Since the technology advanced, mainly after the Pandemic Crisis, life seems to have moved online! Everything comes online, from corporate meetings to health consultancies, and people are also habituated to that, but is everything as effective as in-person? This question is not a new or one-person doubt but has been raised by many about telehealth and teletherapy services, especially in the health sector.
Telehealth is defined as providing or delivering health care services through electronic media: video calls, zoom meetings, phone calls, and text messages. It benefits long-distance or remote areas people to get immediate healthcare assistance in medical emergencies.
What is Teletherapy?
Teletherapy provides psychotherapy for people who have mental health issues such as stress-related issues, behavioral changes, sleeping and eating abnormalities, social anxiety, and many other severe mental health conditions.
Through video calling, both patient and the therapist connect to get therapy sessions done in convenient circumstances. It benefits both patient and therapist to set flexible timing, comfortable place, and privacy settings.
How Effective Teletherapy Services Compared to In-person Counseling?
In-person therapy counseling is a traditional method that includes a face-to-face meeting between the patient and the therapist. Whereas teletherapy only requires an online presence, which makes patients feel at ease in many ways.
- Teletherapy is cost-effective compared to in-person counseling as it reduces consultation fees and transportation charges.
- Teletherapy allows you to connect from anywhere, whereas in-person counseling happens to have specific timing and place for counseling.
- Online therapy offers more accessible access to psychotherapists who have difficulties in communication as it allows texting and phone calls.
- Teletherapy doesn’t force video conference in early sessions, which makes the patient feel more at ease and creates space to get habituated to talking with the therapist.
- Teletherapy provides more privacy than in-person therapy. It has a high chance of meeting friends and relatives outside, whereas you need your phone/pc at your home to attend teletherapy.
- You can avoid long waiting in hospital corridors when accessing virtually.
- Teletherapy sessions are easy to reschedule if there are any emergencies for both patient and therapist.
- Family members and friends can be included in online therapy counseling if necessary, whereas an in-person therapist doesn’t have access to contact them.
Myths About Teletherapy and Psychotherapy Services
Whether teletherapy or in-person therapy counseling, people have some warped perceptions towards psychotherapy services, which are entirely false yet believed by most people because of their fiction, movies, and some other negative thoughts.
Let’s see a few of them here!
- Myth: Therapists interrogate or shame patients!
- Myth: Therapy is like meeting a friend!
- Myth: You’ll get better after one session!
Despite increasing awareness, there are still many stigmas, shame, and guilt associated with mental health issues. It makes people feel restricted from making an appointment with a therapist and sharing their symptoms.
Although the symptoms are uncomfortable to share or about your vulnerable part, they are essential to share with the therapist to get treated. You may have distressing compulsions or negative thought processes, or you may struggle to clean up because you’re feeling so down. You may be embarrassed or apprehensive about expressing these kinds of symptoms. In reality, you have nothing to be concerned about because therapists have spent years studying and reading about all of these disorders to treat people.
As an outsider, it is easy to estimate or disregard psychotherapies as you think. Still, in reality, psychotherapies are essential sessions to maintain an individual’s balance in both physical and mental health.
In some ways, you can say it’s just like talking with a friend because the initial sessions are about sharing their vulnerable parts, habits, and trigger points, which might be real-life secrets that can only be shared to close ones. But psychotherapies are beyond that! The sessions are not just about knowing the unknown but treating each trigger point and maintaining emotional balance without disturbing a person’s regular life.
Mental health treatments or therapy results are not one-night things, as they occurred due to past incidents, which carry for days or years and require careful observation.
Therapy is like guiding or counseling patients about living peacefully by letting them forget or accept their past experiences and painful history. It requires multiple sessions to get patients’ trust first to find out the full story of their past and trigger points that make them worry or disturb their own living.
Conclusion
Getting psychotherapy services, especially teletherapy, has had a huge impact on people’s lives since the pandemic as it enhances self-consciousness in living. It dramatically affects all the ways, such as individual therapy or group therapy, and creates opportunities for people to develop their skills and strengths.
If you want to schedule an appointment too, visit https://teletherapymn.com/