10 Comments

I have also recently started writing it as "covid." I'm tired of giving this virus the importance of a capital letter, let alone 5 of them and a dash AND a number.

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First of all John, I have a therapy *cat* not therapy dog, so I am not an idiot. Secondly, I find the teletherapy to be just as good as meatspace therapy. By now I've seen my therapist more over Zoom and I am much less likely to feel guilt the entire time because I'm probably going to go to the bar right after.

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Yes! I am glad teletherapy is an option, but I miss being in in person, especially as it put my EMDR on hold. My therapist says we could start to experiment with doing it virtually, but... that raises my anxiety.

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I find teletherapy difficult to get on board with because I am always feeling like I'm wasting the therapist's time, or they probably have better things to do, and without being in the room with them where I can see that they are focused and not distracted, I just can't fully commit and be present without a nagging worry. Also, I think something just gets lost across the wires for me - like a third party is there that may be listening, so that makes is hard to be free to speak.

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Same! I feel like I have to sum things up quickly so they can get back to what they want to be doing. I also tend to keep the conversation on the surface, I think because I am paranoid about someone overhearing or interrupting our conversation on Zoom.

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I was surprised at how easily I adapted to teletherapy. I'm terrible at time management, and so it's been great to not have to worry about leaving the office on time to drive there, or rushing back to work afterwards. I didn't realize how anxious I was about that until I didn't have to do it any more.

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I haven’t talked to my therapist regularly, but we’ve had a couple of phone appointments. Better than nothing, I suppose, but I don’t feel a connection. My psychiatrist by phone is better, but I’ve been seeing her longer and have a better relationship overall. My daughter has been seeing her therapist on video, and I think because she felt very comfortable before, it’s a pretty good situation now.

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I was deeply skeptical of teletherapy at the start of all this. Interestingly, I feel like we've been able to delve deeper into some of my issues. Maybe because even though we're on a screen, we're "sitting" closer to each other? (i.e. I'm not physically sitting across the room) Also, I like that I can take notes during our session without it seeming weird --- and that's also helped enhance the sessions.

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I have always preferred Telemedicine, but some of my therapists have not (in the past). It’s so much easier for me to talk on the phone when the idea of getting out of bed is too daunting. No more missed sessions, no more guilt about missing sessions.

My therapist and I switched over to telemedicine a year and a half ago, before covid, and I rarely miss a session now, where it was spotty at best if I was going to even make it to a session in his office. Now he does all of his work over zoom and phone, though I will say I do miss his face sometime, he is kind and it’s nice to see the empathy and reassurance in someone’s face when they talk to you.

And a tentative “yay” on the new possible podcast. I can’t wait to hear it.

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RE: Telemedicine. Same. It is better than no therapy but I prefer in-person.

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