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Consulting is providing expertise and knowledge to help organizations and businesses develop, attain goals and solve problems. Profit and nonprofit organizations and businesses often hire consultants to supplement their staff and save the costs of hiring a full-time employee. As a person new to the company or organization, O will view the situation from a fresh perspective. Because I am not beholden to any particular organizational or corporate culture, co-worker scrutiny or morale, I can act as the catalyst for change. My primary consulting expertise is in the areas of team building, conflict resolution, grant writing, and review, nonprofit organizational planning, and development.

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Coaching deals with wellness, personal growth, career, and adjustment concerns. In other words, I will focus on improving problem areas that involve relationships. These areas include intra- and interpersonal concerns related to finding meaning and adjustment in such settings as schools, families, and career development.

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Counseling is the skilled and principled use of relationship to facilitate self- knowledge, emotional acceptance and growth and the optimal development of personal resources. My overall aim is to provide an opportunity to work towards living more satisfyingly and resourcefully. Counseling relationships will vary according to need but may be concerned with developmental issues, addressing and resolving specific problems, making decisions, coping with crisis, developing personal insights and knowledge, working through feelings of inner conflict or improving relationships with others. My role is to facilitate the client's work in ways that respect the client’s values, personal resources, and capacity for self-determination.

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Benefits of Teletherapy

What is Teletherapy, also known as online therapy, e-therapy, video therapy or telehealth, is therapy delivered through a virtual platform via a computer. 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.”

If you’ve ever used Zoom, FaceTime or Skype, it’s essentially the same thing – except more secure and with a qualified therapist or counselor at the other end instead of a distant friend or relative.

While it has grown in availability over the last few years, teletherapy has been around since the 1990s in the United States and is considered a highly effective method for therapy delivery and now is being widely used because of COVID-19 and subsequent lockdown.

Most people understand the benefits and sometimes the necessity of seeking out therapy and which is now magnified by the stress, anxiety and depression surrounding COVID-19 along with the current lockdowns. Teletherapy can be a rewarding and valuable experience, helping us to overcome challenges and barriers in life we might not be able to cope with alone,.

Unfortunately, seeking out therapy is still something many people find difficult for several reasons. Whether it’s the lingering social stigma of needing support with our mental health or simply finding the time and capacity to sit down with a therapist.

Who is Teletherapy For?

Teletherapy is beneficial for a range of people, for a diverse set of circumstances or experiences, including coaching, counselingng, consulting and marital therapy.

It has been used for regular one-to-one therapy sessions but also used in couples and group therapy sessions to support individuals couples and families. Another way teletherapy has been used is for behavioral training to caregivers of young people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

It is worth noting that teletherapy will not prove beneficial for all individuals in all circumstances. I recommend that as the first step towards therapy, especially if you are seeking it for the first time, I encourage you to have an open conversation with me about whether this is the best pathway of support for you.

How Do Online Therapy Sessions Work?

Teletherapy sessions work much the same way as traditional therapy sessions with only one significant difference – the therapist and the client are not in the same room.

Sessions are scheduled at an appropriate and suitable time and day for each party, who then log-in via an agreed, secure video platform. The therapist and client can see and hear each other in real-time during the session via the use of webcams and headsets. Through this virtual environment, they can interact with each other, and the therapist uses the same traditional techniques and activities they would use in a face-to-face therapy session (Goode and Shinkle, 2019).

As with face-to-face therapy, a client may only seek out the therapist for one session to deal with a current life situation, or they may agree to on-going sessions.

Are Teletherapy Sessions Private?

Therapists are ethically and legally bound by privacy laws to not share details about their teletherapy sessions with third parties, just as with face-to-face sessions. Therapists must ensure they are in a private and secure room before engaging in any teletherapy sessions. Sessions should not be recorded or shared, unless with explicit agreement from the patient.

From the patient end, it is also down to them to ensure they conduct their end of the session in an equally private area to ensure their confidentiality.

Some therapists have argued that teletherapy is more private than traditional face-to-face sessions, where patients who know each other have the potential to bump into each other on the premises where therapy takes place.

In terms of the security of the software used, therapists utilizing teletherapy must use specialized software that is fully encrypted, offering a high level of security and privacy. Any software that therapists use for telepsychology must be approved by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). This is legislation that ensures data privacy and security for safeguarding medical information, including therapy.

Is Teletherapy as Effective as Face to Face Therapy?

How effective teletherapy is, really depends on the individual and their reasons for seeking therapy. Since it first began to be used as a treatment method more than 20 years ago, psychological research has explored the different ways teletherapy has been used, and it’s effectiveness.

Overall the research does support that teletherapy is just as effective as traditional face-to-face therapy for a range of circumstances.

