Several years ago...I thought seeing clients over the internet was an impersonal and overall ridiculous idea where computer technology had no place. THEN...I started receiving many requests for this service, particularly from many of the military couples I have regularly seen where one would get TDY'd or deployed abroad and therapy would just get stopped there. Also, many of my clients had become familiar with telemedicine and were also hoping for opportunities for sessions when they were out of town, sick, or otherwise unable to come into the office.
For quite a while, these requests had been answered in the form of phone sessions, which have been used for decades but are not a replacement for "the real thing" (and not HIPPA-compliant). I was quite pleasantly surprised when I began using an internet video platform that the sessions, that were perhaps clunky and odd during the first 5 minutes of the initial online session, became rather stripped of the medium through which thoughts and feelings were expressed and substantially resembled the aura of an in-person session.
Nationally and internationally, during the pandemic, teletherapy has become front and center. I'm so glad that I already had the training and experience to provide this service years before so many of my colleagues who have been struggling to catch up and do their good work through this medium. I'm authoring this at an early stage of the social distancing requirements (and hope to update it as it evolves) and I am getting so many more requests for this. I still prefer to have the initial session in the office, but that has become increasingly difficult and not necessary.
So, basically, I offer teletherapy. Everything remains constant as far as informed consent, confidentiality (I use a secure, HIPPA-compliant platform), cost and treatment planning.