Joni Gilbertson, MA, NCC, LMHC, BCTMH, CTMH

Telemental Health & Ethics Trainer

Joni Gilbertson, MA, NCC, LMHC, BC-TMH, CTMH, is a licensed mental health counselor, author, clinical supervisor, consultant, and professional educator specializing in telemental health, counseling ethics, digital practice, risk management, cross-jurisdiction care, crisis planning, and the responsible use of technology in behavioral healthcare. Her work helps clinicians move beyond the assumption that online therapy is simply an office session conducted through a screen. Virtual care requires its own policies, competencies, documentation practices, safety procedures, and ethical decision-making processes.

Joni Gilbertson, MA, NCC, LMHC, BC-TMH, CTMH, has provided counseling through video-based services since before telehealth became routine across mental healthcare. Her professional experience includes private practice, hospital-based supervision, higher education, probation and correctional settings, and training for mental health agencies, first responders, court personnel, detention-center staff, and professionals serving children and families. This varied background informs her practical approach to questions involving client access, confidentiality, involuntary participation, technology failures, and coordination with other systems.

Joni Gilbertson, MA, NCC, LMHC, BC-TMH, CTMH, is also the author of Telemental Health: The Essential Guide to Providing Successful Online Therapy. Her professional education focuses on helping clinicians evaluate the benefits and limitations of digital services while protecting client welfare, preserving professional boundaries, and maintaining accountability when laws, ethical codes, technology, and clinical judgment intersect.

Professional Background

Joni Gilbertson, MA, NCC, LMHC, BC-TMH, CTMH, holds a master’s degree and the National Certified Counselor credential. She is identified by current professional profiles as a Florida licensed mental health counselor and is listed by the Center for Credentialing & Education as a Board Certified–TeleMental Health Provider. Current presenter profiles also identify her as a Certified Clinical Telemental Health Provider.

These credentials reflect specialized preparation in the ethical, legal, clinical, and technological responsibilities involved in distance counseling. The official credential abbreviation should be formatted as BC-TMH, including the hyphen, rather than BCTMH. The Center for Credentialing & Education currently lists her in Sarasota, Florida, with credential number BC-TMH-0578.

Joni Gilbertson, MA, NCC, LMHC, BC-TMH, CTMH, maintains a private practice and has disclosed professional relationships with eCare Behavioral Health Institute and Bay Path University, according to her current PESI presenter information. Her teaching and consultation extend across continuing education, graduate instruction, clinical supervision, and professional development. Because institutional assignments can change, Bay Path University should be described as a disclosed professional relationship rather than assigning her a specific current faculty title that does not appear in the university’s public faculty directory.

Earlier in her career, Joni Gilbertson, MA, NCC, LMHC, BC-TMH, CTMH, designed and taught mental health and legal-issues courses for the sociology department at Illinois Central College. Current presenter profiles report that she received the institution’s “Teachers Who Make a Difference” recognition. Her academic teaching complemented work supervising mental health staff in a hospital setting and interns in private practice, giving her experience with both frontline clinical decisions and the development of other professionals.

Joni Gilbertson, MA, NCC, LMHC, BC-TMH, CTMH, is a retired chief of probation whose justice-system background included training staff on ethics, suicide awareness, personality disorders, substance-use disorders, motivational interviewing, and safety strategies. She also developed an early telehealth program for court-ordered clients. That experience is particularly relevant because mandated or externally referred clients may enter care with limited trust, concerns about confidentiality, or uncertainty about what information may be shared with courts, probation officers, schools, employers, or other referring parties.

Her national education work includes the development of a two-day telemental health certification program. PESI’s current presenter profile states that the training has been completed by more than 150,000 mental health professionals. This figure should be attributed to PESI and retained only while it remains documented on a current professional source, rather than being converted into an unsupported claim about treatment outcomes or the number of independently certified clinicians.

