Rula offers a HIPAA-compliant and secure tool for direct communication with clients and other providers involved in your client’s care.
This article provides a step-by-step guide for using the messaging tool to communicate with your clients and with other providers who share a client.
How to message a client
Client communication can play an important role in supporting treatment goals. Secure messaging gives you a way to address brief questions, provide guidance, and share resources between appointments—helping clients feel supported while keeping communication documented and secure.
- Clients can also view and send messages to their care team from their Rula patient portal under their own Messages tab.
To send or view a client message in the provider portal, follow these steps:
- Click the Messages tab from the left menu.
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Search the client by name in the search bar, or click the dropdown to view a list of current or past/inactive clients.
- Current client: Any client you have a future scheduled appointment with, and any client you’ve seen in the last 90 days. You can only message current clients, and vice versa.
- Past/inactive client: Any client who canceled their initial appointment or rematched with a new Rula therapist 2+ weeks ago, or a client who you haven’t seen in the last 90 days. You can’t message past clients and past clients can’t message you, but you can view your message history.
- This page will be blank if you don’t have any clients yet.
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Click their name to open a message thread.
- Previous or unread messages with the client will be shown in the thread with date and time stamps—their messages will be white and yours will be green. This page may be empty if you haven't exchanged messages with this client yet.
- For new clients you haven’t messaged yet, you’ll see a notification that the client has chosen you as their provider with the date and time of their first appointment with you. You can message them before their first appointment if needed.
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To send a new message or reply, type in the free text box and, once ready, click Send. You should see a success notification.
- If successful, the message will show in green in the thread with the date and time you sent the message.
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If your message failed to send:
- Copy your message so you don’t lose it.
- Refresh the page.
- Paste the message and try again.
In the future, you can find a conversation thread from the Messages tab by clicking the Clients section and selecting the client's name to open your message history with them.
Client replies
You’ll receive email notifications when a client sends you a message, unless they reply to your message within 5 minutes. Any unread messages will be indicated by the number of unreads listed next to their name in the Messaging tab, and can be viewed in the thread.
Best practices for client messaging
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We recommend sharing your communication preferences and expectations with your clients during their first session.
- If you and your clients align on the messaging tool for communications moving forward, they should be aware that messaging in the portal should not be used for crisis communications—they’ll be reminded of this at the bottom of the conversation thread, and be provided with contact information for national crisis lines.
- Feel free to share our patient help center article for more info and steps.
- Keep your Messages tab up-to-date with new messages by refreshing the page if it’s been open for a while.
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Leverage client communication for quality care, reaching out for things like:
- Canceling or rescheduling an appointment
- Connecting before a session, or checking in between sessions
- Asking questions prior to their first appointment to ensure you’re the right fit, and reminding them to complete intake forms
- Client no-shows
How to message another provider
When a client’s care expands to include multiple providers, coordination between Rula providers ensures everyone is working toward the same clinical priorities, reinforces consistency in the therapeutic approach, and reduces the burden on clients to relay complex information between providers.
You can message other providers on your client’s care team using our HIPAA-compliant messaging tool. This gives you a secure, centralized way to align on treatment plans, share updates, clarify roles, and support safer, more integrated care.
- Important: A release of information (ROI) is not required for provider to provider communication regarding a mutual client’s care.
To send or view a provider message in the provider portal, follow these steps:
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Click the Clients tab from the left menu and select the client from your roster to open their client chart.
- The client must be active (upcoming appointment or a visit in the last 90 days) in order to message another provider regarding their care.
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On the right, find the client’s other providers under the Care team section.
- Providers who have a future scheduled appointment with the client or have seen the client in the last 90 days are part of their current care team.
- Providers are considered a past provider if they have not seen the client in the last 90 days, or if the client canceled their initial appointment or rematched with a new Rula therapist 2+ weeks ago.
- You can click the Message button under the provider you need to reach out to, or click View all to pull up a full list of current and past providers, then click Message from there.
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This will take you to the conversation thread with the provider regarding that specific client.
- It will indicate at the top of the thread who you’re messaging and which client it’s regarding.
- Previous or unread messages with the provider will be shown in the thread with date and time stamps—their messages will be white and yours will be green. This page may be empty if you haven't exchanged messages with this provider yet.
- If you have other conversation threads regarding other mutual clients, these will appear as separate conversations you can navigate between on the left, under the dropdown for that provider.
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To send a new message or reply, type in the free text box and, once ready, click Send. You should see a success notification.
- If successful, the message will show in green in the thread with the date and time you sent the message.
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If your message failed to send:
- Copy your message so you don’t lose it.
- Refresh the page.
- Paste the message and try again.
In the future, you can find a conversation thread from the Messages tab by clicking the Providers section and selecting the provider’s name to open your message history with them.
Provider replies
You’ll receive an email notification when a provider sends you an initial message, and when they reply to your message (unless it’s within 60 minutes). Any unread messages will be indicated by the number of unread messages listed next to their name in the Messaging tab, and can be viewed in the thread.
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