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Video sessions

Conduct HIPAA-compliant video sessions directly in the browser — no downloads for you or your client.

In this guide, we'll cover:

Starting a video session​

  1. Schedule the appointment with a virtual/telehealth location (see Calendar Overview)
  2. At session time, open the appointment on your calendar and click the teal video icon (Video Session) — it appears only on virtual-location appointments
  3. You land on the Pre-call Check first: camera preview, mic level, device pickers, and an optional background blur. Click Join Session when everything looks right; your client joins from the link in their reminder email, or from Join Session on their client portal appointment

If you have set up your video link, you can also click the camera button at the top of the page, next to your name, and pick the session from a list.

Every clinician can have one short video address, like a username: meet.securehealth.me/yourname. It never changes, so you can put it in your email signature, on your website or in a text, and clients who have it can always find you.

Set it up: click Settings, then Video Link under You. Choose your name (lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens; it must be unused across Practice Harbor), the name guests see, optional instructions for the check-in page, and whether to play a sound when someone arrives. Once saved, your reminder and confirmation emails for video appointments carry this link automatically.

What the client sees: they open the link, allow their camera and microphone, type their name and click Check in. They wait on a plain page that shows nothing but your name until you let them in. A client who has a portal account can click Sign in instead and lands in the waiting room of their own appointment.

Your side, the Waiting Room: the Waiting Room is the camera button at the top of every page, next to your name. It is grey while nobody is waiting. When someone checks in at your video link it turns teal and shows a number, and a sound plays if you turned it on. The button shows only the number: hover over it to see who is waiting, or click it to open the Waiting Room, which lists each guest's name and how long they have waited. Click Start Call (or the guest's name). A small window shows the guest's name and Link this call to, a list of your sessions around now. If one of them starts within about half an hour, it's selected and marked Likely match. Otherwise nothing is selected: pick the guest's session, or Not on my calendar. When you pick a session, the window says whose session the guest will join. Click Start Call: the guest is let in, you land on that appointment's video page, and recording and the note work as usual. Choose Not on my calendar for a client who was booked somewhere else, or for a call with no appointment. That call isn't linked to a client's chart, so it has no note here.

Two guests waiting for the same session, a couple for instance: tick the second name under Also bring in before you start. If someone arrives while you are in a session's video room and nobody else has joined yet, a notice appears in the corner of the video with Add to [client]'s [time] session and Decline; Separate call lets them in on their own call instead. Once your client is connected, click the camera button and use the … menu next to the guest's name: Add to [client]'s [time] session. From the same menu you can also Decline anyone waiting, or Remove a guest. Removing a guest who is already in a call takes them out of it.

Going in first: you don't have to wait for someone to arrive. Click the camera button while nobody is waiting (or Start session in the Waiting Room when someone is). A small window asks Which session is this? and lists your sessions around now. If one of them starts within about half an hour, it's selected; otherwise nothing is, so pick it yourself. Click Start session and you land on that appointment's video page, with recording and the note as usual. Your client joins from their portal or their reminder link. A guest who checks in at your video link shows in the Waiting Room: use the … menu next to their name, Add to [client]'s [time] session.

Choose Not on my calendar instead to open an empty room for a session that isn't on your calendar here. That call isn't linked to a client's chart, so it has no note here. Bring guests in from the notice on the video or the … menu, Add to this call. Start session is not offered while you're in a call, or while a guest is waiting: use Start Call next to their name to let them in.

Ending a call ends it for everyone. When you click End, everyone in the room is disconnected and sees that the session has ended. A guest from your video link can check in again, and you'll see them in your Waiting Room. Leaving the page of a call that isn't on your calendar ends it the same way, so stay on it until you're done.

If you lose a call by accident, for example by closing the browser tab, a guest from your video link may still be in it. The camera button turns orange, and the Waiting Room shows Rejoin call next to their name. Click it and you're back in the same room with them.

Guests are shown with a small guest label in the call, because you, not a sign-in, are what confirmed who they are. Only admit people you recognise.

To share a link for one appointment, open the appointment and click Share link next to the video icon:

  • Copy link copies the same link the reminder email carries: your video address if you have set one, otherwise the practice's portal join link, which signs the client in and takes them to the waiting room of their session.
  • Send reminder emails the client a reminder with that link right away. Use it when you booked the session too close to its start for the scheduled reminder, or when the client has lost the email. The client's reminder settings still apply, so if their email reminders are off you'll be told nothing was sent.

