According to the Online
Practice and Counseling Guidelines 2015, the need to expose future
therapists and counselors to online therapy is essential. The
practice of online therapy and online counseling is increasing. If you never
practiced online therapy before or want to receive online therapy, check out
eTherapi.com, that has all of the tools, information and can assist you through
the entire process.
Studies show that online
therapy and online counseling are not only effective and satisfying as face to
face (International Journal
of Clinical and Health Psychology 2012)
but may be more effective that face to face therapy in cases of, e.g.
LGBT issues ( Journal of Sex issues
2015),anxiety, eating disorders, in treating young adults who seek mental
help online, stigma issues, or difficulty with face-to-face expression and
people who need a speedy recovery( Journal of Clinical Work 2013).
Several studies show
that people from online therapy had better long term coping mechanisms and affective
wellness after working with a
therapist.
An example is a study
with 98,609 US veterans suffering from PTSD. After the September 11 attack,
several organizations and universities partnered to study the treatment of
online therapy and officials recuperated more successfully with online therapy compared to face to face therapy.
Liz from US Veterans
Affairs Health care says that patients from the online clinical trial “
they learn to manage challenges…The
intervention also made good use of the therapists' time. They were able to look
after more patients than they would in a similar number of office visits”.
Another case in which
there was better long term effect after online treatment is in a 2013 study of people
suffering from depression.
Online therapy was effective in the
short term, 2 month intervention but
the face to face group that received therapy, significantly worsened once the
intervention was ended.
From the Clinical Social
Work Journal 2013 intern social workers and clients both reported that the
cyber environment was more comfortable and made it possible to disclose more
personal and intimate information.
" A lot of things came up [in cyber] and she was like ‘it’s just
easier. Like I don’t feel like you can judge me. I can’t see your reaction.’’
According to Eric
A. Harris, Ed.D., J.D., legal counsel to the Massachusetts Psychological
Association and consultant to APA Insurance Trust says “I think that within 10 years, 80 to 90 percent of all therapy will be
done remotely,” Harris says.
“There’s been a lot of research done and there’s not one piece of research that
suggests that in-person treatment is superior to remote treatment.”( New
England Psychologist, 2013)
Many current
professionals do not know that their state and insurance accepts online therapy
and online counseling. By reading this article, you are already at a greater
advantage in either seeking care or providing care. For essential information
please read “ What can you do to have your therapist or Counselor offer online
therapy or online Counseling?”
What can you do to have your therapist or counselor offer online therapy
or online counseling?
The choice shouldn’t be
who provides online therapy in order to get the best therapist. The choice
should be who is the best therapist for you and once you have or found that excellent therapist, then hopefully this therapist can offer you the boundless
benefits of receiving online therapy. You can do something about getting your
therapist to provide online therapy or online caunseling. Being an
informed consumer of online therapy is essential in order to know the right, as
well as lawful choices in the areas of technology and here is what you
need to know:
Legal Technologies for Online Therapy
Your therapist can
easily utilize an online therapy for videoconferencing and messaging that
offers advanced technologies in compliance with regulations set forth by HIPAA
(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and the HITECH act (Health
Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health ACT). In short, HIPAA
regulates that the data transmitted between the client and therapist is private
and secure and HITECH supports the use of technologies for the network of
electronic health records. The next crucial step is for your therapist to sign
a BAA (Business Associate Agreements) with the online therapy provider to
safeguard personal health information (PHI) practices in accordance with HIPAA
guidelines.Etherapi.com does all of these services.
Legal Billing Processes
A comprehensive online
therapy provider etherapi.com can also provide information on insurance
companies that cover online therapy for your therapist to be assured of
accurate and authorized billing. However, you should urge your insurance
company to fully support online therapy and review that the correct billable
codes are being used in order to avoid inquiries. You should also know if there
are any restrictions of service such as with the number of authorized sessions
and the choice of network or preferred provider. If you find out that your
insurance company has coverage restrictions for online therapy, then it is time
for you to voice your opinion and write about your support for our therapist to
provide online therapy.
A therapist or person seeking therapy or counseling may very likely be able to take advantage of online therapy or online Counseling and neither one of you may know it. Thankfully It is not difficult to make therapy more accessible with online therapy.
