Advantages of video therapy

I absolutely hate tele-therapy, but have learned to accept it. I’ve also started to make a list about the advantages of it. For me it cuts down my stress level of having to battle horrific traffic getting to my T’s house. It also helps with my often unpredictable work schedule. Still trying to think of other reasons.

-- It us better than not being able to see T at all.
--we have video sessions which allow me to see her. That is really important for me rather than telephone
--I dont have to worry about running into other people if I leave upset.
--if I were disassociate, I would have to worry about being safe enough to drive home.

Bit of a silly reason, but he sometimes adjusts his position in his chair and as he does so, his face comes really close to the camera for a few seconds: I don’t think I’d get such a close up face to face. It cracks me up sometimes.

I fought teletherapy like a tiger. It took me a solid 7 sessions before I began to accept it, and then feel fairly comfortable with it. At this point I don't feel that teletherapy is too much different from in-office therapy. I wear comfortable, but nice clothes and have my hair done decently. I get comfortable in my chair.

The most interesting aspect of teletherapy is that I'm done more work an focused growth in teletherapy than I ever did IRL. Go figure.

I too have done more in depth work online than IRL. We made a load of progress doing online sessions, particularly around developing a sense of trust in T. Face to face we could barely look at her, but online sessions gave us the chance to really look at her and notice her reactions to us. I have DID, and during online sessions alters felt more comfortable coming forward. In person we don't really feel very safe, but online the lack of physical proximity gave us a lot of security. So we really began to open up and reached a new level of alters that hadn't presented in therapy before. Now that we are back face to face the progress has carried forward to in person sessions. So. lots of positive outcomes for us.

The advantage can be you have more options for a therapist as you can now chose one that might be 50 or 100 miles away in your state. I have more options opened up to me if I want to start with a new therapist.

--I got to see my T's dog.
--I was able to show him one of my guinea pigs (suppose I could have shown a photo or video if I was seeing him in person, but I was actually holding one on camera for part of the session).
--He's gotten to see different rooms of my house and gotten a better sense of the weird layout of the house (split level, with basically a room on each floor and lots and lots of stairs).
--I'm not sure if this is due to video sessions, the pandemic in general, or something else, but T is self-disclosing considerably more.
--What Merope said about him sometimes being really close to the camera.

My T has also been revealing more I dont know if it is because she is more comfortable in her home vs an office in another town or not.

Unfortunately, we have not been doing really in depth work. She is afraid of me disassociating and her not being there to help bring me out. Once, we went a little too far and the next few days were awful.

I am doing therapy by telephone and have done so since the middle of march. The option of video was available to me but it's not a platform I'm comfortable with. I have missed my T a lot but have found that I have found it easier to be myself (after 5 years) on the phone. I don't feel so self conscious and like the fact that I can't be seen. I sometimes wonder whether this also makes it easier for her - If not being seen can make it easier for her to tune into me or herself which is a large part of working psycho-dynamically. So while a part of me still longs to see her, I do wonder whether things would go backwards with me finding it not as easy to talk. I also find she talks a lot more, probably to help with not being face to face, which I like. I find her voice soothing most of the time.