08 Jul How Online Therapy Works?
How online therapy works, and is it as good as face to face?
I often speak to possible clients who ask me how does online therapy work, and does it work as well as in person counselling? While some of my clients are from Hythe or Folkestone, and come to see me in one of my consulting rooms, many are further afield and we work online.
A typical online counselling session
Previous to the session I’ll send you an email invite with the Zoom login details. At the set time we’ll both login and begin the session. Just like my face to face sessions, we will probably begin with taking measures. These are like scores where we look at specific things like your anxiety levels, needs or symptoms of trauma. We may take these every week, or every few weeks depending on the nature of our work together. Over the sessions, we can then plot your improvement and we can literally see, on a chart, the results of your therapy.
We’ll then move onto the main part of the counselling session. You may have or chose to set a goal to work towards and that session is devoted to that. Or, perhaps, something has happened in the last week that it’s important to bring to the session. This is your time. However, we will still be looking to work on what’s brought you here in the first place too!
We will wrap up just like a face to face to face session, looking at some homework and setting the date and time of our next session. I will then send that invite and zoom link to you.
What do you need for an online therapy session?
A quiet and comfortable place is the most important thing, along with an internet connection. That said, I have had clients who prefer the phone and we can always do that, or revert if we have connection issues. It doesn’t happen very often, but occasionally the tech gremlins pick on us.
It’s important to pick a place where you feel you can talk freely, and that you won’t be overheard. It also helps me to be able to see your face and shoulders. I may take you through how to position your laptop in the right place if necessary. Notifications should be off, especially if you’re using your phone, and ideally, you shouldn’t have to answer the doorbell or anything like that.
That said, life is life, and we work with what we have!
What’s so great about an online therapy call?
People sometimes worry that we won’t be able to make a connection, that it’s not as good as being in the same room. I haven’t found this, and many of my clients love its benefits. These include:
- No need to travel back and forth to the session
- You can build in downtime before and after the session to think about what’s come up
- If you’re anxious, you are in your own space
- No paying out for a commute, parking or the possibloe coffee and cake if you arrive early and need to occupy yourself
- Many people are very comfortable online now, and actively prefer this
- You can have your pet with you if it calms you and they are happy to sit quietly during the session.
I see my my own supervisor online and have found it very effective and practical.
Why not book yourself in for a no-obligation 15 minute chat to see what it’s like to work with me online? You can do that here.