Joni Gilbertson, MA, NCC, LMHC, BC-TMH, CTMH, published Telemental Health: The Essential Guide to Providing Successful Online Therapy through PESI Publishing & Media in 2020. The book covers virtual practice from intake through termination, including platform selection, informed consent, privacy, risk management, emergency planning, digital communication, and documentation. It reflects her central professional goal: helping clinicians build online services that are clinically useful without treating convenience as a substitute for competence or ethical preparation.

Areas of Expertise

Telemental Health Practice. Joni M. Gilbertson, MA, NCC, LMHC, BC-TMH, CTMH, teaches clinicians to assess whether remote services are appropriate for a specific client, concern, environment, and level of risk. Effective virtual treatment may require attention to privacy, accessibility, technology literacy, communication preferences, physical location, emergency resources, and whether the client can participate safely and meaningfully. The National Institute of Mental Health’s telemental health overview explains that remote services can include therapy, assessment, interventions, and medication management while noting that suitability and evidence vary across clients and circumstances.

Privacy, HIPAA, and Data Security. Virtual care distributes the clinical setting across the clinician’s location, the client’s location, devices, networks, platforms, vendors, cloud services, and electronic records. Her training addresses privacy safeguards, business associate agreements when applicable, secure platform configuration, recording and transcription settings, device access, passwords, and communication procedures. Clinicians can review Clinical Events’ Telehealth Ethics: Ensuring Client Privacy in Virtual Therapy alongside the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services guidance for telehealth technology.

Informed Consent and Emergency Planning. Online informed consent should explain the service format, expected response times, privacy limitations, technology risks, alternative services, client-location requirements, emergency procedures, and what will happen if a connection fails. Crisis planning may require a local emergency contact, knowledge of resources near the client, and verification of the client’s physical location. The NBCC Code of Ethics specifically addresses client screening, security information, technological failures, emergency procedures, location-based resources, and documentation for telemental health services.

Cross-State Practice and Jurisdiction. Gilbertson provides education on the legal and ethical questions that arise when the clinician and client are in different states. The client’s physical location may affect which licensing rules, emergency duties, consent requirements, and professional standards apply. Her teaching encourages clinicians to verify current requirements with relevant licensing boards, employers, malpractice carriers, and qualified legal counsel rather than relying on generalized internet guidance.

Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology. Her current education includes the ethical use of AI in therapy and behavioral healthcare. AI-assisted documentation, transcription, scheduling, chat tools, clinical support, and virtual environments may create benefits, but they also introduce risks involving confidentiality, inaccurate output, algorithmic bias, data retention, transparency, informed consent, and overreliance. Clinical Events’ Ethical Telehealth and AI Training for Therapists and its guide to therapy ethics, confidentiality, boundaries, and competence provide related context.

Digital Communication and Professional Boundaries. Text messages, email, client portals, social media, online reviews, and personal devices can blur the therapeutic frame. Her training helps clinicians define approved communication channels, response expectations, documentation practices, social-media policies, and procedures for messages involving risk. Clinical Events’ Professional Boundaries Every Therapist Should Know offers complementary guidance on digital contact, self-disclosure, role confusion, and ethical decision-making.

Court-Ordered and Complex Service Settings. Her corrections and probation background informs work with involuntary clients and systems involving courts, schools, hospitals, agencies, and public-safety professionals. In these settings, clinicians must explain their role clearly, distinguish therapy from forensic or supervisory functions, identify limits of confidentiality, and document communications with referring authorities. Telehealth may improve access, but it does not remove the need for transparent consent, careful boundaries, and appropriate coordination.

Clinical Supervision and Professional Education. Gilbertson teaches through case examples, decision-making frameworks, demonstrations, and practical risk-management tools. Her work supports clinicians who need to understand not only what a rule says, but how to apply it when ethical standards, technology, client welfare, organizational policy, and jurisdictional requirements point in different directions.

Authored Publications

• Telemental Health: The Essential Guide to Providing Successful Online Therapy