Distance, Online and Technology Assisted Therapy

Would you like to receive therapy but you have few practitioners in your community?  Do you have a physical or psychological condition that makes traveling difficult? Do you have limited access to transportation?  Are you a Maricopa County employee?

 

If you answered "Yes" to any one of those questions, you may be happy to learn that therapy is not out of reach.  Counselors and therapists have been using telephonic and internet technology for decades to help clients in need.  Successful crisis counseling over the phone began in the 1950's and 1960's with the creation of suicide hotlines.

 

Today computer and elecctronic technology allow for many different modes of distance and internet-based ccounseling:

  • telephonic counseling
  • text-based chat
  • voice chat
  • video chat
  • virtual world environments (for example, Second Life)

Deciding whether Distance Therapy is right for you will depend on your personal preference, mental and physical health conditions, techological savvy, access to technology and ability to support the technology and internet access.

 

Distance Therapy can be used as an adjunct to (in addition to) regularly scheduled face-to-face sessions or as the sole method of counseling.  Distance Therapy works better with some theoretical approaches than others.  I work from a Cognitive-Behavioral approach which does tend to have many instructional moments intertwined with traditional, empathy-based, Humanistic talk therapy.

 

Before you decide, do some research.  Search for the term "distance therapy", "distance counseling", "online therapy", "telecounseling" or "technology-assisted therapy".

 

Some sites and readings:

 

One downside to Distance Therapy is that insurance companies have not yet made the decision to cover technology-assisted services (however, Maricopa County employees CAN use their benefits for Distance Therapy).  Clients need to be sure that they will be able to pay for on-going therapy paying out of pocket.   Payments can be made in advance of each session through PayPal or with a valid credit/debit card.