Questions Companies Can Ask When Looking to Partner with Local Mental Health Practices to Support Their Employees’ Wellbeing
If you’re a Maryland-based company who is looking to collaborate with local mental health practices in order to support your employees’ mental health, we’re here to make your search just a little bit easier. As a mental health therapy practice located in the Greater Baltimore area, these are the questions we would recommend you ask to collaborate with local mental health practices who are going to be a good fit for your employees’ mental health needs.
In general, we recommend that you look specifically for group counseling practices that have good reputations in the community. The reason we recommend that you collaborate with local group practices in particular is that solo practices (i.e. those owned and operated by one therapist alone) are going to have limited capacity. They are only able to see so many people in a given week and their caseloads can quickly fill up. Group practices will have a larger number of therapists available which means that your employees will have more therapists, more scheduling options, and more skill sets to choose from. These practices are more likely to have openings than a solo private practitioner.
These are the most important questions we would recommend you asking to find local counseling practices that will be a good fit for your employees.
Questions to ask when trying to find a local counseling practice for your employees:
Our company provides employees with health insurance from (insert name of insurance copany). Are you in-network with this health insurance? What other health plans do you accept?
What populations do you work with? Get information on age ranges and issues therapists at this practice treat. If employees tend to experience certain challenges in your workplace (ex. High levels of stress, exposure to dangerous situations on the job, grief and loss) be sure to ask if therapists at that office have experience in those areas.
What kind of therapy do you provide? (individual, family, group, couples, etc.)
Do you provide telehealth, in-person therapy, or both? If in-person therapy is provided, get the location to see if it is conveniently located near your office. If not, that doesn’t mean this practice won’t be a fit, it just means that this might be a better location for telehealth.
How quickly can new clients get an appointment with you?
What is the process of starting therapy at your office? This is important because you’ll want to communicate this process to any employees that you refer to this practice.
Here are some bonus questions you can ask IF these are of interest to your company:
Would your office be open to having a therapist work on-site at our company X number of days per week?
Would your office be open to contracting with our company to prioritize providing therapy to our employees and/or providing other wellness services like workshops to our company?
Be sure to keep these responses in one place, so you can create an amazing list of Maryland-based mental health referrals for your employees. Before compiling your final list, however, be sure to review the responses you received to see which practices meet your employees’ needs. Include only those practices that have met your criteria on your final referral list.
Based on our experience talking to clients, we feel pretty confident that you’ll be making some observations as you reach out to different practices. For that reason, we’ve also created a blog about paying attention to your observations when reaching out to mental health therapists to work with your employees.
If you are not a Maryland-based company, but you are reading this blog for your employees, here is one important tip just for you! Be sure to look for mental health counseling practices in your state. Counselors and social workers are licensed in their state to provide therapy services in that state ONLY. If you are not in Maryland, you’ll need to look for practices that are based in your state. And, even if our office is unable to provide your employees with therapy services, we’d love to be able to support you with a Wellness, Leadership, or Team-Building Retreat for your employees. We’ve got one coming up this April 2024 in Costa Rica! And, we’ve also created a Starting Therapy mini podcast series that you can share with your team too! It answers the most commonly asked questions that we receive, so your employees will find it valuable, even if they cannot receive services at our office.
Workplace Wellness Programs
LifeSpring Counseling Services offers Workplace Wellness Services that include educational workshops, experiential workshops, and retreats. If you believe that your workplace could benefit from these services, you can 1. share this information with your supervisor or company CEO, or 2. if you are the person in charge, just fill out this form.
Think we can help?
If you are a Maryland-based company who is looking to support your employees’ mental health, we invite you to check out our Corporate Wellness Services, our General Counseling Services for Children and Adults. Regardless of where you are located in Maryland, we are able to provide telehealth services in Maryland. If you are looking to collaborate with our office in a more official way, please feel free to contact Melissa Wesner, LCPC at melissa@lifespringcounseling.net. Know that you can also share our mini podcast series called Starting Therapy with your employees as well. It answers the most commonly asked questions that we receive here at LifeSpring Counseling Services.
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Observations to Make Note of When Trying to Collaborate with Local Mental Health Practices
The Unseen Mental Health Struggles Faced by Nurses Working in Healthcare
How Doctors’ Offices Can Prioritize Patients’ Mental Health and Wellness
Alternatives to Medications for Anxiety and Depression
Stress: Effects on Your Personal Life, Mental Wellbeing, and Physical Health
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Interested in Counseling for Burnout or Compassion Fatigue?
If you’re a Marylander who knows that counseling is the direction you need to take, the therapists at LifeSpring Counseling Services are here to help. We offer online counseling services for mindfulness, depression, anxiety, trauma, and grief and loss. We also offer Brainspotting as a specialized service, and Brainspotting can be done online, too!
Here’s how you can get started! Online and in-person counseling for burnout and compassion fatigue aren’t the only services offered at our Monkton, MD office.
The counselors and social workers at our Maryland office also offer counseling services for trauma, grief and loss, boundary setting, communication skills, and difficult life transitions. We also offer specialized counseling services including Brainspotting and spiritually-integrated counseling. Because we are located next to several local universities, we also work with college students and international students.
