• Home
  • My Story
  • Membership
  • Courses

Speech is Beautiful

Reflections on My Second Year Doing Teletherapy

Education

30 Jan

Reflections on my second year doing speech teletherapy

I’m in the middle of my second year doing teletherapy and I’d like to share how it’s going and how I feel about it. First, I still enjoy teletherapy immensely and I’m so happy to be continuing into my second year. Most days I want to work in teletherapy for the rest of my career — no joke!

Positives:

  • Better Platform Skills – I’ve gotten better at using the platform (Zoom is what my agency equips me with). I was able to have a video conference not only with a friend who does teletherapy, but also with my clinical coordinator for some training at my request. Those two video-conferences helped me understand what it feels like when somebody initiates a meeting with you. There are different functionalities in the screen’s interface when you are on the other end of a meeting. Up until that point I did not know what it was like to have somebody initiate a meeting with you (because I was always initiating). Now I know what buttons on the screen that my clients see.
  • Better Materials – I’ve also got better at using materials that I have and also using materials that I purchase online for Teletherapy. With respect to teletherapy materials, I’m using PDFs I already have and stuff I make more frequently, as well as total therapy materials and other re-purposed PDFs and power points for therapy sessions. This has made it very more easy to do sessions and I feel more confident about the materials that I have in front of my students.

Negatives:

  • Financially Difficult Summer – Last summer was stressful financially because the lack of income (no teletherapy during the summer). I did not pursue a summer job, which is on me. Additionally, I have a child in childcare during the school year and continued to pay childcare costs — that expense adds up quickly! Even though I don’t work full-time during the school year, I have to pay for childcare. I believe that if I were working five days a week during the school year, I could save enough money towards summer expenses.
  • 1099 Employee – Another downside is that I work as a 1099 employee, which means that I’m paid per hour and no taxes are taken out. It also means I don’t have benefits, but that is okay because my husband is able to provide those for our family. However, I do need the help from a certified accountant to calculate estimated taxes every quarter. I already have an accountant that I use every year for our taxes (because of owning a previous rental property many years ago when our our condo wouldn’t sell — talk about financial hardship!). It’s not hard to work with our accountant to calculate estimated taxes, but it is a hassle and I would prefer to have taxes taken out of my paycheck. If you are considering becoming a teletherapist, don’t let this discourage you because there are many teletherapy companies who will set you up as a W-2 employee (which means you get taxes taken out of your paycheck).

What’s going to happen next? In preparation for the summer without a steady paycheck, I’m already planning to pursue some kind of summer job. If you know of a summer job I would be right for, please email me: sarahwuslp(at)yahoo.com). Additionally, I am going to contact my agency prior to signing next year’s contract to see if there’s any way that I could be as a W-2 employee to spare me the hassle of calculating estimated taxes four times a year.

Do you have any additional questions for me? I wrote an eBook that covers virtually every question that you might have regarding teletherapy: Is Teletherapy Right for Me? If you have questions, I’d love it if you bought it instead of asking me. I get lots of questions every week. If the eBook doesn’t answer your questions, feel free to email me for more information. Thank you!

Share this:

  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook

Related

« My Family’s Experience with Preschool Stuttering: An SLP’s Story
The Most Important Question to Ask During A Job Interview »
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Categories

Copyright © 2025 · Website Design By Jumping Jax Designs

 

Loading Comments...