Best Practices for Telebehavioral Health Documentation in Couple and Family Therapy

Description

When working with multiple clients in the same session, poor documentation isn’t just an inconvenience—it’s a liability. Couple and family therapists practicing via telehealth face unique challenges that demand new standards of clarity, compliance, and coordination.

Even seasoned clinicians can fall into documentation pitfalls that threaten the quality of care, privacy, or reimbursement. This course helps you identify those blind spots and offers practical, legally sound strategies to strengthen your documentation and protect your practice.

Dr. Katherine Hertlein, PhD, is a nationally recognized expert in couple and family therapy with a prolific academic record and a passion for bridging clinical practice and technology. She has co-authored the telebehavioral health competencies used across behavioral health disciplines and developed the first cross-cultural framework on how technology impacts relationships. Her deep understanding of the ethical, clinical, and systemic complexities of telebehavioral health makes her uniquely qualified to guide clinicians through documentation best practices.

In this course, Dr. Hertlein takes a direct, skills-based approach to the realities of telehealth documentation, offering real-world examples, checklists, and strategies to help you align your clinical records with competency-based expectations. Her goal is to help you document with precision and confidence—whether you’re serving a couple in crisis or a family navigating generational trauma.

You’ll explore the top three documentation errors made in Telebehavioral health (TBH) sessions with couples and families, clarify your ethical and regulatory obligations under the telebehavioral health competencies, and implement practical tools like electronic communication policies and asynchronous documentation strategies. You'll also examine the nuances of multi-client consent, billing practices, and technology integration in a systems-based framework.

Key Takeaways:

• Avoid Common Pitfalls: Learn to recognize and correct frequent documentation mistakes that can compromise care or compliance.

• Understand TBH Competencies: Grasp the legal and clinical documentation requirements in telebehavioral health, including multi-client scenarios.

• Implement Effective Strategies: Apply practical documentation strategies aligned with telebehavioral health competencies to streamline your sessions.

Why This Course?

• Specialized for Systems Work: Designed specifically for couple and family therapists navigating the complexity of multi-client telehealth sessions.

• Led by a Leading Authority: Dr. Hertlein is one of the original developers of the telebehavioral health competencies and brings unmatched expertise to this topic.

• Trusted by Clinicians: Offered by the Telehealth Certification Institute, known for exceptional continuing education that is practical, ethical, and relevant.

Learning Objectives:

• List three common mistakes made by couple and family therapists in TBH documentation.

• Describe the objectives within the TBH competencies dedicated clinical care and legal/regulatory issues as it pertains to documentation.

• Describe strategies for documentation consistent with the TBH competencies.

This course gives you the tools and insights to elevate your documentation practices and meet today’s telehealth demands with clarity and confidence.

Add this course to your toolkit as part of your commitment to excellence and ethical care.

Format and Access

This is a non-interactive, self-study course. Instruction consists of 1.5 hours of video instruction and a post-test.

Course Details

Availability: 

From the time of registration, you have six months to access the coursework.

Who Should Attend: 

This course is intended for clinicians who provide behavioral health services.

Teaching Methods: 

This is a non-interactive, self-study course. Teaching methods for this course include recorded lectures, videos, a post-test, and a course evaluation.

How to Attend: 

Course access and completion instructions.

Instructor and Disclosures

Instructor

About Dr. Katherine Hertlein, PhD

Dr. Hertlein earned her PhD at Virginia Tech and her master's degree from Purdue University Calumet. Across her academic career, she has published over 90 articles, 40 book chapters, and 12 books in the areas of couple therapy, infidelity, sex therapy, behavioral health, and the impact of technology on couple and and family relationships. Her contributions in sex therapy promote a paradigm shift in the treatment of sexual dysfunctions in couple relationships, are considered seminal texts, and used by couple and family therapy programs widely. Her contributions in the area of technology include the development of the core competencies for behavioral health which can be applied to all of the behavioral health disciplines, and the creation of the first comprehensive framework detailing the effect of technology on relationships which has been applied cross-culturally.

Disclosure Statement: 

The instructor for this course receive compensation for their services. There are no reported conflicts of interest to disclose.

CE Hours

Credit Hours:

This course consists of 1.5 continuing education hours of credit.

Counselors:

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No, 6693.  Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified.  Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. 

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Mental Health Counselors. #MHC-0048.

Marriage and Family Therapists: 

Many MFT licensing boards accept our courses or one of the approvals which we have from professional associations.  You can check with your board to determine if your licensing board would accept this course.

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0135, effective May 8, 2025.

Social Workers:

Telehealth Certification Institute LLC, #1609, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 05/02/2024 – 05/02/2027. Social workers completing this course receive 1.5 clinical continuing education credits.

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Social Workers #SW-0435.

Addiction Professionals:

This course has been approved by Telehealth Certification Institute LLC, as a NAADAC Approved Education Provider, for educational credits. NAADAC Provider #193104, Telehealth Certification Institute LLC is responsible for all aspects of the programming.

Psychologists:

Telehealth Certification Institute LLC is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Telehealth Certification Institute LLC maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Psychologists #PSY-0128.

Art Therapists: 

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Creative Arts Therapists #CAT-0093.

Other Professionals:

This course qualifies for 90 minutes of instructional content as required by many national, state and local licensing boards and professional organizations.  Retain your certificate of completion and contact your board or organization for specific filing requirements.

This is a non-interactive, self-study course.

Accommodations and Policies

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You can click on the following links to view our policies:

• Accommodations for Individuals with Disabilities.
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