Why Skype psychotherapy, online?
Possibility of participating in psychotherapy without long or time-consuming commuting, outside standard working hours, without leaving home when it is necessary to stay there (e.g. when looking after an elderly person or when, for example, you have limited mobility due to illness).
Ability to get help faster – without booking remote dates at a time that is most convenient for many customers.
Lower costs of obtaining help, because online therapy is simply cheaper – it requires less premises, and travel costs are eliminated.
It is perceived as more comfortable for people who, for example, are shy, afraid or ashamed to go to an inpatient psychotherapy office, especially value anonymity and the possibility of working with a therapist away from their place of residence.
It is especially effective for people who need more time to gain some insight, reflect on the topics discussed, make various thoughts and analyze their behavior, taking into account what the therapist communicates in black and white during e-mail correspondence or via closed forum, real-time chat or Skype.
It allows a free choice of therapist, especially for people from smaller towns where there are few offices.
What is needed
A computer with Internet access, free Skype for video calls, a simple webcam (cost of PLN 10-20) and a simple microphone (cost of PLN 5-15).
It is worth noting that most notebooks have a built-in webcam, while some webcams have a built-in microphone. This means that already low costs can be further reduced. Is online psychotherapy effective?
There is hard evidence that Internet psychotherapy is effective. It should be strongly emphasized that online psychotherapy is by no means an attempt to transfer standard face-to-face therapy to the online level, but it is a completely different approach, a separate method of psychotherapy.
Online therapeutic help has its own specificity – in some cases it works very well, in other cases face-to-face contact may be more beneficial.
More information on the effectiveness of psychotherapy can be found here .
What is beneficial for the client in online psychotherapy:
Possibility of therapy at any time and place (all you need is Internet access, a computer with a webcam, a microphone and some time for yourself).
Access to online tools (exercise questionnaires, forms to facilitate the performance of personal work, platform for contact with the therapist, which would normally only be available during the session).
A full record of psychotherapy (completed written assignments and written reports from the sessions performed by the therapist), which is convenient in the sense that at any time you can return to the topics raised, refer to something or drill down on a given topic, which has only matured after some time. time.
Constant control of the course and progress of psychotherapy thanks to online tools and surveys, which significantly improves and makes cooperation more effective (because the patient provides the therapist with feedback on specific interactions, and also receives specific, practical information from the therapist, which he could do more for himself. apply or in what to engage more intensively to make the process run more efficiently).
It enables the patient to freely choose the individual pace of work on himself, taking into account the circumstances of everyday life and professional duties. It allows you to explore those elements that seem most useful and giving the best results at a given time.
It allows you to intensify work with the material that the patient considers to be the most “hot” at a given stage of psychotherapy, or to extend it while working with content that requires more intense reflection.
It is very engaging for the patient because he has access to online tools 24 hours a day and can sit there as often as he needs, whenever he wants. Daily contact with a psychotherapist during psychotherapy, thanks to a closed discussion forum, gives additional support and improves the relationship, it has a positive effect on cooperation.
In some respects, online psychotherapy has the character of cooperation – cooperation consisting in shaping a unique, individual course of the process, so that its pace, rhythm and intensity are adequate to the patient’s current abilities and needs. Therefore, patients should look for psychologists with extensive experience and expertise in the field.
The elements related to the written and questionnaire exercises give the respondent time to reflect on the question posed and time to formulate a thoughtful answer. The act of writing answers also mobilizes to organize certain concepts, somehow requires re-analysis and judgment, ensuring that thoughts are carefully processed.
From the therapist’s perspective, it can be very useful to be able to analyze the patient’s statements calmly, without any rush, and to direct the optimal message. Moreover, in online psychotherapy, the main therapist is supported by a partner, co-therapist or even a group of therapists. Although the interaction takes place between the patient and one therapist, there is in fact the whole team behind the latter.