Share link appears only on appointments at your built-in video location. Sessions on another platform (Doxy, Zoom, Google Meet, or a location of type Other video platform) use that platform's own link, which you share as you do today.

The waiting room​

Clients don't drop straight into your room. When your client arrives you'll see "[Client name] is in the waiting room" with an Admit to Session button — nobody joins until you let them in. Clients can open the waiting room any time before the session, but you won't see them waiting until 30 minutes before the start time (or right away, if you've already started the session). The Last Note button (on the pre-call screen and in the session, whenever the client has a prior note) opens Session Prep — refresh yourself before admitting them.

For minor clients, a parent/guardian with portal access can join, with your confirmation at admit time.

During the session​

Your call controls sit in one bar under the video, and every button has a word under it. The word says what a click will do, so Mute becomes Unmute once you are muted:

  • Mute and Stop video. The small arrow beside each one picks your microphone, speaker or camera, and the arrow beside Stop video also holds Blur my background.
  • Share opens a short menu: your screen, the whiteboard, and the sand tray. While something is shared, the same button shows what it is, and one click stops it.
  • Start notes (see below).
  • End, the red button set apart on the right.

The session timer is at the top left of the video. (There's no in-call text chat — use secure messages for anything written.)

  • Pop out the video — Pop out, at the top right of the video, floats your client's video in a small window that stays on top of everything, so you can open the chart, a note or a resource in another tab and keep seeing them. In Chrome the video pops out on its own when you switch tabs during a call (Chrome asks once, under the site's Automatic picture-in-picture permission). The floating window has its own mute and camera buttons in Chrome, which work like the ones in the call. Click the button again, or the window's close button, to bring it back. The pop-out shows whoever is on screen in the main view: the shared screen while someone is sharing, otherwise your client. Firefox has no pop-out button; use its own built-in control on the video instead.
  • Your self-view sits above the client's video. The small button on it moves your own picture into the corner of the client's video instead; the button on the corner view puts it back above.
  • AI notes — Start notes transcribes the call and drafts your progress note through the same pipeline as in-person recording. No special audio setup is needed here — the call's audio is captured directly. (The separate "Telehealth with Headphones" mode exists for recording external video calls from the Live Session page.)
  • Ending: End wraps up any in-progress note processing and ends the session for everyone in the room; you'll see "Session Ended" with a Return to Calendar button.

Clients can only join their own appointment, and they wait in the waiting room until you admit them — you can both join early.

The whiteboard​

A shared drawing board for working something out together over video: a feelings scale, a thought record, a diagram of a family, a plan for the week. You and the client see the same board, and whatever either of you draws appears for the other as it happens. It is on for every practice.

To use it in a session:

  1. Join the session as usual and admit the client.
  2. Click Share in the call controls, then Whiteboard. The board opens beside your video, and the client's screen shows the same board under theirs.
  3. Draw with the Pen or Highlighter, rub out with the Eraser, and add Text, an Arrow or a Box from the toolbar. Select lets you move or delete anything on the board. Undo takes back your last change.
  4. Template puts a worksheet under the drawing: a lined page, a grid, the CBT triangle, a thought record, pros and cons, the window of tolerance, a feelings wheel, or a 0–10 scale. Blank takes it away again. Everyone sees the worksheet; only you can change it.
  5. Client can draw / Locked switches whether the client may use the board. Clients start locked, so you can set something up first. An unlocked client gets the pen, highlighter, eraser, text, arrow and box, and can move or delete only what they drew themselves.
  6. Clear wipes the drawing for everyone and keeps the worksheet.
  7. Save to chart puts a picture of the board in the client's Files, dated and tied to this session, along with the board itself. The client never sees anything saved; saving is your action.
  8. Open saved board lists this client's saved boards, newest first. Pick one and it comes back onto the board for everyone on the call, drawing, worksheet and all, so a plan from last week can carry on this week.
  9. Closing the panel closes the board for the client too.

Good to know:

  • The whiteboard is for individual and couple sessions, not group rooms.
  • Nothing is stored until you press Save to chart. If the client reloads, the board they come back to is the one you have on screen, worksheet included.
  • Clients draw from the client portal in a browser, including the guest video link, on a computer, tablet or phone.
  • The whiteboard and the sand tray share the same spot beside your video, so one opens at a time.
  • If you would rather not have the whiteboard in your calls, use Send feedback and we'll switch it off for your practice.

