How to Easily Have a Therapy Session Online

As other industries are trying to integrate online operations into their service delivery, the medical industry hasn't been behind.

Thanks to the internet, patients can receive medical care straight from the comfort of their homes these days. Normally, therapy requires the therapist and the clients to have one-on-one sessions.

This helps the therapist to understand the patient’s emotions and symptoms so they can know the best approach to take or recommend.

When this is done online, a few challenges may present themselves. For instance, not all kinds of therapy may be conducted online successfully to completion, with physiotherapy being a good example.

Also, conducting an online therapy session requires that you balance between technology, distractions, and separation from your clients as the therapist.

Therefore, you need to make sure your reactions while interacting with this new form of therapy conduction are as authentic as possible.

With a larger bias on psychotherapists, here are some ways to make your online therapy sessions a success.

1. Welcome Clients Virtually As You Would Physically

We are currently living in challenging times because of the COVID-19 pandemic. As Psychotherapist Becca Leitman opines, virtual sessions are paramount at least until social distancing is no longer a requirement.

She provides all her sessions through TeleHealth, at least until there is a breakthrough and we managed to beat the pandemic.

As you begin your online sessions, you need to keep in mind that your clients expect the same kind of professionalism and discretion as they get from face-to-face sessions.

Therefore, as you would welcome them to your office, make them feel comfortable as you welcome them to your virtual space.

You may also need to reassure your clients that the session is discrete by showing them what is going on in the room you are in.

Also, take the time and ask your client about the environment they are in, what surrounds them, so you know how to effectively use them in the therapy.

Whenever you notice something in either of your spaces, take time and acknowledge it and, if possible, use it for diving deeper into therapy.

2. Have Session Guidelines

Before conducting an online therapy session, you must send your clients some guidelines on what they should do and how to prepare in advance for the same. Make pointers of guidelines such as

• For the effectiveness of the session and to make sure I can see how you respond, choose a well-lit space to take our call from,
• Kindly mute all notifications to make sure we are not disturbed. I will use a separate for the session.
• Test your Wi-Fi in advance to make sure it can effectively support a video call. If not, kindly inform me. I will be happy to call you by phone.
• Grab anything that will make you feel comfortable. Consider having a blanket and a box of tissues.

These pointers should be specific to what you require of your clients.

3. Make Sure You Are Comfortable

As you look forward to making sure your clients are as comfortable as possible, make sure you are comfortable.

When you are comfortable, it is more likely that your clients will be as well. Here are tips to make sure you are comfortable throughout the session:

• Have a cup of tea or coffee nearby and warm before the session starts.
• If being in front of the screen all day is a bit too much for you, consider investing in blue light glasses to reduce the screen's brightness.
• Make sure your pets aren't in the same room as you when conducting your sessions.
• Let your partner and kids know that you are not disturbed and lock the door to the room you are working from.

It’s important to note that though these are hard times, you need time for yourself.

Take good care of yourself by setting aside time to spend time with your partner, kids, and pets. For the best delivery of therapy, make sure you are good yourself.

4. Have a Backup Plan

Like any other good thing about technology, there is the probability of failure or the inevitable coming to be.

Therefore, you need to be ready for the unknown or else have problems completing your sessions. Clients will always look up to you to be prepared for anything.

This adds up to your reputation, and therefore, a backup plan is very important.

To prepare for probable glitches, test your teletherapy platform with a friend, so you know what to expect when conducting your therapies. Here are a few things that you should do make sure you are prepared for the inevitable:

• Check your internet speed- internet speed is the most crucial thing in making sure you are conducting your sessions without any trouble.
• When you find out that your speed is anything less than 10mbps, you should start considering other internet connection options.
• Tethering your phone- while technology has the probability of failing, it offers multiple ways of getting things done.
• When your internet connections start buffering, you will want to have your USB cable around so you can tether your phone's internet connection with your laptop and continue with your sessions.
• There is also the option of using your phone's hotspot or Bluetooth to share the connection.
• Have your phone fully charged and on standby- at times, you may have communications issues, and your clients keep on asking you to repeat yourself; when you realize this is the case for you, make sure you have your clients' phone number and immediately switch to a phone call.

5. Accept the Troubles and Focus On the Positives

With technology, there is a great likelihood that you will be disrupted or will find something isn't working as you had expected.

When this is the case, it helps to focus on the positives of the whole experience. This is more likely to happen at the beginning of your online sessions.

With time you will learn the loopholes to make your sessions run more smoothly. You will learn a few things here and there about your clients, which will eventually be very useful.

Online resources can be very helpful if you know the right way to integrate them into your profession.

If you are planning on taking online therapy sessions, you need to be prepared. This piece has highlighted some of the important things to keep in mind.