11 Best Practice Management Software Systems For Therapists

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Running a mental healthcare practice can get busy. And there’s plenty of room for error, miscommunications, and more between therapy sessions, paperwork, and treatment planning.

Practice management software (PMS) can keep things ticking over smoothly for therapists, e-counselors, and other mental health specialists. In this article, we’ll look at the different functions of Practice Management Software and review the best options for therapists.

What Is Practice Management Software?

Practice management software (PMS) describes digital solutions designed to help medical providers with everyday tasks.

PMS can be used by organizations such as hospitals, e-clinics, private practices, and other healthcare organizations. It is typically used to streamline routine administrative, care management, and client relationship management tasks.

When it comes to general and mental health sectors, practice management software often includes specially developed tools designed to help practitioners deliver blended or virtual care services.

In the next few sections, we’ll look at these telehealth functions, which might include videoconferencing technology, client portals, and more.

In general and mental health sectors, practice management software includes tools to help practitioners deliver blended or virtual care services.

Applications and Features of Practice Management Software

The various features of PMS systems fall into two broad categories, each covering a scope of applications.

  1. Practice Management: these functions perform primarily administrative operations, such as appointment scheduling, billing, and file-sharing.
  2. Therapy Notes: these features make documentation more efficient and secure, which is especially important in mental healthcare sectors.
  3. Telehealth or Telemental health: a range of features enabling providers to deliver their services online, including care pathway design tools, videoconferencing, and more.

Practice Management

Through different practice management tools and features, PMS software can be used by therapists, e-health specialists, and coaches to organize administrative processes and core functions.

These processes might include:

  • Calendar Management: Such as appointment scheduling, session requests, and notifications
  • Invoicing and billing: Invoicing clients, insurance providers, and other stakeholders
  • EHR Management: Securely storing and centralizing patient medical records and progress notes
  • Reporting: Generating financial and patient reports, such as income by provider or patient visit history, and
  • Client Relationship Management: Communicating with clients, building customer relationships, increasing sales, and providing customer service.

Practice management software can help deliver e-mental health services online while supporting practitioners such as telepsychiatrists and online therapists with back-end tasks.

Telehealth and Telemental health

Practice management software can also deliver e-mental health services online while supporting practitioners such as telepsychiatrists and online therapists with back-end tasks.

These features might cover:

  • Documentation and Note-taking: Including therapy notes tools for clinical Progress Note templates (e.g., SOAP or BIRP templates), ICD-10 or DSM5 codes, and HIPAA-compliant secure note storage
  • Treatment Planning: Streamlining plan creation with frameworks and facilitating multi-provider communication with templates, e-signatures, and more
  • Telehealth Sessions: With live two-way video calls, audio calls, or instant messaging, and
  • Client Portals: Allowing patients to book sessions or complete documents online, such as Therapy Intake or Informed Consent forms.

A great example of PMS features for private practices is shown below in this overview from Power Diary, an online provider of clinical management solutions.[1]

diagram Practice Management Software features

Another example is Quenza, shown below. Quenza’s practice management features include a HIPAA-compliant therapy notes system, file-sharing, and Pathway tools for designing treatment plans.

therapist using quenza practice management software to update client using notifications
Quenza’s platform includes tools for therapy notes, client engagement, treatment planning, and HIPAA-compliant chat to help therapists manage their practice.

It also includes a unique custom Activity Builder for creating bespoke therapy templates such as the Wheel of Life (pictured).

Wheel of Life template preview in Quenza psychology practice management software
Therapists can use Quenza’s Wheel of Life assessment to design and share personalized assessments for therapy clients.

The platform’s group therapy tools make it easy to deliver virtual group therapy, and the free client app can be used to engage clients with notifications, updates, and chat messages. Click here to try Quenza for $1.

5 Best Practice Management Software For Therapists

Clearly, Practice Management Software varies in its capabilities and, thus, its value. Fortunately, many systems can be customized to suit the clinical and administrative needs of different providers.

For example, this way, a psychotherapist and telecounselor might both opt-in for HIPAA-compliant video calls. In contrast, a smaller practice might choose not to pay extra for a certain billing function.

