Working online

During the pandemic we made adjustments to stay safe and prevent the spread of the virus. Counselling and psychotherapy was able to continue using online video call systems. I had been using these successfuly for years before and found online sessions to be very effective both for one to one or couples work. There are even some advantages, such as no travel and some more flexibility for session times.

Here are some guidelines and good practices to help online sessions work to their best.

1. The online video calling system we use must be secure. Currently I use Zoom. If you click on the link it will take you to the Zoom website where you can download Zoom to your PC, laptop or tablet and use it for free.

2. Zoom needs a good internet signal to be reliable so you will need to consider which location will offer that.

3. The location from where you speak must be appropriate, secure, quiet, and free from interruptions or being overheard. Using headphones can be a good idea.

4. If the internet option proves unreliable we can fall back to using WhatsApp video calling from our mobile phones. WhatsApp seems very reliable and is secure, but the picture is rather small on a mobile phone, and it can use up mobile data quite quickly.

5. I will be working from my therapy room and will send you a personalised Zoom link for each session. I usually send out the invitations the day before the planned session.

Please contact me if you have any questions about this.