If you've had enough of talking to people through devices, telehealth won't be a great fit! Online therapy would be one more video meeting, and that might be the last thing you need. 

On the other hand, if you worry that it will be difficult to connect through video with someone you've never met before, my current clients and I haven’t experienced that. We cry and laugh, and for the length of each session, I feel like we’re in the same room.

I get feedback at every session about the quality of the support and connection my clients feel. After every session, clients fill out a survey about their experience. Because I have that data, I can be confident that it's not just my gut feeling - my relationships with clients genuinely have not suffered since I started working online. 

Check your current connection to see if it supports quality video chat.

Look for download speeds greater than 2.6 Mbps and upload speeds greater than 3.2 Mbps.

It's not always possible to change service providers, but I do recommend connecting directly to ethernet rather than using Wi-Fi. It's one relatively cheap change you can make if Wi-Fi is the source of a slower connection.

Do you have a quiet, private space you can use during sessions? I've met with clients who needed to be in their cars under 2 requirements: the car is not moving, and you have a place to rest your phone or laptop without holding it in your hands.

Holding your device makes it difficult for both of us to focus exclusively on the session. Your arm will inevitably get tired and you won't be able to write anything down.

In-person sessions look and sound great — I never have to fumble with headphones or switch to a backup phone call when I'm meeting someone in person. That said, even before COVID, meeting in person had its downsides. Fitting in counseling sessions during a busy work week is daunting for most people. You don't live or work next door to the therapist who's the best fit for you, and you might not want to compromise on that question. Driving across town, fighting traffic, adding another commute to an already-long day makes therapy an added stressor. Online counseling is a convenient and flexible option that takes the travel time out of the occasion so you can maximize your focus on the session itself and save commute time for your daily therapy practice. Where the tradeoffs land for you will be a matter of personal preference.

Increased flexibility may be precisely what you need to make therapy work in your current circumstances. Carving out time for one more thing in your life is the last thing you need when you're feeling worried or down. You're looking for a counselor who not only understands what life has been like for you lately but who can help you make measurable (and we will measure it!) changes that will last. The skills you can gain and the growth you can experience in therapy aren't skills most of us learn when we're children. Most of them aren't things we learn at work or in our relationships. If we're lucky, we get bits and pieces here and there, and still, a lot of days feel almost unbearably hard. You have a distinct feeling your life could be a lot richer, a lot more enjoyable than it is right now. And whether it's for health reasons or because travel is inconvenient or even out of reach, in-person therapy just isn't going to work for you right now.

One vastly under-sung advantage of online therapy is that you have lots more options now! Instead of settling for the best fit therapist in your zip code, you can search the whole state for your ideal clinician. Finding someone you trust and feel connected to is crucial to effective therapy.

Therapists can only work with clients who live in states where they hold licenses to practice. When we're working in person, though, it's even more limited. When you need to choose someone within a ten-mile radius of your house, you're less likely to find a great fit. If you see a therapist online, you have vastly more options. 

When I was working with clients exclusively in person, it would've been impractical to see someone living in Savannah! Even for those in metro Atlanta, you may be close enough in theory, but a daily commute that takes you from Sandy Springs to downtown Atlanta would make it tough to get to Tucker. If you live in Alpharetta or Athens, Covington or Columbus, it's now just as convenient for us to work together as it would be if you lived around the corner from me in Decatur.