. Click on the question below, and a section will open up with that information.
An Overview of the Outer Area of the Client Portal
If I’m going to be out of the office at all, I’ll update it there for you to see on the “outside” of the client portal” (I wish there was a way for it to show up inside on the calendar to make life easier).
Here on the therapy site (TammyWhitten.com), you will always see a link to the client portal in the menu. It may say something like “Schedule,” “Portal,” “Client Portal,” or “Access Portal.”
You can always go directly to www.TammyWhitten.com/schedule.
- On your phone, go to tammywhitten.com/schedule to access the client portal.
- Click “Login” from the drop-down menu in the top-left corner.
- Enter your name and password if it’s not already saved and click “Log In.”
You can click to schedule a new appointment as soon as you log in the portal, or you can click on “calendar.”
I usually have the portal set to only allow clients to schedule up to 21 days in advance. I’ve found that appointments schedule a month out are usually forgotten about and people don’t come.
If you log in and don’t see any openings on the calendar, it’s because:
Special Note: During the COVID-19 pandemic, I have adjusted the same-day scheduling option. Sessions can be made up to 4 hours in advance (but only if I have an opening). When we are able to meet in the office again, sessions will need to be scheduled 24 hours in advance.
My calendar can fill up fast, and I will get messages asking if there are any openings. The calendar will always show what’s open. If you aren’t finding a time slot open, try choose a different session length to see if there are any openings for that length of time, add yourself to the wait list.
- Log in the portal.
- Click on “Calendar.”
- If you aren’t finding a time open that fits your needs, click on “Wait List.”
- Under “Session Type” choose phone, video, or office.
- Under “Session Length” choose 15, 30, 45, or 60 minutes.
- Under “Length of Time to Be Kept on the Wait List” decide if you want to get notifications of openings for 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 1 month, or up to 6 months. (Keep in mind, you could get these emails almost daily as changes come open.
- You’ll get an email if someone cancels or a new time slot opens up. Just know- it’s first come, first serve to everyone on the wait list for that session type and length.
The most important thing to remember about cancelling an appointment is to make sure you click twice! You will click to cancel the appointment, and then it will ask you to confirm that you want to cancel.
If you click “cancel” and then close the tab, you will not complete the cancellation process, and you will still have an appointment scheduled.
Step 1
Log in to the client portal. From the homescreen in the client portal, you can see any upcoming sessions you have, including this video session.
Click on the session to open up the session details window.
To start your video session, click on the button at the bottom at says, “Start Video Session.”
Step 2
When you click to start the session, the portal checks the download stream speed. It will stay on this screen for a moment, but it’s not locked up. It does this before every session.
Click “Continue.”
Step 3
You will hear a “ding” when anyone arrives in the online session.
The video showing you will be small in the bottom corner. The person you are talking with will appear larger on the screen, once they arrive.
If there are video or sound issues, there is a reload button at the bottom of the screen, and a settings button where you can adjust the streaming quality.
I will sometimes get a message from a client asking why an invoice isn’t showing as paid, even though they clicked to pay it.
If your balance is showing as “0” then the payment hasn’t been assigned to a specific invoice. Either one of us can assign a payment to an invoice.
If you have a balance showing, then it may be that you are paid up for every session we have had so far, and you are seeing what is due to the next scheduled session. (Or maybe we’re behind on payments.)
If you need a copy of your invoice for any reason this is where you can find those inside the client portal.
If you are submitting your invoices to your insurance company for reimbursement, you will need to send in your invoices to them. They need certain codes, and when you download the invoices, they look a bit differently than what you see inside the portal. That has what the insurance company needs to process your payment.
Before sending in your invoice to them, there is one code that I have to fill in after we have met- a diagnosis code. If it’s not showing up, please send me a message in the system and I will add that in for you. This will save it from being rejected for payment by your insurance company.
NOTE: Federal Insurance programs, such as Medicare and military programs will not reimburse for sessions at this time. A law was passed in December 2022 that changes this, and it goes into effect in January 2024.
Not every session will have a note, but in the event I tell you during session that I’m sending you a note, this is where you’ll find it. These notes are connected to the things we discuss, and I will often send you links to videos on YouTube or reminders of things to try before our next session.
Due to the amount of spam calls I have received (and some of them have been scary), in order to preserve privacy and to prevent someone from masking as your number when texting or calling (yes, I’ve had imposters call and even mask as someone else’s legit number), I only answer phone calls by appointment.
I try to keep as much communication inside the client portal as possible. (This also attempts to keep me from feeling like I’m on-call 24/7.)
Outside of running late to an appointment, or needing to cancel your session on the same day, sending a message inside the portal is the best way to reach me.
Depending on what we’re working on, I may have some extra resources that I share with my clients. If so, I’ll change a setting on my end of the client portal, and you’ll get access to a folder under the “Files” tab.
There, you will see all kinds of things that may be of help to you outside of our sessions together.
Journaling is one of my favorite ways to reduce the tension that builds up when my emotions are growing bigger by the minute.
In case you’d like to try journaling, or you would like to write some things out but make sure that NO ONE else has access to them, the client portal has a journal area. What you write in there is private. No one can see it at all, unless you click a button and decide to share an entry with me.
There is no pressure to journal- and no pressure to share your entries with me. I try my best to read all of your entries before our next appointment, but I’m not always able to do so. So if you mention something that you wrote and my eyes go up…that’s why.
Please note: NO ONE has access to what you write in your journal entries, with the only exception being if you choose to share them with me. Not even the software company who keeps the portal locked down and secure can access your records or your journal entries!