Online counselling
With advice from the government to reduce non-essential meetings during the coronavirus outbreak, many of our clients decided to move to online counselling. This page is dedicated to one to one online counselling, please check these pages if you are looking for online couples therapy.
Just as in face to face psychotherapy and counselling, for Skype and online counselling, you need to take some things into consideration. If this is the first time you are looking for therapy for yourself we suggest you read our general guidelines on individual counselling and psychotherapy.
As with face to face psychotherapy and counselling, privacy is extremely important. Our practitioners work in a safe, private environment with no interruptions, so it will be necessary that you find a quiet and private space, with no interruptions as well, where you are both able to maintain privacy when the online counselling is occurring.
Although online counselling can give you a little bit more of flexibility in everything related to time and schedules because you would not have to ask for permission to leave work early or leave your house as long as you have a computer or a smartphone and privacy, the commitment you have with your online psychotherapy should be the same as the one with a face to face psychotherapy, so punctuality and being there for all of your appointments is also important.
If you start your therapy during the coronavirus crisis, your counsellor may suggest that you move the therapy offline and have face to face meetings when safe to do so. Although for some people online counselling will be equally beneficial, some may benefit more from face to face meetings.
Out counsellors and psychotherapists are using a platform called Zoom as it offers more security and privacy than Skype or FaceTime. It requires an installation of a small program to your computer, tablet or smartphone. A larger screen i.e. laptop or desktop would help you to see the counsellor better. Although it is inevitable that occasionally technology may not deliver a hundred per cent results, it is important that we keep our computers up to date, have a good Internet connection and position our devices close to routers. For more information on how to set up Zoom for your first online counselling session, please follow our advice for our sister practice in Kensington.
If you think that Skype counselling could be a good option for you, check our directory of practitioners, choose one and in touch with them to arrange an appointment.
