Why Teletherapy Isn’t Optional Anymore (And How to Make It Work for You)

What's up, guys? Welcome to Pelibiz Podcast. I'm your host, Kelly Alhoey. Today we have a new set. Super exciting. We are elevating Pelby Biz Podcast. And for those that are listening, stay tuned because we're going to be talking about teletherapy today. For those that are viewing on YouTube, welcome to our new set. So. So we are super excited about it and let's get into today's episode. So. All right, so we're going to start talking about how to start a teletherapy business. Many people have been asking and I want you guys to really start thinking during this episode. So I'm going to ask you a question first to start out the episode. So I'm going to ask yourself why you want to start it. And I've talked to many of you guys throughout the years and I've gotten these responses. Number one, because it just seems easier. Number two, less money. Number three, less time. Number four, I hate just being stuck in one location and I want to travel. These are the top four reasons why I hear people want to start a teletherapy practice. And they're all very valid and I absolutely love them because some of them are true. Meaning that it is easier depending on how you look at it. Some people would say it's harder because they can't use their hands. It is location independent, meaning you could be at the beach doing a pod, not a podcast. You can do being at the beach and you could do teletherapy session and a podcast and. And you could also be at your home doing that as well. So it is location dependent, which I do. Like for those people maybe that have military spouses or for those people that are like, hey, I don't know if I'm a hundred percent gonna be in this area. So I think that's huge for teletherapy. Now here's the next question I want you to ask yourself. Do patients of yours want this? I think this is the big question because sometimes we have this technology, but technology sometimes doesn't equate for what's happening also in business land. And so I do believe most patients want convenience, and convenience will only increase from what they want it now to what it's going to be. Okay. However, I still believe that there's beliefs out there for from the patient side that teletherapy won't do anything for them because most of us therapists haven't even promoted it. So the second they say it, we say it. They're like, nope, I don't want to do that. I don't know what that is. It doesn't seem beneficial. And they really haven't heard about it. They're like, well, why would I pay for that? That just doesn't seem like it'd be worth my time. So instead I want to come into the office. And so I think there's a couple things here. Number one, you must pull your audience to see what they want. Recently, I would say we pulled orthopelvic about two months ago and I asked patients do they want to do their exercises in the office or at home. And we had over, I think, 200 replies. And, and at least 63% of them said that they want to do exercises at home. I found it kind of astonishing because I would think that they want to do it in the office so that we can see them, you know, adjust them, all the different things, but they wanted to do it at home. So it really had me thinking that patients, I believe from me studying them, believe that they want to do exercises at home, but want to come in for manual. So then I went a step further and was like, well, chiropractors, that's kind of what happens there. They do their 15 minute adjustment and then they go home and they tell them, hey, maybe try these exercises, because they're not rehab specialists, right? So it really had me thinking of what does the future look like? You, is this going to be the future? And I really do believe teletherapy will be the future, 100%. I do believe that because people want convenience. I also believe people are still going to want to be touched. Point blank, period. They're going to want to be touched. So I don't think 100% a brick and mortar practice is going away, but I do believe if you're not on this now, you will be left behind. Meaning you have to keep up with trying to put your services in someone's pocket from their house. And if you aren't doing this then I think you're missing the boat. And I believe teletherapy is a way that you can put your services in someone's home very easily. And so, however, I do believe that you have to start prepping patients now, when we've been prepping patients since 2020, when teletherapy really came out and we incorporate it throughout their entire plan of care. So what we say is at least two sessions must be done through teletherapy so that we can continue to get the results. Because I know they're at least going to have one to two cancellations throughout their entire plan of care. So I'm going to negate that by doing teletherapy. And I'm also going to show them why teletherapy is really important to do in their home. So it's not a staged environment, and it also saves them time. So those things are really, really important to get the person more compliant, to see that they can do it, to give them confidence and be ready and willing to make the progress when needed. No matter what happens in their life, no matter if their kid's sick, no matter if, you know, their dog goes to the hospital, whatever it may be, they're still able to take care of themselves. That's the convenience part. And I really believe people want that and are going to want more of it because that's just the way we're going. And so I always try to recognize patterns that I see. And that's a big pattern that I am seeing now. Here's the next