Several sub-groups of clients reported having preferred remote sessions.Ĭlients with significant childhood abuse and victims of sexual abuse and rape reported feeling safer having their sessions from home and not having to face a therapist in person -particularly at the beginning of the intervention. This should encourage clients that are less used to using technology to engage with remote therapy.Īs remote therapy became widely used, more and more clinical advantages came to light. And in terms of technical issues, remote practices use simple and user-friendly ways to deliver their sessions and help with an initial tutorial before the intervention starts. You will find yourself hanging up, and not having to face a long journey while feeling vulnerable and being deep in thought, which might feel like a relief compared to traveling home from in-person therapy. Help accessible for people that couldn’t receive it beforeĪfter the initial strange feeling of having to speak about your most personal issues to a screen or a phone goes away, remote sessions go smooth and fast. Professionals reported that the emotional connection and authenticity of the sessions have remained present. Talking-based interventions seemed to have been delivered smoothly over the phone and via video chat. Two years on, studies show that therapists claim they were able to uphold the quality of their interventions remotely. This has challenged the initial negative views on remote therapy and started attracting investments into improving the delivery of remote sessions worldwide. The most often used talking therapy -Cognitive Behavioural Therapy- has also proven to be as effective remotely as when used in in-office settings. The results showed equal success in improving distress caused by Depression, Social Phobia, OCD, and Panic Disorder remotely as in person. Together, millennial clients and residents started driving the increased usage of remote therapy.Īs the change continued, disorders that tend to show rapid responses to interventions quickly started showing the efficacy of remote therapy. The new generation of residents in psychotherapeutic education whose schooling and practice were interrupted by lockdown also demanded to include remote therapy-related strategies in their curriculum. This group, however, is also the one that is most open to the usage of technology, and therefore, online services. ![]() Young people, students, and parents with small children were one of the hardest-hit sub-groups of the pandemic. However, once it became clear that this is a long-term change, therapists had to turn to new ways of continuing their practices and remote therapy received a new wave of attention. Nobody quite knew how long it may last and if moving onto online sessions would be worth it. When the first lockdown started, in-office sessions got interrupted and people were worried about the effect it would have on the flow of therapy. However, many therapists viewed online or over-the-phone sessions as less effective for losing the personal touch that comes with a face-to-face conversation, and before the first lockdown, these beliefs were never challenged or proven otherwise. A limited amount of professionals enjoyed providing remote therapy and believed in its effectiveness pre-pandemic. Before the pandemic, remote interventions only covered anxiety and depression-related symptoms and did not attend to other disorders. Keeping mental health professionals around in rural areas has been an issue for a long time and remote therapy was a number-one way to provide service outside of bigger cities. People with disabilities, residents of rural areas, people who experience physical or financial issues with travel, or clients that didn't have the time to attend in-person therapy have been taking advantage of signing up for remote sessions for years. The dramatic change has unveiled a new and effective approach to attend to wellbeing in the 2020s. Therapists and clients had to switch to phone or online sessions regardless of their initial feelings about remote therapy. ![]() With significant differences in sub-groups (such as health care workers or students), depression and anxiety-related symptoms strongly worsened and often reached over 50% of participants. The need for mental health support in the UK keeps growing with general psychological distress increasing from 18.9% to 27.3%.
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