Written by Kerem Okumus,
Now that virtual therapy seems to be becoming a common practice among therapists, there appears to be a question of establishing and maintaining a trusting relationship with patients.
It is much easier to establish trust and create a sense of intimacy during a face-to-face conversation than online. Nuances in body language, eye contact, and facial expressions can be easily missed or misinterpreted when communicating via a screen.
Moreover, you do not have the advantage of creating the right environment for sharing, e.g., using nice lighting, candles, or cushions for comfortable sitting.
It is much harder to create a comfortable environment when providing online therapy, but there are ways to do it successfully.
In this article, you will find some tips and tools that may help you create a peaceful atmosphere and develop trusting relationships with your patients. Hopefully, our guidelines will help you provide effective online counseling!
Creating a Truly Confidential Online Environment
Confidentiality is essential for the creation of a therapeutic alliance. Therefore, to establish trust, you should pay special attention to creating a safe environment in which the client knows that their privacy will be protected.
Platform Choice and End-to-End Encryption
The first thing to consider when choosing the platform for providing online therapy is the issue of the platform’s compliance with HIPAA.
Luckily, today there are many HIPAA-compliant teletherapy platforms that can help you with the provision of online therapy. Such platforms as Doxy.me, Zoom for Healthcare, and SimplePractice use end-to-end encryption that provides security.
Discussing the platform and its advantages and features can help you to create a safe environment.
Authenticated Access
Two-factor authentication (2FA) for the teletherapy account may be a very useful tool for improving the privacy of online therapy.
This method requires the user to complete an additional step of authorization (e.g., entering a verification code). Thus, even if the password was somehow stolen, the account will not be available to any third parties.
Privacy Tools to Protect Client Data
Along with the usage of a HIPAA-compliant platform, one more step that you may take to protect client data and create a confidential environment is the use of additional privacy tools.
If you conduct online therapy or receive any sensitive information on the computer, using a VPN service for PC can be helpful for protecting your internet connection from any interceptions.
Using general privacy tools can be an additional measure that will help you to create a more protected online environment.
Therapeutic Alliance: Tips for Creating Rapport Online
The success of therapy is often dependent on the therapeutic alliance that a therapist creates with his or her patient. Moreover, in order to create such an alliance, therapists spend a lot of time.
In the era of virtual therapy, when more than half of sessions are conducted remotely (either online or over the phone), creating a rapport without meeting patients face-to-face takes even more effort.
So, what may be helpful in such cases?
Being Verbal and Listening Actively
Every therapist knows that active listening is essential for the process of therapy. However, in-person interaction gives us the opportunity to read the client’s nonverbal signs and react to them. In the case of virtual therapy, these nuances can be missed.
Thus, being verbal and listening actively becomes more important in the case of virtual therapy. Tone, pauses, and choice of words become more significant in the process of communication. The demonstration of your engagement also becomes more important.
The repetition of the client’s words or the summarization of what he or she said can be very helpful in demonstrating that you are really paying attention to him or her.
Such words as “I hear you” or “that makes sense” can also be very useful in the case of virtual therapy to help the client realize that he or she is understood.
Nonverbal Communication
Establishing eye contact is another important thing to build trust with the client, but it becomes harder in the case of virtual therapy. Nevertheless, there are some things you can try.
For instance, positioning your camera at eye level can help you in the process of communication, as well as being visually present and engaging.
Not every client can feel comfortable being on camera, and it should be respected, but, nevertheless, video and audio can help in the process of creating rapport.
Some platforms, such as Zoom, have the “hide self view” option so that the client does not see himself or herself but still sees you. At the same time, you can still see him or her.
In the case of virtual therapy, the more expressive you are, the better. Some subtle cues cannot be easily understood by clients during the process of virtual therapy; thus, being more engaged and expressive, and using some nonverbal cues such as hand gestures can be very useful.
Setting Expectations and Boundaries
Talking about boundaries, the duration of the session, and the expected response time can be helpful in creating the right environment. In addition, it is important to discuss the confidentiality of the communication and protection of the client’s personal data.
It may also be helpful to have a simple backup plan so that you both know what to do in case of any problems with the connection or platform.
Conclusion
Providing therapy online definitely changes the way of building trust but makes it no less possible. It is just necessary to be more thoughtful and purposeful in the way you are communicating and creating a safe environment for your client.
Even small things become more important in the virtual environment. How you listen, how you react, how present you look, and how clearly you handle the issue of confidentiality all influence the feeling of your client about the safety of the environment.
About the author
Kerem Okumus is an Outreach Executive at Intseo Media, where he focuses on SEO outreach, publisher communication, and digital content partnerships. He has experience working with content covering technology, online privacy, cybersecurity, and other digital topics.
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