Is Teletherapy for You?
Telehealth has become much more prominent and a new reality for therapists and clients. But is it for you?
As I’ve worked with my students (I teach at a master's program for Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists and Licensed Professional Clinical Counselors), they often talk about what they prefer to do—usually in-person therapy. That somehow dismisses the reality of actual work.
Some people will only be available using telehealth and might not have come to therapy otherwise. At the same time, when people are in-person in therapy, they might also be hiding things or not disclosing things, or the therapist could miss things as well. In other words, whatever the format, you get what you get, and that's what you get to work with.
This is analogous to the people who pontificate about how two parents, with one parent working and the other parent the stay-at-home mom, are the best for raising children. Whether or not this may or may not be true for children, the reality for many people is that they may be single parents or in a two-parent household, where both have to work. Further research that says daycare is problematic also doesn't consider that daycare isn't an economic choice for many people.
With telehealth, you get what you get, and as a single parent in an economically challenged two-parent household, you do what you do to survive. That is true for clients as much as it is for therapists.
Functionally, if teletherapy is what you can or want to do, there are some benefits. Rather than needing an hour-and-a-half to two hours in your schedule to have a one-hour (or 50-minute session hour), you can schedule it from home or at work among and between everything else in your schedule. I’ve often been asked over the years for a referral for a therapist “like you,” … like me, in the area where I had been doing a presentation. There isn’t anyone in my biological family like me!
There are much less duplicable therapists all over. With telehealth, you (if living in California) can access anyone licensed as a therapist in California rather than only those you can conveniently get to in your area. Therapy or teletherapy, this or that therapist- nothing is a panacea that will be perfect for your needs. However, teletherapy does give more options and possible shortcomings. Personally, and professionally, I, among many other therapists who’ve gone partly, primarily, or fully to telehealth sessions, have found that it works well, with a couple of exceptions.
It's very tough, however, with very young children. My colleague said her very excited 3-year-old client wanted to share with her the new things in her room, so she ran around with the iPad, showing her this and that. My colleague said she got seasick watching on her screen.
Teleconferencing is a tool that may work for you. And it may be better than not trying at all.
Ronald Mah is a licensed marriage and family therapist who offers online psychotherapy. He is also an author on discipline, behavior, and psychotherapy and the co-director of the Master of Psychology Program at Western Institute for Social Research, Berkeley. More at RonaldMah.com.
