For many people, online therapy makes it possible to begin work that might otherwise be hard to arrange — whether because of where you live, a demanding schedule, or simply what feels most comfortable. It offers a real flexibility, and for a great many people it works just as well as meeting in person.
The first question is simply whether it suits you — your circumstances, and what’s bringing you to therapy in the first place. That’s something we can think through together in an initial conversation; you don’t need to have it worked out in advance.
How it works
Online sessions run much like meeting in person. We meet face to face over video for 50 minutes, usually weekly, at the same day and time. The fee is the same as for in-person work, and payment can be made online, in either sterling or euros.
I use Zoom for online sessions. If you have any concerns about confidentiality or how it works, we can talk them through together before we begin.
How online work differs from meeting in the consulting room
The main difference is the space. In the consulting room, the setting is given — a place kept solely for your sessions. Online, you create that space yourself, and it’s worth a little thought, because the privacy and steadiness of where you sit becomes part of what holds the work.
A few things that help:
- Choose somewhere you feel at ease and can speak freely, without being overheard.
- Make it as private and uninterrupted as you can — confidentiality matters just as much online as in person.
- Where possible, use the same space each week.
- That consistency lends a quiet sense of continuity, much as a regular room would.
If you’re less used to talking over video, it’s completely normal to need a little time to settle into it. People differ in how easily they find it to talk about difficult things on a screen, and there’s no right way to feel about it. Often, noticing how online contact feels for you is itself worth exploring — it can say something useful about how you connect with others more widely.
And because technology occasionally misbehaves, we’ll agree a simple plan for what to do if the connection drops during a session, so that a glitch is never more than a brief interruption. Knowing there’s a fallback tends to take the worry out of it.
If you think online work might suit you, or you’re not sure and would like to talk it through, do get in touch — we can decide together.