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FAQ
What is Telepsychology?
Telepsychology is also called telemedicine and telehealth. Telepsychology is the use of the Internet to carry out psychological counselling and assessment, when there is a geographic distance between the psychologist and the client. Of late, telepsychology has been used to secure social distancing requirements to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
How many sessions should I budget for?
This would be determined both by the psychologist and the amount of work you can reasonably cover. Instead of using medicinal drug therapy, most psychologists use psychotherapies alone. These have been shown to be as good as, and sometimes better than, medicines, but they take some time to practise. In some cases, it is best to twin the psychotherapy with medicines and here the client would be under the care of both a psychologist and a psychiatrist.
Which is better, telepsychology or face-to-face?
A mix of both telepsychology and face-to-face may be best. Some psychological conditions though, are best dealt with face-to-face. The advantages of telepsychology are: it is cheaper, it saves on travel time, if no expert is nearby then one could be engaged via telepsychology and it can take place beyond regular office hours. Disadvantages include: it is not suited for some psychological conditions, not everyone has access to the Internet with sufficient bandwidth, because it is relatively new, some clients are apprehensive towards using it.
How important is it that you believe that your psychologist is an expert?
It is very important that the psychologist's expertise is obvious and is believed. It is difficult for clients to buy into therapy when they believe their psychologist is lacking in skills, or when they are not seeing any benefit from the efforts of time and money spent on psychological sessions. Sometimes clients should 'shop' around for a psychologist of best fit.