Written by annakinnaird
August 29, 2023
As a result of the pandemic, the world has shifted in the way it meets. It appears three years on that many of the changes are lasting, including the increased prevalence of meeting online. In the world of psychotherapy and counselling, this has had its advantages and disadvantages. One obvious advantage of online counselling is that therapy could continue through the pandemic when physical contact was not possible. It meant many in the psychotherapy and counselling community experienced giving online counselling for the first time. Would it work? Would we still feel connected? Would we be able to affectively contain the session whilst being in a remote location? The debate goes on still. For me in my Wimbledon counselling practice, online counselling was already something I was involved with as I have long been seeing clients throughout the UK and Europe due to my specialised interest in counselling for skin conditions and chronic pain and postnatal depression counselling.
Does online counselling work? Yes, in my opinion it absolutely works.
What are the benefits of online counselling? The main benefit is that I can work with people from around the world, I am no longer limited to counselling in Wimbledon or London. My clients enjoy the flexibility of online counselling as they don’t have to take additional time (often from their work days) getting to and from my practice.
What are the downsides to online counselling? Although it is an effective mode of delivering therapy, the obvious downside is that there is no physical meeting. There is the absence of additional ‘data’ of being in the room together. Online, I usually only get visibility of a client’s face, I miss seeing their entire being, how it sits, shifts, and responds to what is happening verbally. I still get a sense of these things from online counselling but it’s not as full a picture as in person encounters. Another big downside is that I am not able to control the environment or conditions in which we meet. I cannot ensure that the space you are in is private and safe, I cannot control the internet connection and whether there will be technical hitches in our sessions. And there are technical hitches from time to time.
In my experience, online counselling is a good substitute when face to face is not possible. As with any new therapeutic encounter, I’d encourage clients to give it a go and to see for themselves if it works for them.
I have extensive experience providing online counselling in the UK, Europe and wherever you are located. If you are keen to try counselling and think online counselling would suit you best, get in touch and we can set up an appointment, anna@annakinnairdfolkman.com