Is Online Therapy Right For Me?

Do any of the following categories fit you?

• You’ve been searching or have tried therapy close to home, and haven’t felt like you ‘clicked’ well with any of them. (FYI the stats say that 70% of the impact of therapy comes down to the relationship you have with your therapist, rather than the interventions they use!)

• You struggle to attend in-person appointments: you may be incredibly busy and want to save time/mental load on getting to/from sessions, you may have trouble leaving the house (whether that’s access to transport, physical disability, chronic illness, or anxiety)

• You prefer the idea of talking to a therapist online or over the phone (maybe you prefer being in your home environment to talk about hard things, or you want to be in your pyjamas/comfy in bed for the session, or you feel like you can think/speak more freely when there’s not someone right in front of you)

  If YES, then it’s likely that Online or Phone Counselling would work well for you!

How Is Online Therapy Different to Face-to-Face?

There are only a few differences in online therapy vs face-to-face outside of the actual environment.

Prior to the session, I would email you a link to a Google Meet session, or I can give you a five minute warning via text before giving you a call.

Adaptations I use in online sessions:

• If there is a relevant diagram, worksheet or visual I can either ‘share screen’ with you, email or text it to you as we work through it together.

• I may demonstrate an idea on the ‘whiteboard’ function (let’s just agree now not to judge my illustration skills).

• Cameras can be on or off, but it is preferred that we both opt for on OR off, rather than only one of us having the camera on (this can feel awkward and can be distracting).

Is it Still Effective?

Yes! The research has shown that virtual and telephone counselling is still just as effective for the majority of people.

For some it can be even more effective, if they feel more comfortable speaking openly in their home environment, if being face to face with someone makes them preoccupied with ‘performing’, whereas at home they can be at ease, if they are hard of hearing and use a device that works best via phone, or even if they benefit from ‘body doubling’ and completing a task at home is on their agenda for the day (folding laundry during therapy knocks out two things from the to-do list at once!)