thing. Teletherapy. You have to ask yourself this question. Do you know how to coach? Do you know how to coach versus being a therapist? So do you know how to coach versus being a therapist? That's huge. I believe most people and therapists are scared of teletherapy because no one taught us actually how to coach. They taught us how to do therapy. Therapy, in my definition, means that we are physically touching someone, using our hands to be able to get them the result that we're looking for. That's what they taught us in school. What they didn't teach us in school was how to actually coach people. And they don't teach you this in any Con Ed class. And I'll say it again, I know I said this again, but I will say it again, because they, for Con Ed, they teach you how to place your thumbs on the sacrum bone. Okay, and what manipulation technique you're going to do, what soft tissue mobilization you're going to do. But what they don't teach you after the Con Ed class is how to communicate that to the patient and tell them why it is beneficial to them to be able to come see you and. And what your expertise is. They just teach you the technique. This is where we have lost every single person. This is why chiropractors do a lot better than we do. And people know what a chiropractor does. People don't know what a physical therapy person does or an occupational therapist does because we don't know how to communicate what we do. We don't we do not know how to communicate that. So you could have every certification underneath the sun, but unless you're able to communicate that AKA market it to the public, then people aren't going to know that you can help them. And I'm not talking about marketing. I'm dry needling certified. I'm cupping certified. I'm, you know, Maitland certified. Wcs. Like, people don't even care about that because they don't even know. They don't know. What they do care about is if you can communicate that they're here and that you're going to get them here and that you can actually solve the problem and that you've helped solve many other people's problems, that's what they actually care about. They don't care how many con ed courses you've had. They just want to know that you're the person that is going to solve their problem. And so this goes back to coaching. You have to know the right questions to ask to then get the response of what you're looking for to then solve the problem. So many therapists have a difficult time understanding what they need to be asking the patient to get the outcomes that they are looking for. So let me try to give you an example. I was treating a guy with erectile dysfunction over teletherapy, and I treated him throughout the entire plan of care. And people are like, how are you treating erectile dysfunction when you're not even touching any of the tissue? Well, I had to dive deep. I had to coach him. I had to figure out what the actual problem was. And make a long story short, the problem was that he was a mechanic. He was very stressed out at work, and he couldn't focus on his wife when they were trying to be intimate because he was so freaking stressed out at work. So as sessions went on, it took us about four sessions to really get to the deeper root of the issue, because I didn't know if it was truly a heart issue. I didn't know if it was a blood flow issue. I didn't know if it had another medical issue I didn't know about. I didn't know if it was stress. I didn't know if he wasn't into his partner. I didn't know if he was fantasizing about someone else. I didn't like all this stuff you have to unpack. So how I unpack that is by a series of questions, asking him and digging, you know, what's the reason, what's the why? When did this start? You know, when did this really, come on, why can't you have an erection? Can you hold an erection? You know, what does turn you on? What doesn't turn you on? You know, and he was really into his wife. He was really, really into his wife. So I knew that that wasn't it. And we would give him certain exercises to focus on. And it wasn't exercises like stretch your pelvic floor out. It was connecting and down training exercises to help him and his wife just be able to connect again. And after seven sessions, he was able to have an erection, hold the erection, be intimate with his partner, and be able to, like, actually enjoy it. And he got his sex life back, and it was life changing for him. And so we continued on through the plan of care. I think we did 12 sessions total to make sure that he continued to have erections without difficulty. And he understood what to do in his lifestyle to help calm things down. So we had him. We were coaching him on how to organize his day and how to go for walks during the day. We were coaching him on how to belly breathe after he put on a tire. We were coaching him through how to incorporate stretching because. Because it was a mechanic, he had to be in, like, in all these awkward, weird positions. So after, you know, him doing that, we coached him on how to actually do these stretches while he was doing, like, changing parts out. So all of that stuff made a big difference. On. It's just a buildup throughout the day, right, of getting him to feel comfortable, not so stressed out, and getting his mind able to focus on him and his wife during the time that they want to be intimate so that he can have an erection, feel confident in himself, and get kind of his mojo back. That's kind of what he was lacking, and it was just really, really impactful. And I think most people would say there's no way you can treat erectile dysfunction through teletherapy. And I would say, yes, there