Here, we’ve consolidated our insights on the most useful apps and tools available to therapists today.

Software

Details

My Clients Plus Practice Management Software logo blue and whiteSmaller and medium-sized practices looking for admin and mental healthcare functionality will find MyClientsPlus affordable and easy to navigate.MCP offers almost all the essentials for telehealth and blended care services, including sector-specific note templates, online billing and payments, video-conferencing technology, and a private patient portal for appointment scheduling.One downside is that its Portal and Telehealth sessions must be accessed from a separate tab, which means juggling different screens.
NameMyClientsPlus
Price$29+ monthly
Good ForPsychologists, Mental Health Coaches, e-Counselors
More infoMyClientsPlus

Software

Details

ICANotes Practice Management Software logo green blue whiteICANotes has great treatment planning features and Progress Notes functionality, making it ideal for prescribing clinicians and larger healthcare organizations such as hospitals and e-clinics.While it suffers from a dated and sometimes slow interface, ICANotes is a great HIPAA-compliant EHR containing discipline-specific codes, templates, and e-signatures.Telepsychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health specialists in smaller organizations may find the wealth of features unnecessary, and this system does not support live telehealth sessions. Nonetheless, it’s a powerful and affordably-priced solution for multi-provider telemedical practices.
NameICANotes
Price$46.30+ monthly
Good ForPsychologists, Psychiatrists, Telemedical Providers
More infoICANotes

Software

Details

TherapyNotes Practice Management Software logo blue green whiteTherapyNotes combines native telehealth videoconferencing and a client portal with essential practice management capacities for a monthly fee.It’s synchronizable with existing calendars, allowing appointment scheduling on the go, and has a very user-friendly interface. The system covers billing, reports, insurance claims, and custom forms on the PMS side of things.TherapyNotes is white-label, and correspondence such as bills can be branded with the user’s corporate imagery.
NameTherapyNotes
Price$49+ monthly
Good ForPsychologists, Mental Health Coaches, e-Counselors
More infoTherapyNotes

Software

Details

Clinicsource Practice Management Software logo blue gray whiteThis system offers a vast wealth of note templates for Psychologists and Counselors and Speech, Occupational, and Physical Therapists. But it’s how ClinicSource integrates everything into a comprehensive patient record that is a real advantage.After creating progress notes with BIRP templates or similar, the software then syncs the clinical patient information with practice data on their visits, such as their payment or invoice history and visit summaries.It does not offer telehealth sessions or a Patient Portal, but ClinicSource is HIPAA-compliant.
NameClinicSource
Price$72.95+ monthly
Good ForPsychologists, Mental Health Coaches, e-Counselors, Physical Therapy, Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy
More infoClinicSource

Software

Details

TheraNext logo green blue floralTheraNest is HIPAA-compliant and full of treatment planning and telehealth functions for blended care practitioners. These include video-conferencing tech, secure note storage, and tools such as templates, autofill ICD-10, DSM5 codes, and a private Client Portal.Available for both solo and multi-provider practices, both the browser and smartphone applications are easy to use.TheraNest also has many custom mental healthcare forms for uploading to a patient’s portal, such as the GAD-7 Scale, PHQ-9 Questionnaire, and Telehealth Treatment Consent. It syncs with the most commonly used online calendars and supports imports from CRM software.
NameTheraNest
Price$39+ monthly
Good ForPsychologists, Mental Health Coaches, e-Counselors, Physical Therapy, Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy
More infoTheraNest

Are There Free Options?

PMS systems typically offer HIPAA-compliant data storage, essential functionality, and systems maintenance in helping professions, all as standard. To host these services, coupled with customer support and feature updates, they tend to charge fees.

However, some free apps are designed to take over isolated elements of your mental health practice by making therapeutic exercises available online for clients or collecting patient data for treatment plans.

Here are some free apps that can perform some mental health tasks for your therapy.

