No Commute and Free Resources

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Hi, and welcome to this week’s post about online counselling and the advantages this brings.

Today we’ll be talking about a couple more advantages we can get from online counselling: saving on travel and additional resources that online therapists provide to their audiences on social media and through their websites.

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Embarking on the journey of becoming a therapist is varied and requires patience, perseverance and dedication.

Therapists promote their practices in different ways, and providing valuable resources to their audience is one of the ways we do this.

Therapists nowadays write blog posts to reveal what their interests are, which is important as it might lead the right client to the right therapist (for example, I wrote a series on Autism because I works with this client group, and sometimes clients find me through these posts when searching on google).

Blog posts and social media posts also show a bit more about the therapist’s personality, and more importantly, what their therapy approach is.

This certainly gives potential clients out there a rich idea of what they are going to be getting with a particular therapist, and who they are talking to.

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Some people could think this is impersonal or cold.

Far from that!

Social media these days is one of the best ways to show your community what you are about, and how you can help potential clients.

Potential clients might like to find some common ground with their therapists before they book a first session.

Feeling like they connect with their potential therapist’s blog post will help them make the decision to contact.

It can be terrifying to make that first contact with an online (or face to face) therapist, so having as much information as possible about what to expect will be reassuring and helpful!

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This is another reason that this blog series exists. It is a way to de-mystify online counselling myths and provide some clarity into how it works, how I work online and what you will get from online counselling with myself or another therapist of your choice.

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Although face to face offers many more options in regards to having the therapist in front of the client, and there’s more than verbal language to work with, it can also work against those clients with a shy character, or those that want to keep quiet about attending therapy.

A face to face appointment could make them freeze at the thought of opening up to an unknown person for the first time.

The anonymity and diverse types of online therapy (from text based to video) will provide solace to those that don’t want to talk about in person.

Also, the comfort of your home will create the right environment to let you open up and have a productive therapy process.

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Another important advantage to consider when you go online is saving in both time and travel expenses.

In these fast times, where we have to juggle between work and family…saving time is a priority.

Take also into account the privacy that booking therapists online gives us.

Bumping into someone you know on your way to therapy, while trying to keep it a private and safe space might not be ideal.

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Lastly, I’d just like to mention one more advantage of online counselling – you can chat live (synchronous) or message whenever you have a thought or a need, and your therapist will get back to you at their next available chance and depending on their contract terms for this type of asynchronous work.

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This means you can have “live” sessions with your therapist via text, audio or video sessions, but that there’s also the alternative of sending text based messages from the bus, the office, the supermarket, or anywhere else, at that moment when you need it, and expect a reply from your therapist within an agreed time frame.

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We think it’s wonderful that we live in an age where we can have a variety of options to look after our mental health and wellbeing.

What do you think?