There is one common discussion in the online world right now – is online psychotherapy good? Is it even possible to perform psychotherapy online? If yes, what are its benefits? Why is it experiencing a high demand right now?
Whether you or someone you know need or are interested in undergoing psychotherapy sessions, you might one to know how you can benefit from online therapy.
Table of Contents:
Better Sense of Anonymity
This is probably one of the most influential and most important factors that contribute to the rise of online counseling sessions. It doesn’t matter if people are really more anonymous if the session is online or not. What is more important here is that they believe their anonymity and for this reason, they behave and respond differently online.
Among the primary differences is the chance to talk about more personal and crucial concerns in the therapeutic relationship online faster than they can in actual life. For example, most of the common issues being discussed that are extremely important to a person include childhood abuse, sexual abuse, feelings of guilt regarding the death of a loved one, suicidal ideation, self-mutilating behaviors, suicidal behaviors, and chronic pain and how to deal with it.
Some people also find it more comfortable to discuss things in an online environment or chat room and didn’t even inform their current clinician or therapist how important the issue is to them.
Also, read the very instructive article titled “Pros and Cons of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy“.
It is a quite powerful effect and something that it not usually given much weight and thought. After all, three years of psychotherapy would never do anything good if the client never bothered to discuss something that happened to them, like sexual abuse during their childhood.
For this reason, it is easy to assume that the therapeutic relationship is only as strong and effective in online psychotherapy as it is in personal therapy. It presupposes that the therapist and the client have some basic online skills as well as meet other common qualifications to achieve the best outcomes from the psychotherapy session.
Receive Expert Opinion
As there are no geographical boundaries in the online real, finding a professional who can treat you or provide you second opinion on diagnosis is possibly so much easier. For instance, if you are in Europe but you know that there is a specialist in the USA, you don’t have to worry because you can just engage in online interactions.
This form of online communication is now a common practice in the telemedicine field. Thus, there is very little reason that it cannot be applied to the field of behavioral healthcare effectively and equally.
Easy Contact
Most of the time, it is so much easier to get in touch with an online mental healthcare provider through email and receive a response faster as compared to calling your psychiatrist or therapist in real life to raise a general question. It varies but ideally, an online psychotherapy provider can respond to a chat or email request right away.
Cost
Finally, online psychotherapy is often more affordable compared to real life psychotherapy.