Texas Therapist: 4 Important Tips For Telehealth Therapy

Read for 4 tips to improve your telehealth therapy experience.

There are a lot of upsides to telehealth therapy.  It’s convenient, it’s compatible with busy schedules and different lifestyles, and you might even find it easier to express yourself openly in the comfort of your own home.  However, there are pitfalls to avoid and ways to enhance your experience. Continue reading for 4 important tips on how to make telehealth therapy more effective.

Tip # 1: Make sure your technology is working.

Try and spend 5-10 minutes before your first session making sure your technology is working. The most common problem you’ll run into is needing to turn on “permissions” to allow the telehealth program you’re using to have access to your microphone and camera.  Most of the time, this is straightforward. But not always. 

If you’re not technologically savvy, don’t worry.  Your therapist likely expects that there may be some technical difficulties in the beginning, and you can spend the first 5-10 minutes sorting this out.  However, if you can address these issues beforehand, you’ll have more time for the actual session.

Tip #2: Privacy

One of the most important aspects of effective therapy is that you are able to say anything and everything that comes up for you.  This might mean things you are embarrassed to say out loud.  Or things relating to someone living in your household. You want to make sure you create a space where you feel comfortable talking about sensitive topics. Here are some ideas:

-Make sure your door is closed.

-Consider using headphones

-Consider using white noise.  You can play white noise via Youtube from your phone, an Ipad, or another computer.

-Be mindful of shared walls

-If needed, schedule your appointment time when no one else is in the house

Tip #3: Create a consistent space for your telehealth sessions.

Our minds are highly associative.  Sights, sounds, smells, and even the physical posture of your body will bring up particular thoughts and feelings.

Imagine what it is like to go to a traditional in-person therapy session.  Week after week you’re in the same office, in the same chair, with the same lighting, with the same smells, and the same noises.  This is a space where you would have had insights, new understandings, release of distressing emotion, and a range of different emotional experiences.   It becomes a familiar place of reflection and exploration.

You want to create a similar space for your telehealth sessions.  Remove distractions. Sit in the same chair, at the same desk, in the same corner of the room. Even keep the lighting the same if you can. Light a candle if you want.  Whatever feels right to you – just be thoughtful about the space you are creating.  Here are some important tips to create your space:

-Close out all other tabs on your computer other than the telehealth program you are using.

-Turn off any TVs around you

-Remove anything within arm-reach that could be distracting.

-Sit upright and in a place where you are comfortable but alert.  Do not lay or even sit in your bed. You will get tired! (It’s probably not good for the space of your therapy sessions to have associations to sleep!).

-Consider turning your phone off or putting it on silent. 

-Avoid noisy places.

Of course, it is not always possible to be in the same consistent place for every session.  Maybe you travel a lot.  Or you’re not always in the same location at the time of your session. But try to keep what you can consistent.  Even if it’s just a similar computer, chair, desk set-up. The exact physical location is just one aspect of your therapy “space”.

Tip #4: Reserve 5 minutes before the session and 5 minutes after the session for preparation and integration.

Preparation- Preparing the material for your session.  Reflecting on what’s most present to you now, and what would be most helpful to talk about in session.

Integration- Reflecting on how you might bring the work done in the session into real life.

Preparation and integration often happens naturally with traditional in-person therapy (though not always).  Imagine how it would typically work. You drive in your car to your therapist’s office. While driving, you know you are going to therapy.  You begin to think about what’s going on for you right now and what you might want to talk about.  This is a preparation process – you are preparing the material that will be worked through in the session.  

Then, when you leave the therapist’s office, you hop back into your car and go on to your next destination.  You’re left alone with your thoughts, remembering what was talked about in therapy and how you might bring these new understandings into real life.  This is integration.

When you’re at home, it’s much easier to skip over preparation and integration because there are more distractions readily available immediately before and after your session. Be mindful of this, and set aside the 5 minutes before and after your session for preparation and integration. 

If you follow these 4 tips, you will set yourself up for a fulfilling and enriching experience with telehealth therapy. See more about Texas telehealth therapy at Deep Growth Counseling.