When you are looking for professional support and care for your mental illness, do you want to consider online or in-person therapy? Here are the pros and cons guides that will help you.
Different forms of therapy will support your mental health requirement. Virtual or online therapy gained popularity after COVID-19. Connecting with online therapy offers access for many with limited options. On the other hand, a clinic of therapists’ takes away from your daily life, but offers a more focused environment.
Both Virtual or online therapy and in-person therapy seem to be becoming more popular, with their own benefits. To make the best choice for yourself, this guide will help you to select the right option for you.
What is In-Person or Traditional Therapy?
This type of therapy offers mental health support through face-to-face consultations with a certified or trained therapist. Therapists provide patients weekly sessions in their office for 45 min to an hour.
Pros of In-Person Therapy
- Nonverbal communication: In-person therapy sessions enable therapists to read nonverbal cues that provide support to verbal communication. This communication allows you, to increase their understanding of needs. However, non-verbal messages are completely lost in video format. Through video, a healthcare provider can gain some additional nonverbal insights by experiencing a client’s environment. This advantage is not present in phone sessions.
- Convenience: You can book your session at the therapist’s office which provides you a space from your daily life. Taking therapy sessions at the office can increase your comfort when you are discussing your problem with a therapist.
- Intensive support: Many mental health issues require in-person therapeutic support. When you take in-person sessions, then art, music, and play can provide effective support.
Cons of In-Person Therapy
- Cost-effective: Therapy costs of both therapies do not much differ, so there is no cost advantage to either session. The cost of In-person or traditional therapy is approx $100 per session.
- Accessibility: In-person therapy sessions offer significant challenges in getting to and from therapy sessions. While taking a session, you may face some issues like traffic, public transit issues and time, etc. It consumes a lot of time and other priorities are also limited to in-person therapy.
- Timing issue: You may suffer some time-related issues such as waiting for long time periods, and different time schedules, and might face delays to start therapy sessions with therapists.
What is Online Therapy?
Online therapy also known as teletherapy or virtual therapy, offers mental health support from any location. These therapy sessions include texts, emails, phone calls, and video services. Certified therapists can offer some virtual options directly through their personal practice and experience. It also offers individual sessions to connect with therapists within their area and network. Virtual therapy and in-person therapy both are equally effective for mental health treatment.
Pros of Online Therapy
- Cost-effective: In online therapy when you book multiple sessions at a time, your therapists offer cheaper monthly rates which may be affordable for patients. Although, companies may initially increase access to therapists at cheaper or monthly rates. There is a possibility to increase the price.
- Convenience: With a variety of virtual therapy options you may connect with a therapist at any time and anywhere. These types of therapy services provide therapeutic processes quickly, but you may face some hassle while connecting online.
- Easy to access: Choosing an online therapy service provides easy access to therapeutic support for those facing issues in in-person therapy. It helps to reduce social anxieties linked with sharing social spaces with others.
- Reduced Stigma: As you know no one needs to know about your therapy sessions except your family. You can choose anonymous options while connecting with therapists and no one sees heading off to a therapy session till you don’t want to
Cons of Online Therapy
- Internet stability: Video conferencing brings a lot of pressure on you and the therapist due to poor network stability. Both of you may lose service, so here is the advice to connect when you have a good internet stability connection. This whole process should be discussed with the therapist on how you will manage if you lose the internet connection.
- Limits to care: Most serious mental health require in-person sessions. Your therapist may limit care options. Additionally, patients who augment their salary by joining a virtual network can sometimes burn out, as a result, which may decrease in quality of care provided by you.
- Limited communication: In virtual therapy sessions you and the therapist are limited through email and text which may loss of depth of understanding. Without your body language and nonverbal cues, your communication between both of them is limited. Also, individuals should not think that a therapist will be available 24X7 hours virtually.
Online Therapy Vs In-Person Therapy
Both therapy options allow more people to access mental health care than ever before. Whether you are choosing online therapy or in-person therapy, you can find the type of support that is the best for you.
Online therapy provides the ability to connect with therapists from your comfortable area. While face to face therapy allows you to bring your mental health needs into a neutral space. Make sure your therapist can support your need and solution of mental health issues, but in-person therapy may require extra work. Such as: Does consultation with a therapist’s clinic fit your schedule? Can you reschedule your consultation to accommodate your therapist’s in-person availability?
Online therapy requires secure connection and privacy policies on video consultation. Encryption services offer a secure connection in your therapy session with the therapist: although therapists may use different platforms that offer security in connection. Once you have decided which type of therapy is best, you can utilize the following options to start your journey.
