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Teletherapy is far from new. It’s a mode of therapy that’s been pioneered, with demonstrable effectiveness, over the course of the past 2 decades. Nevertheless, it can be truly said to have come into its own through the pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic, and some experts regard teletherapists as effectively being the backbone of future approaches to mental health treatment.
Introduction to Teletherapists and the Benefits of Online Therapy
The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on multiple areas of daily life. On the one hand, it generated unique challenges, such as a “loneliness epidemic” that one study estimated has left just over 60% of Americans without close social connections and community. On the other hand, it’s also led to the fresh appreciation of new technologies and ways of supporting mental health. One of the most powerful and convenient of these tools has proved to be teletherapy and widespread access to the services of teletherapists.
Teletherapy is composed of a range of remote therapeutic tools provided for the mental health of patients. The modern teletherapy toolkit includes both automated online apps and interpersonal actions made possible by the internet. Mental health chatbots employ software that mimics human conversations and can provide real-time encouragement and tips for dealing with mental health challenges. They provide around-the-clock support that can be crucial for time windows where more traditional therapy isn’t available.
Text therapy offers both convenience and relative anonymity, two features that make texting itself a popular communication format. Text therapy provides the reassurance of a personal, living presence at the other end of the conversation but can also involve wait times and downtime when providing access to licensed experts.
Virtual talk therapy puts people in touch with therapists through voice or video calls or online meeting apps. A step beyond this is telepsychiatry, which provides counseling, psychiatric diagnosis and medical prescriptions.
Mental health apps combine mood tracking tools with access to online communities, educational resources, guided meditation, quizzes and any of the types of teletherapy mentioned above.
This toolkit offers accessibility for patients who might find it difficult to leave their homes. It cuts out the time, disruption and expense associated with travel, provides enhanced privacy and eliminates concerns about the stigma attached to being seen at a therapist’s office. As America continues to deal with the mental health fallout of the pandemic, it’s virtual counseling’s convenience that professionals cite as providing the best hope for promoting long-term national healing.
Convenience and Accessibility of Online Counseling
The idea of convenient, accessible online counseling is clearly one whose time has come in American culture. The conversation around mental health shifted drastically during the pandemic, in part out of simple necessity. Those who’d previously been reluctant to try teletherapy were motivated to make the shift, and people in spaces where talking about mental health had previously been taboo began to open up. Suddenly, for example, elite athletes were speaking openly about their mental health boundaries.
In this atmosphere, accessible and convenient online counseling has begun to come into its own. It’s important that it does so, given the overall costs to society of rising depression and mental illness. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), depression increases sufferers’ risk factors for metabolic and cardiovascular disease by over 40%. Over a third of American sufferers of mental illness also developed a substance use disorder, and depression and anxiety disorders collectively cost the world economy $1 trillion annually.
Challenges of this scale can’t be plausibly addressed by the traditional in-person mode of delivering therapy. Fortunately, teletherapy has been shown to be just as effective as in-person treatment. Some two-thirds of respondents to surveys on the effectiveness of remote-delivered forms of therapy have rated the experience as somewhat to very effective. Teletherapy’s advantages lie in costing less, offering greater confidentiality and providing the prospect of considerably scaling up mental health support for the largest possible number of people in the big picture.
Further Advantages of Remote Mental Health Support
Outside of online therapy’s benefits of convenience, privacy and reduced cost mentioned above, remote mental health support offers several other key advantages:
- Greater choice. It’s easier to shop around for therapists online, where the options aren’t restricted to geographic proximity but can be based on your needs and preferences.
- Accessibility of specialists. Specialized forms of therapy, such as CBT therapy, are easier to find and access via teletherapy. They’re also more accessible in the sense that, if you suffer from anxiety or a physical disability, they eliminate the step of having to physically go out into the world.
- Easier session scheduling. Because teletherapy doesn’t generally require commuting or taking time off work, scheduling sessions is considerably easier, and it may be possible to schedule more sessions when you need them.
- It makes mental health care more approachable. Stigma in accessing mental health care doesn’t necessarily just come from other people. It often comes from within ourselves: an unwillingness to see ourselves as people who need this kind of support and service. Being able to engage with mental health care on your own terms through teletherapy makes taking this step easier. It reduces the sometimes daunting step into another world or another version of ourselves that therapy can represent.
The advantages of remote mental health support are considerable and definitely worthwhile as a first step on a mental health journey for those who need to begin one. One thing you can be assured of in trying out teletherapy is that you won’t be alone in joining this major trend in post-pandemic mental health care delivery.
If you’re ready to try teletherapy or otherwise take the first steps toward improved mental wellness, or if you need support beginning a journey of recovery, contact the compassionate team at FHE Health. We can provide more information about how to access and navigate the world of teletherapists and guide you to the best fit for your needs and the stage of your specific journey.
