Therapists answer…
How can teletherapy work? How can you provide care remotely?

David Shapiro
Psychologist
How can you provide care remotely?
You know, I have this question myself so the question is, how can you provide care remotely.
And to tell you the truth I didn't realize that it was as effective as it is. For a number of years, I only worked with people in an office. And it was only actually with COVID, and the fact that people couldn't come into the office that I started doing my sessions online, only to find out that they were actually extremely helpful to the majority of my clients, and it was, it was really quite an eye opener.
Now of course, online therapy is not for everybody, it's not good for folks who are, you know in serious crises or suicidal or those kinds of things and there are certain types of conditions that make it difficult for folks to engage in online therapy but from the types of people that I work with, and the types of issues that my clients have it has just turned out to be, I think in some ways, even maybe better than meeting in person.
One reason is that you don't have to spend an hour each way, commuting so that just takes three hours out of your day. And another thing that's really interesting is, and, and I've answered this on some of my prior videos but I'll share this now a curious thing about my practice is that I am an American California licensed psychologist who's currently living in Asia. And so, the, the most amazing outgrowth of all of this is I've now begun again working with people back home through the internet, and, and it's, it's really working out just just fine just perfectly. So, it's enabling me to be here in Asia and be having this very rich experience that I'm able to infuse and and make useful to my clients, while at the same time caring for people who can completely relate to me as a Californian, who knows exactly what they're experiencing back home. And of course there's the fact that insurance will pay for my services with people back home, as a California licensed psychologist, same way as if I was being in person so, so there's also that interesting kind of cool factor there.
But the thing that I would mostly tell you is that online therapy, although not perfect for everybody has really turned out to be incredibly effective and meaningful, and my experience is that people are liking it and benefiting from it tremendously. So one way that you could check that out, is I'm offering free online consultations with people who are considering working with me, and maybe we could, you know, test it out, see what it feels like to meet this way, and also talk through what it is that you're looking for and what you're needing to maybe explore if I might be able to meet that need. Through the miracle of the internet, I have a secure online therapy platform that's incredibly easy to navigate, people are able to access their super bills for submitting to their insurance, they're able to just very easily make their payments and get online, reminders, everything, everything kind of goes like clockwork, without my having to actually have a physical office.
So I hope that maybe you'll check it out and see that it could be very useful and appropriate for you as well, so I hope to hear from you, and I hope that we can talk soon. Take care.








