now offering online therapy / telehealth

FAQs

What is online therapy?

“Online therapy,” “virtual therapy” and “telehealth” are different ways to say the same thing: you’re “meeting” with your provider through a secure video platform. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, this has become a common, more widely accepted way to meet with doctors and other healthcare providers.

While there are companies that offer “online therapy” that utilize texting, emailing and other written ways of communicating, I do not offer this type of support. I strongly believe that real-time connection via video allows you to get the most out of therapy and most accurately replicates the kind of treatment you receive when you’re in the office with me.

How does it work?

Doing therapy online is easy! In my practice, we use a secure, HIPPA-compliant video platform which allows us to connect virtually for our sessions. If you’ve used Zoom or FaceTime to video chat with others, this will feel very similar.

Before we meet, I will provide you with a link to my “virtual waiting room” and you will simply click on the link to enter. You can do this from your phone, tablet or computer - whatever you prefer! From there, it works just like a doctor’s office. You wait in the “waiting room” until I begin the session at our scheduled time.

Some tips for having a great online therapy session:

• Make sure you have a strong internet connection. This might mean connecting your computer to an ethernet cord or using your phone as a hotspot if your home internet isn’t great.

• Find a private, quiet place to talk with little to no distractions. Therapy doesn’t work as well if your child is interrupting you every few minutes to ask a question or if you’re simultaneously checking your email for updates from work. I really challenge my clients to treat this like any other in-person session in that you may need to plan ahead to ensure you can be fully present during our time together. Noise canceling headphones, white noise machines, and fidget objects can help if you’re someone who has a hard time focusing.

is online therapy less effective than in-person therapy?

In my opinion, online therapy is no less effective than therapy that takes place in-person. They’re just different. In fact, many people find that they prefer online therapy to in-person. After giving it a try, even my most skeptical clients have admitted to me that they like it much more than they anticipated…and some of them even said they wished they had started it sooner!

benefits of online therapy:

• It’s convenient. You can sign on from wherever you feel comfortable - your home, your office, a nearby park, etc. - as long as you have a solid internet connection. If you live in Missouri but my office in St. Louis seems to far, online therapy makes it possible for us to still work together, despite the distance between us!

• It saves you time and money. A lot of people feel like making time for therapy is hard. Doing online therapy means not having to spend time (and gas money) driving to my office.

• It’s easier to show up for yourself. Sometimes coming to therapy can feel awkward, scary or overwhelming. Some days, you just won’t feel like going. Not coming into an office means you have less hurdles to jump over to participate in therapy. For people who find it difficult to hold themselves accountable, this can be a game changer.

• It’s comfortable. Most of my clients participate in online therapy from their home. If you’re home, you not only get to decide what you’re wearing and how you show up physically (I can’t smell you from here!), but you also get to decide how to create safety in your environment. Maybe you’ve had a rough day and you need to sit with your unofficial emotional support animal or cuddle up with a favorite blanket. That’s all fair game when you’re at home, and it’s something we can’t do in the office.

• It’s a great way for us to connect with your actual environment. I’ve had people tell me that just walking into my office makes them feel at ease, but when they return home, that feeling is hard to recreate. Working with you while you’re at home is a great way for us to access some of the resources you have available to you and create some continuity between what we talk about in therapy and what happens the rest of the time.