The ongoing pandemic induced lockdown has raised the risks to psychological health while restricting access to in-person therapy. Fortunately, remote therapy has evolved into a viable alternative, even for people who have little experience of operating technology.
While there is no substitute for in-person interactions where a therapist can view your entire body language and the influence of the surrounding environment, it cannot undermine the many benefits of Remote Therapy, some of which are listed below:
1. Immediate Access: The enduring lockdown has restricted your movement and the social distancing has prevented you from meeting many people. If and when you need therapy, you can immediately call or video call your therapist or seek someone who is accessible for an immediate registration and session. For years, people with mobility and transport issues have been using remote therapy to their advantage; perhaps you can use it too, until the pandemic blows over. You can get an immediate guidance through your device and fast-track your recovery to mental well-being. Immediate access also encourages children and teenagers to adapt web-based therapy sessions.
2. Affordable Sessions: Under the current crisis, it is quite possible that your family members or multiple co-habitants are suffering from stress and anxiety during the Covid-19 crisis. Hence, on phone or online therapy emerge as an affordable option to seek help. Traditionally, they have always been cheaper than in-person counseling and the current crisis has made many therapists cut down on their consultation charges to accommodate more patients and help curb the rising risk of mental illnesses. You also save on the additional expenses on commuting.
3. Convenient Interaction: The patient as well as the therapist can curate their interactions and the absence of observing nonverbal cues can make the patient more comfortable in the interactions. Many socially stimulated phobias, anxiety disorders and agoraphobia may become irrelevant in remote therapy and you can interact with your doctor at your own convenience. You can conceal your nonverbal cues and not get intimidated by the physical presence of a therapist. Furthermore, you can be flexible about the time of your response and choose to revert by text, email, on phone or on call.
4. The Choice of Anonymity: Ever wonder why some people prefer the confession box and chat sites to express themselves as compared to a therapist’s couch? Everyone goes through a phase of life when they want to maintain anonymity while talking something personal. Remote Therapy Gives You This Choice to remain nameless during a session and get medically validated advice. Established Therapists honor patient-doctor confidentiality but Remote Therapy can go a step further in being a safe space to share anything that is bothering your mind.
5. Possibility of Group Therapy with Patients of Your Choosing: The lockdown has made it easier for you to pursue group sessions with people who never found the time or the convenience to join you in therapy. They can be friends, family, colleagues or new acquaintances who face similar challenges. A combination of technology and therapy can help you reconnect and re-establish a mutual precedence to help each other.
6. Ideal for those with Social Stigma: A few years back, a Jude Law’s character in a Steven Soderbergh film gave an incredible reason for practicing psychotherapy in the US and not the UK. He stated that in the UK mental patients are seen as ill people while in the US they are termed as someone who is getting better. To an extent, such a social stigma does exist in the society here and remote therapy can help you overcome it without having to face ridicule or regret. Sometimes the home environment is helpful in overcoming the anxiety associated with traditional therapy.
Some Words of Caution:
1. Evaluate Your Insurance Claim: Does your insurance cover remote therapy? If it doesn’t, you must seek clarification from your insurance provider as to why special provisions are not in place under special circumstances to treat your web counseling with a qualified mental therapist. Even if the claim isn’t possible, online consultation can still emerge as a viable and affordable action.
2. Make Sure your Data is Secure: A video conferencing tool is only as safe as its user. Hence, your data security depends on the fact that your therapist is licensed and has years of experience under his or belt for conducting online sessions. Such therapists have the various cyber security measures, software and protocols in place to protect your data and they would never market your personal woes as a case study for their practice. An unlicensed therapist, on the other hand, poses very high risks to your personal data.
3. Don’t Withhold Crucial Information: Remote Therapy sessions are convenient and they can be comfortable, but they do not have to be casual. You as well as your therapist have an agenda based on some common goals. During this lockdown, it is possible that you are seeking therapy without having any clarity whether you actually need it. Well, everyone can better themselves with some therapy, once you realize that it can be helpful. Therefore, be open during your session, answer what is asked and try to yield a fruitful conversation.
4. Complete Your Treatment: While online access to therapists is easy, it is as easy to switch of your device and isolate yourself from all forms of therapeutic intervention. Stay committed to the plan to restore your mental health.
Some of the Most Common Reasons for seeking Remote Therapy during the Pandemic are:
1. Parenting tips to help children worry less about the virus and focus on their studies.
2. How to practice emotional intelligence while spending prolonged periods with the same people at home.
3. Stress and anxiety due to uncertainty in employment and financial stability.
4. Death or illness of someone close.
5. Moral Injury.
6. PTSD
7. Couples’ Therapy.
8. Domestic abuse.
9. Stress and Anxiety amongst parents and teens when someone does not want to stay indoors.
10. Managing conflicts within the family in a time of prolonged co-habitation.
11. Dealing with worries of the nonresident children, the ill or the aged who live far away from you.
12. Acute stress and existential crisis which may trigger suicidal tendencies.
If you or someone you know if affected by post-traumatic stress disorder, please contact me , Richard Reid, directly on +44 7624 499 511 or visit our website here
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