That was one of the main concerns. Betterhelp Hurricane Harvey…that was truly crucial to me as a psychologist was that I would have autonomy over what I discussed what what topics I chose to present and likewise you understand my own views when when necessary or appropriate to share them and I was approved that by a better help they basically stated you understand we trust you as a scientific professional and we’re gon na trust you to go out there and speak about what you understand and one of the important things that I really wished to address is the reality that I’m not just here to say that online therapy is the answer for everything you know I believe it can be exceptionally practical for many people I have actually seen it myself working with individuals from a couple of months as much as over a year and I seen how being able to message and likewise have video sessions with somebody is truly a it nearly enhances the the healing experience in a way at the same time I have a private practice where I see people face-to-face and I thoroughly take pleasure in that and there
are individuals that I see there that I wouldn’t think about seeing online either they would not be appropriate we wouldn’t have the ability to do the level and depth of work we’re doing or it just would not feel comfy and and that’s okay those 2 things can both be true and I believe one of the important things that I want to start to have individuals think about is there’s a place for both offline and online treatment it is actually a matter of you understand deciding what’s right for you however also what’s most appropriate for you with the help of an expert when I discuss particular therapy designs or methods as being appropriate for you what I imply by that is that it would be the best method for the particular issue that you’re dealing with and I think that a person of the issues that a lot of people have is that online therapy is attempting to change offline counseling and I can inform you 100% that that’s not real I’ve had many discussions with the creator of better help where he has actually mentioned that his audience isn’t to compete with traditional practices or put psychologists or licensed specialists out of business his objective is to supply mental health access to the people who aren’t going to come into the therapy office and I 100% support that objective and I think it’s important and we have a problem with access to mental health care in this country and
betterhelp controversy
better hope is one solution as our other online companies I was mentioning earlier that there are things that I personally think that online therapy is better for or offline treatment is more appropriate for and I’ve really I’ve in fact discussed this in other settings since it is something I feel quite passionate about and I have to say that my opinion has actually been favored by companies like better help in regards to ideally how they how they work with the people that present for care so I simply wanted to spend a couple of minutes speaking about my own is my own personal viewpoint about the things that are most appropriate for offline versus online therapy so in my view I see online treatment as a terrific place for people who are dealing with hard life transitions for situations where they’re experiencing more stress than regular for circumstances where you know they have an extremely well-defined concern with stress and anxiety or social anxiety and a treatment like cognitive behavioral therapy which is really structured can can benefit them and that treatment because it’s not as interpersonal as others is ideal for online therapy because it includes a great deal of research it involves worksheets it involves discovering specific abilities and methods so mild milder disorders like moderate anxiety mild depression adjustment conditions even PTSD as long as like the individual has gotten care at first somewhere else these are all things that can be attended to through online therapy you understand consider someone who has a agoraphobia and possibly they connect to a counselor from their home due to the fact that they can’t leave their home and just just to clarify agoraphobia is a condition where people are really frightened of being trapped and caught in a location where they might have an anxiety attack and so essentially they begin to limit their activities and restrict their activities until a lot of them can’t leave their home without actually feeling substantial distress so if somebody like that is at house and they can connect through their computer and connect to a counselor that’s a great initial step is that going to cure them absolutely not because agoraphobia to be successfully treated needs that individual to be able to go outdoors and to resume regular activities and in some cases that includes a therapist going to their house to help them with that process clearly online therapists are going to be able to do that but might they be the bridge that got that person who hesitates to leave their home from that initial encouraging approach to counseling where they can really have a better life 100% and this is what the space that better help aims to fill with their services my indicate this to this particular video and bringing these things
up is that I I want to clearly communicate that anything that I share with you is going to be fully from where I stand as an expert psychologist and more notably what I believe is as just a human being on this earth attempting to do the best that I can therefore I I will not inform you that something is appropriate that I do not think is appropriate I won’t show you that online counseling is the cure-all for everything due to the fact that I do not think that and so you can always anticipate to hear my honest opinion on what I think from my own experience and knowledge base as a licensed psychologist I hope you found this video intriguing and valuable if you did please like it listed below and feel free to sign up for our YouTube channel where we’re going to be producing more and more videos on a range of different mental health subjects and please connect if there’s something particular you would like us to cover or resolve in an approaching video