is. And we've even created diagnosis charts, AKA protocols, for every single pelvic health condition, week by week. What that looks like what you're going to add through teletherapy. And we're really, you know, excited about it. We've had them for years. We've just kept perfecting them, and they really do work. And it tells you, you know, what questions to ask, it tells you each week what to do, how to make the session different. Um, it really walks you through to build up the confidence, how you evaluate the pelvic floor through a camera lens rather than you having to touch Them that's really important. I think most therapists lack on that. They're like, how would you know someone's pelvic floor is tight? Well, there's so many different ways that I could coach you through of how, what that looks like and how to get people to do that. I would say with teletherapy models are huge. You need different models to make sure patients truly understand what their parts look like, what things should be happening down there. And in different props, they really need to see different props so they truly understand what things look like. And no, I do not have them pull down their pants during teletherapy. They never show their private parts over the camera. It is done either after the session or during with like clothes on. So just be mindful of that as well. So yeah, but I think overall I have found a really big joy in teletherapy because we can impact people in small areas. We, we can impact people that don't have accessibility. We can impact people when they have maybe an emergency with traveling or we can still impact busy moms that have kids that are sick and they just don't want to put a 30 minute drive to the office and a 30 minute drive back and they just want to take care of themselves and just get it done. And so I found teletherapy to be profoundly helpful. And when I compare my just this is me personally and you know, I've treated thousands and thousands and thousands of patients. Pelvic health, all pelvic health. And like when I compare my in person treatment versus my teletherapy treatment, I have found I actually can create quicker results with teletherapy compared to in person. And I really asked myself, well, why is that? Like, why? Because I've studied it a lot. Because I've done tons of teletherapy with any pelvic health condition and I've treated tons of patients in person. And I think it comes down to this understanding that when I walk into a room with someone, I am physically putting my hands on them. And when I'm putting my hands on them, I kind of go in a zone where my fingertips provide me information so I don't have to use my mouth as much. And so I can get in the zone because my fingertips are giving me information and input. And I can talk to the patient about their weekend. I can talk to the patient about what might be going on in their life. Right. So I get into that conversation versus when I'm in teletherapy. I have to be very intentional about the questions that I ask, because it is, I can't touch them. So every single question I ask has to be leading to something that I'm trying to figure out. So it's more of a brain work through teletherapy than it is through in person. You just kind of put your hands on the patient and you know that's going to help them. So it doesn't really matter kind of what your conversation is in person. I mean, we all love a good therapy session too, like mental therapy session, why we're getting touched, right? It's a, it's a win, win situation. But I think that's why teletherapy sometimes is accelerated for me of what I've seen with results because I have to go deep into their soul to figure out what truly the issue is. And I've also seen like a lot of patients in person and then also through teletherapy because again, part of our plan of care is at least two teletherapy sessions are needed during the plan of care. And I can tell you the patient opens up more through teletherapy than they do in person. And I've seen it time and time and time and again. And I think the reason why is because they're behind a screen. So it's not as maybe intimidating. I don't know. I mean, I don't know. I'm just taking a guess at it. But I can tell you that I learn more about the patient through teletherapy than I do in person. And maybe that's because we're just shooting the shit in person because we're like besties and we like to have fun. And online I'm really like, I have to think and I can't use my hand so I have to be very intentional, like I said. So I don't know. I would say those are like the biggest things that I have personally noticed when it comes to teletherapy. And the benefit of it, just being really able to communicate and ask the right questions is key. And I believe most therapists lack that. And that's what we help people with, is learning how to communicate effectively so that you and the patient can get the outcomes that you're looking for. Because we know we get those outcomes and that's what makes us keep going. Like, that's the thing that makes us keep going. And so, I don't know, we absolutely love that. And so just so you guys know, July 17th at 7:30pm Eastern Standard Time, 4:30 Pacific Time, we are going to do a free teletherapy webinar. So stay tuned for that because if you are on the fence about teletherapy how to do it, we are going to show you how to do it on the webinar July 17th at 7:30pm Eastern Standard Time. So thanks guys so much for listening and if you have any questions please drop it below or find us at Pelvibiz P E L V I B I Zelvybiz on Instagram. You can message us there. Have a great day. Bye guys.