There is a lot going on right now as everyone is adjusting to this evolving situation with the Coronavirus.
It’s a good idea to maintain sessions with your therapist as much as possible as I’ve been seeing a trend where the impact of what is happening showing up in indirect ways. The emotional stress can show up as anxiety, fears, preoccupations and hopelessness about seemingly unrelated situations in people’s lives.
Your therapist may be still offering in person sessions or may have moved things online completely as they adjust to the guidelines mandated and what they feel is in the highest good for all involved.
So I wanted to take a moment to share some ways to make online sessions successful.
First, I know it might be a little more difficult with everyone home, but it is a good idea to make sure you have a private space for your session. If that means going out to your car and you can get your wifi signal there, do that. Not the most comfortable, but definitely a private and contained space.
Second, make sure you are not doing anything else but being in session. Close the other browsers on your computer. If you are on your phone, it’s important not to be cooking, cleaning, driving or doing other projects unless it is part of your therapy session.
Finally, if this is your first online session, let your therapist know so your therapist can spend a couple minutes in the beginning of the session going over some basics like the following:
•What is the contingency plan if the connection is dropped or gets glitchy?
•If you are conducting the session via phone or have to switch to phone, who is calling whom back?
•What would you like to do if a child or someone else comes into the room? Do you want to take a minute to attend to the other person’s request? Your therapist will most likely stay silent until you have privacy again for confidentiality reasons.
You also want to make sure you test the platform you and your therapist are using if it is new to you. Your therapist would be happy to do a short test with you to make sure it is working before your appointment.
At One Heart Counseling Center, we are all Registered or Board Certified Art Therapists and art therapy can still happen in online sessions. It just takes a little more planning. There are all kinds of digital art therapy and, if you have access to materials, your therapist can facilitate art therapy while you use the materials in your own space.
Have you done therapy online before? How was your experience?
It does take some getting used to. The cadence of the conversation is a little slower because you want to allow time to make sure everyone hears everything. As you get used to it, that will normalize. I have done therapy online for years and sometimes people end up preferring it!
If you are not a current client at One Heart, but are thinking this might be a good time to be proactive, we are running a Quarantine Special, which a 3 pack of online sessions at a discounted rate. See details here. And contact us. We can work with any client living in the state of California, however, not outside of California.
