[Essential Strides Counseling](https://www.essentialstridescounseling.com/) ran for ten years on a system Dr. Michelle Johnson pieced together herself: a notes database she designed, an online clearinghouse for insurance claims, a spreadsheet to track them, and separate billing software. Four steps after every client. She got fast at it, and it held for a decade. When she finally wanted something more professional, she trialed four or five platforms and picked Carepatron for the specific things her practice needed: Zoom built in, portal access for both teens and parents, and one clear view of what was still outstanding.
Meet Dr. Michelle Johnson
Dr. Michelle M. Johnson, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist in Bellevue, Washington, and the founder of Essential Strides Counseling. Her training runs deep: doctoral training at Harvard, a clinical internship at the Brown University Clinical Psychology Training Consortium, and a post-doctoral fellowship at McLean Hospital, where she specialized in treating self-injurious and suicidal behavior in adolescents and adults. She started in academic psychology, trained in dialectical behavior therapy and practiced it with a full team, and served as program director of a 24-hour residential eating disorder treatment facility before opening her own practice in Bellevue in 2016.
The name Essential Strides comes partly from the years she spent offering equine therapy and partly from the strides her clients make in their own lives. She specializes in eating disorders and works with a mix of adults and teens.She built her own system, and ran it for ten years.
When Dr. Johnson opened Essential Strides, she trialed the platforms available at the time and none of them fit. She was starting a new practice and didn’t have the energy to fight through features she didn’t need. So she built her own.
Her setup had four parts. A database she designed herself for her notes. An online clearinghouse to submit her insurance claims. A spreadsheet to keep track of those claims. And billing software for the rest. After every client, she worked through all four.
#### “I became very efficient at it. It worked just fine for 10 years. And then eventually it kind of became clear that I probably should have something a little bit more professional and streamlined.”
The second time she went looking, she trialed four or five platforms, Carepatron among them, this time with a specific checklist rather than a vague sense of being overwhelmed.The checklist came down to two things.
Telehealth was here to stay, and she was already running her video sessions on a HIPAA-compliant version of Zoom that her clients knew. Most of the other platforms she tried had their own telehealth interface, and she wasn’t impressed. Carepatron let her keep Zoom.
The bigger requirement was access. In Washington, young people can consent to their own care from the age of thirteen, so her teenage clients need to be the ones messaging her directly. But their parents are often the ones booking appointments and paying the bills. Most platforms only let one person, the client, into the portal.
#### “There were many of the platforms that only let one person, namely the client, have access to that, but I needed to be able to send that information to parents as well. So that was something that Carepatron afforded me.”The reports gave her back the view she was missing.
Running four systems by hand meant Dr. Johnson had to carry, in her own head, everything that was still open. Now it surfaces on a report she can sort and filter.
#### “People, myself and others, asked for reports to figure out if there were notes that were not completed and locked, or claims that were not submitted, or invoices that were not sent. And we can now see that all listed very clearly. Sort, filter. It’s been incredible.”
She has also leaned on the support more than she expected. When she accidentally recorded a duplicate payment, she chatted with someone and had it sorted right away. When she asked for features that weren’t there yet, Carepatron built most of them.
#### “When I have found things that either I couldn’t figure out how to do, or were not yet possible, I was able to give my feedback and Carepatron has already fixed or offered most of them, if not all of them, which has been incredible.”
After ten years of holding the whole operation in her own head, the shift she values most is quieter than any single feature. The time it frees up, she is putting back into herself: a marriage a little over a year old, riding, music, running. It is the same thing she spends her days helping clients find.
#### “If you can find balance in your life, it’s going to allow things to be more sustainable. Having, and constantly searching for, balance allows me to not only take care of myself, but then sustainably try to care for and support others.”
