Member-only story
Does Online Therapy Work as Well as “Real” Therapy?
Video chatting with your therapist may feel strange at first, but that doesn’t mean it’s not helping your mental health.
Online therapy — also known as teletherapy, video therapy, telemental health, telebehavioral health, telepsychiatry and many other names — has been around for a while, first seeing a rise in popularity and usage by mental health professionals in the early 2000s. Prior to COVID-19, this technology was especially useful for serving people living in rural areas or with mobility issues that made seeing a therapist in-person difficult.
Telemental health has gotten a bad reputation in the past for being less effective or therapeutic than “normal” or “real” in-person therapy, despite research demonstrating that telepsychiatry can be even more effective than in-person therapy in some cases.
Why Online Therapy Has a Bad Rep
Prior to the pandemic, the majority of people who saw therapists online did so through an app like Better Help or Talkspace. These apps pair you up with a therapist based on a questionnaire that you fill out when you sign up for the service. Although you can ask for a new therapist if you don’t like the one they pair you with (Betterhelp) or the three they give you the option of choosing from (Talkspace), in general, the client…