App

Details

 MoodTools logo small lockboxFree app MoodTools is designed by students and clinically assessed as a therapy app to help treat depression and negative moods.From their smartphones, users can journal their activities and thoughts and take psychological assessments such as the PHQ-9 depression questionnaire. They’re also directed to psychoeducational self-help resources such as YouTube videos and more, making MoodTools a great help in mental health treatment planning.
NameMoodTools
PriceFree
Good ForMental Health Coaching, Applied Behavior Analysis, Therapy, Mental Health Coaching
More infoMoodTools

App

Details

Sanvello app logo black green whiteCBT app Sanvello is covered by a range of different insurance providers and used as a between-session resource in a lot of blended care treatments.Users can use the app to access psychological assessments and tools on the go, including clinical scales, exercises, lessons, and an ESM-based mood tracker. Additionally, Sanvello offers mindfulness and other low-intensity treatment techniques at the initial tiers of Stepped Care Models.
NameSanvello
PriceFree
Good ForTherapy, Mental Health Coaching, Experience Sampling, Data Collection
More infoSanvello
AppDetails
SuperBetter online therapy app logo rainbow initials Resilience researcher Jane McGonigal developed SuperBetter to help patients tackle common symptoms of mood and other mental health challenges. Gamified for maximum engagement, SuperBetter is full of coping skills exercises, tasks, and daily challenges that clients can work through independently.The whole program is based on McGonigal’s clinical research into a resilience-building framework and uses scientifically-developed content.
NameSuperBetter
PriceFree
Good ForStress, Anxiety, Depression, Pain Management
More infoSuperBetter

A Look At 3 Useful Apps and Tools

For many providers, a full software suite can offer too many bells and whistles to be cost-effective. As an e-counselor, psychologist, or mental health coach, it’s often where standalone therapy tools and apps come in useful.

They might perform one or two more basic functions but go a long way for solo practitioners or smaller businesses.

With this in mind, these apps and tools don’t quite qualify as management systems, but they may still play a valuable role in your mental health practice.

App

Details

CoachAccountable logo green white blackFor simple appointment scheduling and other basic management tasks, Coach Accountable is a great option. Designed for life, business, mental health, and wellness coaches, this app can be used to track patient progress, assign tasks, and capture important data.Because this solution is designed to promote goal achievement, it’s also useful for therapists and other mental health specialties. Clients can use CoachAccountable’s journaling tool to record their moods and request appointments with their specialists or coach on the user end.
NameCoachAccountable
Price$20+ monthly
Good ForPractice Management, Coaching Management, Wellness Coaching, Business Coaching, Mental Health Coaching, Therapy
More infoCoachAccountable

App

Details

Power Diary blue and black logoPower Diary can be used for basic Electronic Medical Records (EHR) management, billing, reporting, and calendar management. It offers telehealth capabilities for live sessions and a client portal on the mental health side of things.This app has the advantage of being white-label, allowing smaller practices to bill and communicate with clients under their own brand. It’s affordably priced, light-weight, and easy to learn.
NamePower Diary
Price$5+ weekly
Good ForTelehealth, Invoices, Billing, Coaching Management, Practice Management, Therapy
More infoPower Diary

App

Details

yellowschedule logo black text with message iconYellow Schedule has one key function: to schedule appointments. It’s HIPAA-compliant, making it suitable for therapists, prescribing clinicians, and mental health professionals in all kinds of disciplines.Additionally, this app can create and send branded emails and correspondence, so it may also have some CRM and client engagement value. It’s easy to sync with existing calendars such as Google Calendar, Outlook, and more.
NameYellow Schedule
Price$29.95 monthly
Good ForTherapy, Coaching, Practice Management, Psychiatry,
More infoYellow Schedule

Final Thoughts

As a mental health professional, patient care comes first. But that doesn’t mean you can’t grow your business or develop your skills by freeing up admin time daily.

That’s all possible with the right software today, and sometimes, finding the perfect system is as simple as trying it on for size. Start your $1, 30-day trial of Quenza and see how it works for you!

References

About the author

Catherine specializes in Organizational and Positive Psychology, helping entrepreneurs, clinical psychologists and OD specialists grow their businesses by simplifying their digital journeys.

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