The sand tray​

A shared sand tray for play, child, and trauma work over video. You and the client see the same tray and the same shelf of miniatures; either of you can set a figure in the sand, drag it, turn it, bury it, or rake a line, and the other sees it move as it happens. It is on for every practice.

To use it in a session:

  1. Join the session as usual and admit the client.
  2. Click Share in the call controls, then Sand tray. The tray opens beside your video, and the client's screen shows the same tray under theirs. They can build straight away.
  3. Client can build / Locked switches whether the client may move figures. Lock it when you want to arrange something yourself, or to close a world before the call ends.
  4. Clear tray empties it for everyone. The sand (beach, zen garden, moon dust, snow, forest floor) is yours to choose.
  5. Save to chart puts a picture of the tray in the client's Files, dated and tied to this session. The client never sees anything saved; saving is your action.
  6. Closing the panel closes the tray for the client too.

Moving figures, with a mouse or on a touch screen:

  • Add a figure: tap it on the shelf, or drag it up from the shelf and drop it where you want it.
  • Turn it to show its side or back: double-click or double-tap it, or press the small arrow on the right side of the dotted line.
  • Resize it: drag its square corner handle, pinch with two fingers, or scroll over it with a mouse.
  • Tilt it: drag its round corner handle or twist with two fingers. It settles straight when you get close to upright.
  • To front, To back, Bury and Remove are in the buttons above the tray, once a figure is selected. Tap the sand to deselect a figure.
  • On a phone, small figures don't show the corner handles, because they would cover the figure. Pinch and twist instead.

Good to know:

  • The tray is for individual sessions, not couples or family rooms.
  • Nothing about the tray is stored until you press Save to chart. If the client reloads, the tray they come back to is the one you have on screen.
  • A client who joins from the phone app can watch the tray on your shared screen; building together works from the portal in a browser, including the guest video link.
  • Treat it as a sketch of a world, not a physical tray: there is no sand to feel and no depth. It does not interpret, score, or diagnose anything.

Preparing yourself and your client​

A minute of preparation prevents most mid-session problems:

  • Use the Pre-call Check every time. It shows your live camera preview, a mic level meter, and pickers for camera, microphone, and speaker — if the wrong device is selected (a common aftermath of plugging in headphones), fix it here, before the client sees you.
  • Background blur is available on the pre-call screen and in the call (the arrow beside Stop video). On older devices or browsers that can't support it, the toggle simply doesn't appear — that's expected, not a bug.
  • Tell first-time clients what to expect: they open the join link from their reminder email (or Join Session on their portal's appointment page), sign in if asked, their browser will ask to use the camera and microphone (they should click Allow), and they'll wait in the waiting room until you admit them. A phone or tablet works — the portal runs in their mobile browser with nothing to install.
  • Close what you don't need. Video competes with everything else the computer is doing; other video apps in particular can hold the camera hostage.

Troubleshooting​

"Please allow camera and microphone access in your browser settings." The browser blocked device access. Click the camera/padlock icon in the address bar, set Camera and Microphone to Allow, and reload the page. The same fix applies on the client's side — this is the single most common joining problem.

Your client can't hear you (or you can't hear them). Almost always a device-selection problem, not a connection problem. Both sides should check the mic and speaker pickers (yours are on the Pre-call Check and in the call) — Bluetooth headphones that connected mid-call are the classic culprit. The mic level meter tells you instantly whether your microphone is actually picking you up.

The camera shows a black square. Another app (Zoom, Teams, another browser tab) is holding the camera. Close it and reload.

Video is choppy or keeps freezing. Bandwidth. Move closer to the router or switch off Wi-Fi to wired if you can; asking the client to turn off other streaming in their household genuinely helps. Turning your own camera off for a moment lets a struggling connection recover.

The client says there's no Join button. Open the appointment and click Share link, then Send reminder: the email takes them straight to the waiting room once they sign in. They can only join their own appointment, so if they were never invited to the portal, that's the actual problem: see the client portal.

Something else went wrong mid-session. Both sides can simply reload the page and rejoin — the room survives a refresh, and you'll pass through the waiting-room flow again. If a session error appears repeatedly, try another browser (Chrome and Edge are the most dependable), and tell support@practiceharbor.com what the message said.

Technical requirements​

  • A modern browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge)
  • A working microphone and camera
  • A stable internet connection
tip

For the best experience, use Chrome and close unnecessary tabs. If video quality drops, turning your own camera off temporarily frees bandwidth for the client's stream.