Teletherapy definition

Can’t leave the office? Traf­fic too much of a pain? Feel­ing like you don’t want to get out of your com­fy clothes or want­i­ng a home-body day? Not a prob­lem! Even pri­or to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, ther­a­pists have been using telether­a­py to meet people’s men­tal health needs via secure online plat­forms. So, what is the telether­a­py def­i­n­i­tion? In short, it’s the abil­i­ty to receive ther­a­py ser­vices over the inter­net in a loca­tion of your choos­ing, and still expe­ri­ence pos­i­tive results. Receiv­ing ther­a­py online is an excel­lent alter­na­tive to com­ing in per­son; Researchers have shown that receiv­ing ther­a­py online is just as effec­tive as it is in per­son.

Teletherapist

With telether­a­py comes telether­a­pists. These ther­a­pists are the ones who use a com­put­er and inter­net to con­nect with clients. Telether­a­pists can also be in-per­son ther­a­pists. There’s no offi­cial train­ing to be a telether­a­pist; how­ev­er, some states do require ongo­ing edu­ca­tion and aware­ness around the ben­e­fits and pro­tec­tions that need to be in place to do tele­health.

Here are some oth­er com­mon ques­tions that peo­ple ask when it comes to receiv­ing ther­a­py online and work­ing with a telether­a­pist: 

What do I need for online therapy?

For online ther­a­py, or telether­a­py, you’ll need a reli­able inter­net con­nec­tion and a com­put­er, or a smart­phone with audio and visu­al capa­bil­i­ties. Ear­buds and a note­book are also help­ful! Make sure you are in a safe, qui­et, and com­fort­able place for your ses­sion.

What about my privacy?

Pri­va­cy is impor­tant, and cru­cial to online ther­a­py and ther­a­py in gen­er­al. Because of this I pro­vide clients with a secure and HIPAA-com­pli­ant plat­form that pro­tects your per­son­al health infor­ma­tion as well as our con­ver­sa­tions for our appoint­ments togeth­er.

Is online therapy good for all situations?

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, there are some sit­u­a­tions where in-per­son ther­a­py would be a bet­ter fit. These include:

• If you need cri­sis ser­vices
• You active­ly expe­ri­ence thoughts to hurt your­self or oth­ers
• You expe­ri­ence psy­chot­ic episodes, or hal­lu­ci­nate
• You have expe­ri­enced past hos­pi­tal­iza­tion for your symp­toms
• You are addict­ed to using drugs and/or alco­hol

For these symp­toms and sit­u­a­tions, I am hap­py to pro­vide you with a refer­ral to assist you in get­ting the help you need.

Remote therapist

So what’s a remote ther­a­pist then? A remote ther­a­pist is anoth­er word for a telether­a­pist. So, in addi­tion to being an in-per­son ther­a­pist, I am also con­sid­ered a remote ther­a­pist, as I am cur­rent­ly licensed in three states: Texas, Utah, and Vir­ginia. Click on the state you live in to see the web­site for each of those places. If you’re curi­ous about tele­health for ther­a­py or have ques­tions, send me a mes­sage below.

Send me a mes­sage and I’ll reach out to you