Beginners Guide to Telehealth
So, your therapist has officially switched to Telehealth sessions for the time being and your weekly sessions will now be held through an online portal. Or maybe you had scheduled your first appointment and were recently notified this session will be conducted online. Or maybe the impact of COVID-19 has reminded you how hard it is to be a human, and your only option to discuss this is to meet with someone electronically.
Whatever the case, you’ve surely been wondering about the logistics of meeting with your therapist via an online video-chat (HIPAA*-secured) portal. If you’re like a lot of us, this is all brand new. New is hard. New can also often equal scary.
You’ve been accustomed to driving to your therapist’s office for your weekly session, sitting in the waiting room and then in the comfort of their cozy, safe office, so teaching your brain that this work will be done elsewhere might be difficult. Additionally, now you need to find a good place for a session with your therapist in your own space, which may not always feel as comfy or cozy. Your brain needs time to catch up.
Even as a therapist, my brain is taking time to process all this. Navigating life within a global pandemic is not something any of us were taught or trained for. There are no guidelines for how to adjust to a life that feels anything but normal. However, if we look at the current situation through the frame of radical acceptance, we can choose to do our best with what we’ve got.
The following tips may help you feel more comfortable and prepared when participating in a Telehealth session.
1) Find a place that is private and comfortable
Confidentiality is one of the factors of therapy that make it so powerful. Therapists hold your privacy to the highest standards and work diligently to control this when you are in our offices. If you live with other people, finding a place for your online session that is 100% private may be difficult, so you might have to get creative. Take your tablet or laptop out onto a porch or balcony, or even into your closet if you need to! You could also sit in your car and chat on your phone through Simple Practice’s Telehealth app. Allow yourself to be flexible. If, once the session has begun, you find you need to change your location, your therapist will understand and wait for you to find a better place.
2) Limit distractions
Limiting distractions during Telehealth sessions might also be tricky. The meaningful hour you spend in a therapy session deserves both the therapist’s and the client’s full, undivided attention. You may be tempted to multitask during your session by checking emails that pop up on your screen, folding clothes, watching TV, or even catching up on homework. Allow yourself the same attention you give to your in-person sessions, and remove the distractions within your control. Interruptions are inevitable, and beginning this Telehealth process will take some adjusting to, so offer yourself patience in figuring this one out.
3) Check Wi-Fi connection and browser connectivity
While therapists are responsible for good connectivity on their half, be sure that your signal can be reached in your car or on your balcony before heading out there for a session. Test out your connection by streaming a video for a few moments. Small bumps in the road are bound to happen and absolutely fixable. Let your therapist know beforehand if you’re having issues with connecting, and we can troubleshoot together.
4) Lean in to the discomfort
New activities often make us feel uncomfortable and can seem tricky for us to process. Our brains crave familiarity and feel safe when they’re able to predict and plan how any given circumstance is going to unfold. Think back to when you were first learning to ride a bike, or started a new job, or learned a new language. You probably felt apprehensive, unsure, maybe even like giving up. Know that these are all valid experiences to encounter when initially switching to Telehealth, and share your concerns with your therapist.
While still foreign to some of us, online psychotherapy and counseling has been conducted for more than 20 years, and research shows benefits equal to those of meeting with your therapist in-person(1)! It may not be the same, but if moving through the discomfort of this process means you are still able to meet with your therapist during this difficult period, then it’s worth facing these challenges. Although your therapist will not be physically in the room with you, through the screen we can still attend to your needs, feelings, and experiences in the same personal way as we typically would. You are still being seen and heard, even through a smartphone or laptop.
As you adjust to these changes—not only meeting with your therapist via Telehealth but many other new norms around you—be extra gentle and compassionate towards yourself. Remind yourself that all new things take time to adjust to, and remain open to the idea that you may enjoy this just as much—perhaps at times even more!—than your usual in-person sessions.
*Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act passed by Congress in 1996, which requires the protection and confidential handling of protected health information.
References
Hilty, D. M., Ferrer, D. C., Parish, M. B., Johnston, B., Callahan, E. J., & Yellowlees, P. M. (2013). The effectiveness of telemental health: A 2013 review. Telemedicine and e-Health, 19, 444-454.
