Working Together Online

Online therapy has SO many benefits.

First, it allows tremendous flexibility for where and when we can meet. It can be during a lunch break, your commute, or right before or after work.

You also don’t have to worry about traveling to an office. Who needs the hassle of battling traffic, finding parking, and spending money on gas??

Best of all, you can do therapy in a comfortable space. We can meet in your living room as you drink your preferred beverage from your favorite mug while your pet is on your lap.

I want you to meet with me at a time and location that works for you and puts you in the best possible position for our work to be successful – and to get you those results as quickly as possible.

Being in your own space can make opening up and engage in the process easier.

But this might be the greatest advantage…

A big part of therapy is developing healthy habits. And like most healthy habits, they’re hard to stick with because they aren’t immediately gratifying. You know that exercising benefits you, but it’s often one of the first things you stop doing when things get difficult.

One of the most important strategies for developing good habits is making them as easy as possible. The same goes for therapy.

You might start very motivated to do this work, but there can be moments when it’s hard or it feels like the progress isn’t coming as quickly as you’d like. When things get busy, it might feel easy to cancel a session or pause our work for a while.

Online therapy makes it easier to meet, preventing our sessions from becoming yet another difficult demand.

Wondering whether it’s as good as a traditional therapy in an office?

I’ve done therapy in person and virtually and found that they are equally effective.

The biggest challenges to virtual therapy are the lack of in-person connection and giving me less opportunity to observe your body language.

Sharing a space with someone in person and being able to shake hands when we meet helps to forge a connection. However, meeting virtually often provides clients with an improved level of comfort that I find more than makes up for not being in the same space to develop a connection.

I’m trained to understand non-verbal communication to gauge my clients’ responses to therapy and help guide our conversations. Video conferencing allows me to see significant non-verbal communication, so I don’t find it limiting. I take steps to ask for more feedback from clients to ensure I’m not missing anything.

While voice-only calls aren’t as ideal, I believe the convenience of the medium outweighs any deficiencies. The most important element of therapy is that we’re talking through things together, which can happen through video or voice-only calls.

Making the most out of our time together online…

The work we do together is deeply personal, and you must allow yourself privacy when we are meeting together. Clients will sometimes have family members say hello to me during a session, which is fine, but ultimately I want to be sure you’re in a space where we can speak freely.

It’s uncomfortable for me if I feel that someone else is listening to our session, as I would never want to say anything that you wouldn’t want someone else to hear. As a mental healthcare professional, I have to follow federal and state laws around medical privacy and can’t be in a position where I’m discussing your private health information with someone else listening unless I have your permission.

I encourage you to create a space for yourself when meeting online so that you can take some time to process what we discussed after a session. It can be jarring to do a session where we’re working through something and then jumping right back into a work meeting or engaging with your family right after we finish.

Being in a comfortable space can also aid our work together as it can help to support you through any challenging topics of conversation, but I know that it’s not always possible.

For video conferencing, I typically use the Zoom platform with added protections in place for confidentiality. I can use other video platforms upon request but must discuss with you ahead of time. I’m happy to meet with you by phone only if that is what you need.

I think this is the solution you’ve been waiting for.

I know, I know. We’re online for so many things now. It can be exhausting and monotonous.

But it doesn’t have to be. Our work will help you be better able to navigate the challenges of our digital world. And working online is the perfect way to give you a safe space to be seen and heard – and to encourage you to achieve your goals.

You have so many demands on you each day. Therapy doesn’t have to be one!

I look forward to meeting you and answering your questions. Call today for your free consultation: (914) 202-3431.