1. “Online therapy is expensive or complicated to set up” - FALSE
You might assume that online therapy requires expensive or difficult to use equipment, but it doesn’t! All it takes is:
· Webcam (most laptops have one built in)
· Reliable internet connection (fast enough for video)
· Headphones with an integrated microphone (optional & the headphones that you use for your cell phone should work)
· Strength in Heart uses a simple, user-friendly application for online counselling which does not require any downloads
2. “Online therapy isn’t effective” - FALSE
Of course, counselling in general is not effective for everyone, all of the time, but a large body of research has found that online therapy works just as well as in-office therapy for a wide range of conditions and issues. What does have a significant impact on the effectiveness of counselling therapy is the quality of relationship between client and counsellor.
3. “My insurance company won’t cover online therapy” - FALSE
In most cases, insurance is not a barrier to access online therapy. During this time of COVID-19 social isolation, and as the usefulness and effectiveness of telehealth counselling becomes increasingly clear, more insurance companies accept online therapy. The best approach is to check with your company whether they cover online therapy or not – it’s likely that they do, or that they will make a COVID-19 allowance.
4. “Counselling should be either in-office or online therapy – not a mix” - FALSE
Counselling in-office and online can actually complement each other well. A mix of both approaches can enable clients to have more schedule flexibility which is often convenient for rural or remote clients, parents, those who travel for work, or commuters.
5. “Online therapy is not private” - FALSE
Counsellors such as Registered Social Workers, Registered Clinical Counsellors and Registered Psychologists all adhere to strict professional and ethical client confidentiality codes. This means that all of your information (including video and audio messaging data) is safely stored and encrypted.
Strength in Heart Counselling treats all aspects of your personal information with the greatest care and takes active steps to protect your information. As per our professional college requirements, we securely store client/clinical information on our online practice management system, Jane App, a North Vancouver-based company with secure servers in Canada. This system has a private server bank located in a secured SOC2, Type2-certified data centre, and all data is backed up regularly on secondary servers in Western Canada.
In addition to storing your information in Jane App, we also conduct online video counselling through Jane App. Each video session is encrypted using 256 bit encryption when sent between our devices and the system’s servers. Sessions are anonymous and are never recorded or stored.