The Benefits of Online Therapy
Convenience and Its Ability to Expand Choices
The convenience of online therapy expands your choices and frees up your time.
Your time is valuable and depending on where you live it might be difficult to access a therapist.
At times the process may feel overwhelming. Online therapy makes the process easy and it happens in the comfort of the location you choose.
Online counseling can expand your choices beyond local therapists.
No travel time to an appointment means there’s no problem fitting an appointment into your schedule.
We are willing to work with your time whether it is morning, afternoon, night or weekends. Appointments can usually be scheduled within 24 hours of your request.
Confidential and Private
Online therapy takes the stress out of getting to your appointment and removes any worries your confidentiality might be compromised. There’s no chance of running into anyone while waiting for your appointment when you are meeting your therapist online.
Encrypted software and protocols assure your communication and privacy are protected.
Saves Time and Money
Travel expenses are gone with the need to get to a bricks and sticks office.
You save not only travel expenses but the time it takes to get to the therapist’s office.
Online Therapy is Shown to be Effective
Several studies have found that online counseling is just as effective as in person counseling.
One study of online counseling showed it significantly lowered the number of hospital visits among veterans. In a four-year Johns Hopkins study that included close to 100,000 veterans, the number of days that patients were hospitalized dropped by 25 percent if they chose online counseling.
—Psychiatric Services, April 2012
The effects of online psychotherapy outlasted the results of face-to-face counseling in a University of Zurich study they divided a group of 62 patients in half and found that depression was eased in 53 percent of those given online therapy, compared to 50 percent who had in-person counseling.
Three months after completing the study, 57 percent of online patients showed no signs of depression compared to 42 percent with conventional therapy.
—Journal of Affective Disorders, 2013
Online therapy may be a more efficient way to provide PTSD treatment to a large group of people. Defense service members suffering from post traumatic stress disorder after the September 11th attack participated in a pilot study comparing the effectiveness of online therapy and in-person therapy.
After eight weeks those receiving online counseling showed greater improvement. Six months after their first session those who had received online counseling continued to show improvement, in direct contrast to the in-person group.
— American Journal of Psychiatry, November 2007
A Canadian study showed that online counseling delivers the same satisfaction and less cost for patients. Those assigned in person counseling and those who received live video online counseling experienced statistically the same clinical outcome and level of patient satisfaction whether they were receiving in person or online. The only difference between the groups was that the cost of providing the online counseling was 10% less per patient.
— American Psychiatric Association, 2007