Joni Gilbertson

Joni Gilbertson was born in New Castle, Pennsylvania to a young Italian couple. As a child with a military parent, she went to numerous schools throughout high school and ended up living in Southern California where she raised her two daughters. Since location stability was not a part of her life, she easily enjoyed many careers. Presently, she is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor and sees clients using telemental health on a weekly basis. Since she was the only counselor in Illinois that she knew of who was using telemental heath, she had to do great amounts of research to understand how to set things up both legally and ethically. Working in areas of law and ethics has continuously remained a part of her life. She recently retired as a college instructor after winning the award for "Teachers Who Make a Difference." During her thirteen years at the college she developed and taught many legal issues, criminal justice, and mental health classes. Earlier she retired as chief of probation after spending many years as both a juvenile and adult officer. During that time, she developed numerous court-ordered programs as well as training programs for both probation officers and detention workers. Additionally, she worked as a prison therapist. Writing the book on Telemental Health was an act of love to assist mental health professionals as they struggled to continue seeing their clients during the 2020 pandemic. The many years of research she completed to develop the classes and trainings over the years has proved to be a vital part of assisting her to accomplish the completion of this book. It is her desire that those who purchase "The Essential Guide to Providing Successful Online Therapy" find the guidance they are searching for so that they will be able to improve or start their telemental health practice. "The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today." H. Jackson Brown Jr.