Is online therapy right for me?
Online therapies are emerging as a significant force for positive therapeutic change, massively increasing accessibility to clients, empowering clients to make positive choices regarding their mental health and their emotional wellbeing and ensuring that therapists reach out beyond the normal boundaries of the therapy room.
However, every therapist has a duty of care and an ethical responsibility to work within their competence and to keep their clients and themselves safe. To do this it may be necessary for a therapist to decline working with a client. There can be a number of reasons for this, a few are listed below:
Acute Distress or Crisis
Online therapies are not suited to people in acute distress or crisis. Whilst therapists can work with people who are self-harming or who are feeling suicidal, those people who have begun to make plans to complete suicide, who are currently attempting to complete suicide or who have attempted to complete suicide in the last 4 weeks are not suitable to work with a therapist online. This is because when working online your therapist does not have access to the same local resources to help keep you safe. I work to the Risk Awareness and Management Programme (RAMP) guidelines for working with clients with risk. More information on this can be found in the Terms of Use.
Complex Psychological Diagnoses
Clients who have complex psychological diagnoses are likely to get limited benefit from online therapies and often require additional support between sessions. There is no judgement from me regarding mental health diagnosis and I will comfortably work with clients who are receiving medical treatment. However, I will need to have a clear discussion with you regarding all the support you are receiving to determine whether or not I am best placed to assist you.
Addictions
Clients who have addictions may find it difficult to make routine appointments. Further, the nature of working online can make it very difficult for a therapist to be certain a client is actually able to undertake the session. For example, a therapist working online will not be able to smell alcohol in the room, and Instant Messaging therapy would not reveal slurred speech. On a case by case basis it may be possible to work with clients who are managing their addictions, but I will have to discuss all the support you are receiving to assess if online therapy can be useful to you at this time.
Therapist Availability
The British Associate of Counselling and Psychotherapy - of which I am a registered member and adheres to their code of ethics - has clear guidelines regarding the appropriate number clients counsellors can work with per week. It may be the case that I am unable to work with you at this time because I'm currently working with my maximum caseload. In which case, sincere apologies!
However, every therapist has a duty of care and an ethical responsibility to work within their competence and to keep their clients and themselves safe. To do this it may be necessary for a therapist to decline working with a client. There can be a number of reasons for this, a few are listed below:
Acute Distress or Crisis
Online therapies are not suited to people in acute distress or crisis. Whilst therapists can work with people who are self-harming or who are feeling suicidal, those people who have begun to make plans to complete suicide, who are currently attempting to complete suicide or who have attempted to complete suicide in the last 4 weeks are not suitable to work with a therapist online. This is because when working online your therapist does not have access to the same local resources to help keep you safe. I work to the Risk Awareness and Management Programme (RAMP) guidelines for working with clients with risk. More information on this can be found in the Terms of Use.
Complex Psychological Diagnoses
Clients who have complex psychological diagnoses are likely to get limited benefit from online therapies and often require additional support between sessions. There is no judgement from me regarding mental health diagnosis and I will comfortably work with clients who are receiving medical treatment. However, I will need to have a clear discussion with you regarding all the support you are receiving to determine whether or not I am best placed to assist you.
Addictions
Clients who have addictions may find it difficult to make routine appointments. Further, the nature of working online can make it very difficult for a therapist to be certain a client is actually able to undertake the session. For example, a therapist working online will not be able to smell alcohol in the room, and Instant Messaging therapy would not reveal slurred speech. On a case by case basis it may be possible to work with clients who are managing their addictions, but I will have to discuss all the support you are receiving to assess if online therapy can be useful to you at this time.
Therapist Availability
The British Associate of Counselling and Psychotherapy - of which I am a registered member and adheres to their code of ethics - has clear guidelines regarding the appropriate number clients counsellors can work with per week. It may be the case that I am unable to work with you at this time because I'm currently working with my maximum caseload. In which case, sincere apologies!
