What do you need to practice online therapy?

If in the last decade there had already been a significant boom in the popularity and use of the format of online therapy, after the months of the coronavirus pandemic this progression towards the digital has still intensified plus. Today we are in a real boom in psychotherapy based on video calls.

But as is always the case with technical advances and the emergence of new opportunities based on the world of the Internet, to take advantage of the potential of the online medium many times it is necessary to train and learn, slowly but surely, to open up to this way of doing business clearly supported by the technology. So, Here we will see what is needed to practice as a psychologist who offers online therapy.

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The new opportunities of online psychotherapy

Online psychological therapy has the particularity that despite the fact that it is essentially like classic "face-to-face" psychotherapy (including its degree of effectiveness in treating patients), the fact that communication is carried out through a virtual context through devices connected to the Internet gives it unique characteristics, several of which are advantageous. In other words, a relatively simple change makes this new modality of psychological care offer

services with qualitative and quantitative benefits. In this sense, the most important advantages of online therapy are the following:

• It is more accessible for people with reduced mobility
• It is also more accessible for people who live in isolated or poorly communicated areas.
• It supposes a saving of the costs, which allows to offer more attractive prices.
• It saves you travel time, making it easier to find “a gap” in the schedule for therapy sessions.
• It makes it possible for patients to have psychological support without leaving home, in an environment that is familiar, so they tend to feel more comfortable and many open up more.
• By not having to go to the psychologist's office, an extra discretion and privacy is also provided, something that some client profiles are very grateful for.
• As many of the places that offer privacy, tranquility and Internet connection can be suitable to "go to the psychologist" from therapy online, travel does not involve an interruption of sessions, which reduces the risk of abandoning treatment and reinforces adherence therapy.

What do you have to do to practice online therapy?

This is what you need to offer online therapy effectively and sustainably.

1. Have university training in Psychology

The fact that to carry out online therapy it is not necessary to go to a mental health clinic or a cabinet psychological or means that this is an informal practice that can be exercised without university training (such as minimum).

For this reason, it is considered that in order to offer psychotherapy online, it is necessary to have at least a Bachelor's or University degree in Psychology, and specialization training through Masters and/or postgraduate degrees. In the event that the therapy is applied to people with diagnosable disorders, in most countries it will also be necessary to carry out a specific professionalization path to through a Master's Degree in Clinical and/or Health Psychology and an internship stage caring for patients who have developed pathologies such as depression, addiction, post-traumatic stress, etc. On the other hand, in some countries you can also practice in the field of psychotherapy when you become a doctor.

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2. design your strategy

You need to plan a consistent strategy when offering online therapy, considering the time and resources that you will dedicate to this format of psychological attention, and to what type of patients and/or clients you will appeal and from what way. This may involve do a little research on the opportunities that await you if you start attending online.

For example, it is not the same to dedicate all your time to online care than to reserve only the last hours of the afternoon, and it is not the same to offer online therapy in a a region in which there are hardly any services of this type than in a city with a high population density, where there are already many psychologists who work from online therapy.

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3. Acquire the right material resources

In the 21st century, online therapy is not technically very complicated in itself, but despite that you will need to have the right equipment. To offer fluid sessions with good image and sound quality (something essential not only to make communication possible, but also for patients to feel comfortable and feel that they can express themselves openly), you should buy a powerful enough computer, a good camera and sound capture system, and You will need to ensure a stable internet connection capable of supporting the emission and reception of live videos.

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4. Consolidate your brand image on the Internet

This implies mastering the use of social networks and, preferably, having your own website. (or that of the psychological assistance center that you run, if that is the case). Keep in mind that in the world of online therapy, your potential audience is no longer that of your neighborhood or municipality that has been able to hear about you through word of mouth. You will have access to clients from very far away cities or even from other countries, but in exchange, you must learn to move your marketing in the digital context.

If you do nothing to make your services visible on the Internet, you will not exist and your competitors will take their ground all opportunities, both in terms of clients and in terms of collaborations with other professionals or Business.

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5. Learn both what is necessary to attend online and what will allow you to squeeze the potential of online therapy

The Internet allows us to use very flexible digital tools that can be adapted to the business models and services that we offer.. For this reason, it is not only worth learning how to do what is essential to carry out online sessions with patients; In addition, it is recommended that you learn the functionalities of the Internet and web pages beyond this, to have a global image of what what you can and cannot do with the resources you have and take advantage of options that you would not even have considered if you had not been trained in this. For example, you can commission them to design a videochat service for your website that manages requests for information from potential clients, you can make an online agenda accessible to schedule sessions directly, etc.

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How to specialize in this type of therapy?

If, due to its advantages or the clear boom that online therapies have experienced in recent years, you want to train in this field, you will be interested in the course University Expert in Virtual Therapies in Psychology carried out by the European University.

It is a 100% online course of 12 ECTS credits and 6 months duration designed for Graduates or Graduates in Psychology, psychologists specialized in the clinical field and/or Health Psychologists who want to understand and master the practice of patient care through Internet taking advantage of all the benefits that the digital world offers to mental health professionals, all with an emphasis on experiential learning. The methodology is based on live classes that, once they are recorded, are accessible to all students, while having the support of a tutor for accompaniment and technical support In addition, when completed, it allows obtaining a Degree issued by the European University of Madrid.