Remote Therapy is a form of psychotherapy or other psychological therapy in which a trained psychotherapist meets with the client for an interview by telephone, internet or other electronic media. Remote contact is to substitution, the conventional practice of face to face. Particularly nowadays during the pandemic online counselling is very demanding but is not always a good resolution and support for anyone.
There are four different forms of remote contact counselling.
The first one can be contacted through the Internet in the form of chat, video or by email contact also called online counselling.
Another form of remote psychotherapy can be phone counselling where both callers can hear each other, and the client can directly receive psychological help.
The third form is counselling via SMS text and is mainly used by the young people for the sake of technology and rapid flow of information. After that almost all of us have a mobile which facilitates contact in receiving help.
The fourth form may be video counselling through any portal which has in their offer a video chat, for instance, Google, Skype, Zoom, etc.
So, to summarise, each of the above forms can become entangled in each other due to technological progress and when using a smartphone, tablet or laptop, we can take advantage of all of these forms of counselling. It is worth remembering that all remote options of counselling and psychotherapy have to be safe for both sides. For the listener and the client. All has to stay with confidentiality. Below I will try to show the pros & cons of that type of counselling support.
ADVANTAGES OF ONLINE THERAPY
- the service is much cheaper than traditional and often it is free,
- can be used by person with disability, particular with movement limitation,
- for the people residing away from towns and cities,
- the person benefiting from the service of this may feel more comfortable making it an easier conversation,
- can be educated and more motivated,
- may have easy access for young people and teenagers,
- allow the freedom to speak and fully express themselves.
DISADVANTAGES OF ONLINE THERAPY
- this kind of service has some disadvantage like it is hard to respond in a crisis situation when counselling is carried out at a distance,
- the person concerned may have a problem with writing or reading.
- when the person has a mentally ill-treatment that has no positive effect and will introduce errors in therapy.
- It is difficult to cooperate when a psychotherapist does not see the client’s facial expressions and body language.
- Also, some of the insurance policies will not be covering this kind of therapy.
- worries who is on other side and who actual see and heard me
- limitation of confidentiality when other people can heard the conversation
In my next blog I will try to tell you how to overcome some of the disadvantages and prepare for online counselling without fear or at least minimise the worry a bit.
If you have other examples, follow to the comments section. Thank you
Multicultural Counselling Service 