Tips to make your online therapy more effective
This is the best time to optimize your practice and offer therapies remotely to your patients. We will give you some tricks to make it more effective
The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the world to adapt to a new style and rhythm of life. Mental health professionals play a key role in helping to cope with the situation of forced confinement. However, most therapists have had to leave the face-to-face consultation for health reasons and have been forced to reinvent themselves in order to offer the same psychological support service to their patients.
“Teletherapy” means providing care digitally, through videoconferences or calls. Introduced 20 years ago, it has grown side by side with technological innovation and mental health stigma reduction. Scientific research shows that, although many patients are initially more comfortable with face-to-face interaction, the therapeutic alliance can be developed and maintained through teletherapy.
Despite the fact that the use of teletherapy was implemented two decades ago, many professionals have not yet decided to adopt this methodology, mainly for three reasons:
Effectiveness. The teletherapy generates distrust on the part of the therapist, although numerous studies equated its effectiveness to face-to-face therapy.
Loss of information. During the face-to-face consultation, the therapist receives a lot of information from the patient, verbal and non-verbal. Technological improvements in audio and video reduce this threat, making it possible to capture all the messages of non-verbal communication.
Technological skills. Many mental health professionals are not digital natives and do not feel comfortable having to use technology to develop a teletherapy session. Fortunately, the platforms for remote connections are becoming easier every day and it takes very little practice to become proficient.
Tips on how to launch your teletherapy consultation
- Be prepared to answer questions about how the process and technology work.
- Announce that you’re offering this new service.
- Advertise, so that those looking for teletherapy can easily find you.
- Talk about it through your social networks, newsletter, blog post…
Tips to maximize the effectiveness of teletherapy
- Prepare all the equipment you need. Make sure the wifi, microphone and camera are working.
- Practice the session to gain confidence and be fluent when it comes to being with your patient.
- Prepare the environment. Create a professional environment with a bright, calm and neutral background.
- Guide your patients on the best digital tools to make the video call effective.
- Make sure that the platform you use respects the data protection law.
From Psious we have developed Amelia Virtual Care for Smartphones, a solution that allows you to work remotely with your patients using virtual reality easily. Psious@home combines VR benefits with teletherapy flexibility in one solution.
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