Hire a Therapist for Trauma & PTSD
Hire a therapist from Singapore’s largest on-demand, online therapist network
Pay One Low, Flat Fee | Confirm Booking Instantly | Stay Anonymous
Online Therapy And Its Benefits For PTSD
Counselling services or psychotherapy delivered over the internet are online therapy. Online therapy, unlike in-person treatment, allows you to communicate with a qualified therapist or counsellor through any internet-connected device, such as a computer, tablet, or smartphone. Teletherapy and e-therapy are other words that are sometimes used interchangeably with internet therapy.
Anyone can be affected by PTSD, and it affects people in different ways. It’s natural for people who have been through a severe life-threatening event to find it challenging to go about their daily routines. You can also be affected by PTSD indirectly if you hear about a relative or close friend who has been through a terrible event. The effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can endure anywhere from a few weeks to the remainder of one’s life. Online therapy is a potentially acceptable treatment option for PTSD patients (Simon et al., 2019).
In online therapy, there are a variety of ways to communicate.
Text-based Therapy
It allows you to have your therapeutic conversation at any time of the day or week. There are no time constraints, and you won’t have to wait weeks to address an issue like you would if it came up in between regular sessions. Your therapist is constantly responsive, and texting allows you to get right to the problem. It can benefit the socially nervous because you don’t have to deal with anxiety-inducing face-to-face talks.
Voice Messages
You can exchange asynchronous voice messages with the therapist if you prefer audio therapy. This is an excellent option if you need to vent or remove it now. Audio messaging help listen to the therapist without planning a long session.
Video Chat Session
A complete video chat session is optional for those who want to see the therapist’s reaction and act on their body language. You can choose to face this quality but do so entirely on your terms. You are speaking of your words.
An accurate diagnosis of PTSD is usually made at least one month after the traumatic event. This is because the symptoms are fully manifested and give vital signs to the professional in conducting a psychological test and obtaining a medical history. These diagnostic tests may not be associated with physical illness, and the symptoms experienced require the support of PTSD by a professional psychiatrist or psychologist.
As technology advances, professional therapists use specially designed assessment and interview tools to assess anxiety disorders (Lewis et al., 2020). Many of these professionals diagnose PTSD based on the reported symptoms, such as problems with normal functioning.
The goal of treatment and recovery for PTSD is to reduce physical and emotional symptoms, help cope with the specific event that caused the disorder, and improve daily performance. With online psychotherapy, patients with PTSD are taught a variety of symptom management and coping strategies. In addition, patients and their close relatives have the advantage of learning more about disabilities and how to provide support in the face of traumatic fears.
Pros of Online Therapy
- Online therapy provides mental health care for people in rural or remote areas. However, people living in rural areas may not receive other forms of psychiatric treatment due to little or no psychiatric practice in their area.
- Online Therapy provides access to people with disabilities or at home. Online therapy is usually relatively cheap and convenient. In addition, the internet makes mental health care more accessible.
- People may feel comfortable talking about physical health issues with friends and family, but they may not feel the same when discussing equally crucial mental health issues.
- Access online makes it easy to overcome the stigma historically associated with mental health problems.
Cons of Online Therapy
- The coverage of e-therapy may vary depending on where you live and the insurance company. Some online psychiatrists do not accept insurance as payment.
- If you pay for the psychotherapy service at your own expense, you can quickly run out. Personal information protection in psychotherapy is of significant concern, but online treatment adds complexity.
- Confidentiality is as important in online therapy as in traditional treatments. For example, if the client thinks of suicide or suffers a personal tragedy, a therapist can not provide direct assistance.
- E-Therapy is useful in various situations, but not for those who require immediate and direct treatment or personal intervention.
Thus, In terms of providing mental health therapy, the various ways technology might help overcome barriers to care are first discussed (Azarang et al., 2019). The use of technology allows for the shift of the determinant of care from the conventional provider’s office to mobile, online, and virtual environments that are less threatening for patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), assisting in the treatment of the illness’s core symptoms of avoidance and increased personal isolation.