A few key studies include:

Wagner, Horn, and Maercker (2013) explored the benefits of teletherapy for supporting patients diagnosed with depression. Sixty-two patients were randomly assigned to two groups – one receiving teletherapy and the other receiving more traditional face to face therapy. The patients received eight sessions each, and at the end of their sessions, the group who received teletherapy showed a slightly higher percentage of reporting fewer depressive thoughts and feelings. After three months, the teletherapy group continued to report a decrease in depressive thoughts and feelings, compared to those treated traditionally who reported a minimal decrease.
Acierno et al. (2014) studied the benefits of teletherapy for use in therapy with veterans experiencing PTSD. They worked with 132 veterans, asking them to complete a scale to measure PTSD and then randomly assigned them to one of two groups to receive 10-12 sessions of either face to face therapy or teletherapy. After three months and six months, respectively, the participants were asked to complete the PTSD scales again. At both points, the researchers found that those who were treated via teletherapy showed similar improvement to those treated face-to-face.
Mitchel et al. (2008) worked with trained therapists to see if teletherapy could be effective with the treatment of patients experiencing bulimia nervosa. One hundred twenty-eight adults diagnosed with bulimia nervosa took part in the study and were randomly assigned to receive therapy either face-to-face or via teletherapy. Participants were asked to report if they were still participating in bingeing and purging behaviors after the initial sessions ended, thr,ee months later and twelve months later. The researchers found extremely minimal differences in recovery between the two groups.

Research to date shows very promising effectiveness for teletherapy, however many therapists stress that one of the critical components for successful therapy is the relationship between patient and therapist, and in-person connections can be vital for successful treatment. For individuals who experience difficulty forming relationships or struggle with social interaction, traditional face-to-face therapy could be more beneficial in overcoming these challenges.

4 Benefits of Teletherapy for Patients

Aside from its equal effectiveness as a therapy treatment, there are many other benefits to teletherapy for patients seeking it out. A few notable ones include:

1. Accessibility

For individuals living in another city or state, living with a disability that makes travel difficult, or those who are just unsure about trying therapy for the first time, teletherapy is a highly beneficial option. Teletherapy removes many of the barriers – physical, emotional, or mental – towards seeking out therapy and makes it more accessible for you.

Research has found that those who participate in teletherapy are also more likely to seek out face-to-face therapy as a result of a positive experience (Jones et al., 2014).

2. Offers Greater Flexibility

It’s easy to put off attending therapy when sessions are offered during limited office hours. You already have a lot of commitments to juggle, seeking out this form of support can easily be bumped down the priority list. However, when I can be readily available at a time that suits you, it offers greater flexibility and could even encourage you to seek the right support when you need it most.

3. Reduced wait times

It might seem like a small benefit, but increased flexibility also means reduced waiting times for you wanting to speak with me urgently or for the first time. It can take a lot of courage making an appointment for therapy, and the less time you have to wait, the more likely it will be that you will follow through and get the help you need.

Taking time off from work to battle traffic while going to meet with me, wasting even more time in the waiting room, having the session, and then battling traffic to return to work, is unnecessary. Being able to brew a quick coffee, step into a private room for the scheduled therapy session, and then returning fairly soon to ‘work-mode’ is a much more viable solution for most.

4. Creates a Safer Environment

That feeling of anxiety you may experience when sitting in the waiting room of the dentist or doctor surgery? It’s the same anxiety experienced when waiting for a therapy session. The process of going to a new environment to meet with a therapist can be a stressful one. Teletherapy alleviates this stress by allowing you to familiarize yourself with the process in the comfort of your own home.

References

Acierno, R., Knapp, R., Tuerk, P., Gilmore, A. K., Lejuez, C., Ruggiero, K., et al. (2017). A non-inferiority trial of Prolonged Exposure for posttraumatic stress disorder: In-person versus home-based telehealth. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 89.
Goode, H. and Shinkle, E. (2019). What is Teletherapy? A Helpful and Definitive Guide. Retrieved from: https://globalteletherapy.com/what-is-teletherapy
Heckman, B. D., Lovejoy, T. I., Heckman, T. G., Anderson, T., Grimes, T., Sutton, M., et al. (2014). The moderating role of sexual identity in group teletherapy for adults aging with HIV. Behav Med, 40(3).
Jones, M., Kass, A. E., Trockel, M., Glass, A. I., Wilfley, D. E., and Taylor, C. B. (2014). A Population-Wide Screening and Tailored Intervention Platform for Eating Disorders on College Campuses: The Healthy Body Image Program. Retrieved from: https://www.tandfonline.com
Mitchel, J. E., Crosby, R. D., Wonderlich, S. A., Crow, S., Lancaster, K., Simonich, H., Swan-Kremeier, L., Lynse, C., and Myers, T. C. (2008). A randomized trial comparing the efficacy of cognitive-behavioral therapy for bulimia nervosa delivered via telemedicine versus face-to-face. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com
Novotney, A. (2017). A Growing Wave of Online Therapy. Retrieved from: https://www.apa.org
Tse, Y. J., McCarty, C. A., Stoep, A. V., and Myers, K. M. (2015). Teletherapy Delivery of Caregiver Behavior Training for Children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Wagner, B., Horn, A. B., and Maercker, A. (2013). Internet-based versus face-to-face cognitive-behavioral intervention for depression: A randomized controlled non-inferiority trial. Journal of Affective Disorders, 2013; DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2013.06.032