TELETHERAPY
What is teletherapy?
Teletherapy has many different names, but mostly it is about therapy being delivered with technology. The therapist must use a secure platform to deliver the therapy session. The platform must meet privacy requirements of the therapists governing College. In my case it is the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario.
Goode and Shinkle (2019) created the following definition of teletherapy:
“Teletherapy is the online delivery of speech, occupational, and mental health therapy services via high-resolution, live video conferencing.
Who is teletherapy for?
Teletherapy can be used for a variety of mental health and life challenges like ADHD, anxiety, depression, trauma, stress, grief and relationship challenges to name a few. Although most clients would be suitable for teletherapy there may be some exceptions to this. I will identify if I believe an exception exists and make appropriate recommendations for alternatives forms of therapy.
Why do teletherapy?
1) Teletherapy is available now. Life doesn’t stop just because of the times. You may have thought you will wait to do therapy until this is all over. The challenge is, we don’t know when this will be over. In the current situation, challenges like anxiety, depression, ADHD and trauma don’t go away. In fact, they can be aggravated by the lockdown. Where structure was once imposed on us and our lives were so busy, we may find ourselves not having adequate coping strategies to adjust to the new norm. Teletherapy is a way to get help now and work together to figure out different and adaptive coping mechanisms.
2) Teletherapy is easy to do. All you need is a phone or a computer, a set of headphones (or not), wifi and a private space and away we go.
3) Teletherapy is efficient. No travelling time, no parking, no gas and no dealing with traffic and transit. The 1-hour appointment is really 1- hour of your day and doesn’t use up extra time getting there and back.
4) Teletherapy is effective. There have been numerous studies conducted on the effectiveness of teletherapy for treating depression, PTSD and bulimia. Some of these are Wagner, Horn, and Maercker (2013), Acierno et al. (2014), Mitchel et al. (2008). All three of these studies found that results from teletherapy vs traditional in-person therapy were as good if not better (Wagner, Horn, and Maercker (2013)).
5) Teletherapy is accessible. For people with certain life situations and different locations it may be difficult to access therapists. Particularly if you are looking for a therapist with a certain type of expertise. Teletherapy opens your choice to give you more options and expertise that may not readily be available in your area if engaging in face-to-face therapy.
6) Teletherapy is flexible. Less juggling of responsibilities and getting places. You just need a quiet place in your home, and we can get started.
How Do Online Therapy Sessions Work?
Online sessions work the same way face-to-face sessions work. You and I will set up a time to meet. You will use the secure link I send to your email to be placed in the session. We will do our check-in, confirm your location, identify our intentions for the session and then conduct the session. I will use the same approaches online as I would face to face. We will be able to see each other and interact with each other and we will be able to build our therapeutic alliance through videoconferencing. We can do short-term
Are Teletherapy Sessions Private?
Doxy.me is the platform I have chosen to use to deliver teletherapy. Doxy.me is easy for you to use as you don’t have to download anything. I will send you an encrypted link your email to click on. Once you link on the link you either go directly into the meeting or into my “waiting room”. There is also a chat function if we need to use that as well. We can securely pass documents back and forth to each other through the platform.
It is important from your end that you find a private area for the call to ensure your confidentiality.