Sharing intakes and documents with couples

When working with couple clients, intake forms and documents must be shared with each individual separately. In this guide, we'll cover:

• Sending a new couple client intake forms
• Sending documents to couples
• Secure Messaging with couples 
• Viewing the Client Portal from a couple’s perspective

Sending a new couple intake forms

If you've entered an email address for one of the clients in the couple profile, and have set up the Client Portal, you'll see the option to send intakes. This process is divided into three steps:

Client Items

1. Choose which forms you'd like to send to the client(s)
2. After you've made your selections for the client(s), click Continue to Email

Important: Documents that you share with each client in a couple will only be visible to that client. If you want both clients to review or complete a document, you must share it with each client individually.

Compose Email

1. Customize the email that you send to the client(s) with your practice documents
2. After you've reviewed and made any changes, click Continue to Review

Note: To adjust the default text of this email for your entire practice, go to Settings > Client notifications > Email and click the pencil icon to edit  the Welcome email. For more information, see Sending intake forms and documents to clients.

Review & Send

1. Review the client(s) that will receive Client Portal access and confirm the item(s) you’re sharing with each person
2. After you've finished your final review, click Share & Send Now

Sending documents to couples

Intake forms and other documents are important for new couple clients to complete, since completed documents do not transfer from individual client profiles. To share a document with the clients from a couple profile:

1. Navigate to the couple's Overview page
2. Click Share in the upper right 
3. Select the individual(s) you want to share items with
   • Clicking the green checkmark will deselect the person from receiving the item(s)
4. Click Continue to Share
5. On the Send intakes page, select the documents you want to share with each client and edit the email that is sent with it

Note: To learn more about resending intake forms, viewing completed documents, and checking the status of a client's intake, see Sending intake forms and documents to clients.

Secure Messaging with couples

For couple profiles, you can send Secure Messages to the couple in a group thread. Alternatively, if only one of the individuals has Secure Messaging enabled, you can message the client(s) individually.

Important: Secure Messages sent to the client in their individual thread won’t be visible to the other client in the couple.

To enable Secure Messaging for a couple:

1. Navigate to their Overview page > Edit > Clients
2. Click Manage > Manage Client Portal & Billing
3. Select Send & receive Secure Messages
4. Click Save when you're done
5. Repeat these steps for the other client in the couple

To send a Secure Message to a couple:

1. Navigate to the couple's Overview page
2. Click Messages > Open conversations in the upper right corner
3. Select the thread you want to send a message to
   • To message in a group thread, both members of the couple must have Secure Messaging enabled

Note: It’s not required for a client to have an individual profile (in addition to the couple profile) to message the client individually.

Viewing the Client Portal from a couple's perspective

When an individual from a couple logs into the Client Portal for the first time, they'll see the Welcome message and any documents that were shared with them. The name in the top right corner of their Client Portal will reflect the couple profile.

Note: For a help center designed specifically for your clients, see SimplePractice Client Help Center.

If a client also has their own individual client profile, the client will be able to choose which profile they'd like to manage. They won't have multiple separate Client Portal logins:

The client can also click the name in the top right corner to select a different profile or sign out.