What are the advantages of online counseling?

Online counseling is slowly becoming a standard practice for numerous mental health issues. The practice is helping tens of thousands of people on a daily basis with cognitive behavior issues, suicide therapies, as well as a wide variety of other mental problems. But why is it that online counseling works so well? What are the advantages of online counseling? Leave it to Consumer Opinion Guide to research the topic for you, and provide you with clear, definitive answers!

Five greatest advantages of online counseling

Typical online counseling session involves communicating with your therapist through an online medium, such as video chat or messaging (SMS, email, etc.). You can also schedule a session over the phone if that is most convenient for you. This form of communication comes with numerous advantages, such as:

• Unrivaled accessibility
• Affordable treatment plans
• Extreme convenience
• Online counseling is ideal for people who struggle with social embarrassment
• It is easier to open up about your problems

You may have heard about the term “online counseling” as e-therapy, teletherapy, and even cyber-counseling. With the ever-increasing number of technological devices aimed at making it easier for people to communicate, it is no wonder that this form of therapy is getting to be more and more popular. Online therapy sessions provide you with a way to work with professional therapists from all around the world, which brings us to our first advantage.

Unrivaled accessibility

Traditional therapy sessions require you to have access to a local therapist. That, or access to means of transportation to where your therapist’s office is. In some cases, especially in rural areas, this is not always that easy to achieve. People might have to drive upward of 4 hours for their therapy session. Needless to say, this creates large problems for patients with mobility issues, for example. The fact of the matter is that many people who do not have mental health services readily available will simply choose to live as they were, never getting the help they require.

But with online counseling, these barriers go away. With an online therapy solution, it does not matter where you live, provided you have internet coverage. For most places, it is much easier to introduce the internet to the community than it is to build a new medical center that is specialized in mental health. Thus, as of 2019, 90% of adults in the U.S. use the internet. And if you have access to the internet, you have access to online counseling.

And with the travel times eliminated, and with the therapy sessions “taking place” in your own home, online counseling is also:

More affordable than traditional therapy

One of the most important advantages of online counseling is that it is simply cheaper than traditional counseling options. This comes from the very simple fact that the costs of holding an online therapy session are much lower for the therapist. Furthermore, you will not be spending any money on “getting ready” to go to the session, transportation, or any other costs that involve physically visiting another location.

Mental counseling is not exactly cheap, as one 45-60 minute therapy session can set you back anywhere between $60 – $120, with some therapists charging as much as $250 per hour. By choosing to schedule your sessions online, you will be able to choose the prices on the lower end of the spectrum.

One thing to note, however, is how insurance integrates with online counseling. Most online therapy plans will either not be covered by your insurance, or will have partial coverage. Some, however, will provide you with the option to pay fully with your insurance. It is worth your while to do exhaustive research, depending on your insurance coverage.

Online counseling is extremely convenient

Normally, your therapist’s availability dictates how the therapy sessions are scheduled. But when you have thousands of therapists to choose from, in various time zones, scheduling becomes rather easy. It is entirely possible to schedule an appointment with a professional therapist within an hour or two if you so wish!

For the most part, some degree of scheduling is still required even with online therapy, but you still have the convenience of attending the session from the comfort of your own home. To put it simply, the requirements for online therapy are for both the therapist and the patient to be on the same online platform at the same time. And that is about it. There are no other considerations, making the sessions extremely easy to schedule.

Lower social embarrassment

Many people have issues communicating with others, or even being near other people. For these people, online counseling is the best way to get quality therapy sessions. They can talk freely from the safety of their homes, without any social anxiety, as there will not be another person near them. Over time, these patients will gather the strength to try out a video chat with their therapist and progress even further on their path of healing.

One of the main advantages of online counseling is that it is simply easier to “open up”

The greatest issue of any mental health therapy is patients either not opening up enough, or flat-out lying about their views/problems. While this is not something that is absent in online counseling, it is considerably reduced. The main reason is that our “shy nature” is reduced when we are speaking through an online medium. Or we can simply talk over the phone instead! Online counseling provides you with options, to say it simply. You can always choose the option that will allow you to be as honest and frank as possible.

By making it easier to “open your heart”, online counseling offers an extremely enticing array of options for all those who are having issues opening up. Don’t want to look at your therapist while you speak about your issue? No problem, set up a messaging chat or talk over the phone!

Find the ideal online counseling solutions today!

Consumer Opinion Guide devotes all of its resources to providing customers with a selection of premium products and service providers across North America. Our goal is to be the link between people and businesses – and to ensure customer satisfaction through our recommendation of companies in all spheres of life. Make your dental concerns easier by exploring our list of the best online therapists!