Is anyone still doing telehealth?

I don’t get why therapists still would be. I know there’s reasons like better home work balance and more money because they aren’t paying for gas and stuff. but its still weird to me. But is anyone still doing virtual ones? Have you actually had any in person ones since March 2020?

I’ve been back to in person since May 18th. With the transference therapist she went into her office specifically for me once at the end of September and once at the end of October because I was struggling so much with telehealth.

One of the therapists I was looking into after the unprofessional one wasn’t going to be back to in person sessions until December.

No! Finally, starting this week we're having in-person sessions. I swear, one more teletherapy appointment would have been it for me.

I am still doing telehealth. I don’t think we will ever do in person because her office is impossible to get to without taking half a day off.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We are still doing virtual appointments. Sheis still paying rent for the office she is not using. She admittedly enjoys being in her home for lunch break and between clients. However,the reason she is still doing virtual appointments is because she has a child under 12. She plans to return to in person appointments with clients who want them as soon as children under 12 can get vaccinated or there is more conclusive information that unvaccinated people cannot get Covid from vaccinated people. She is hoping for fall. We both are..

I am still on virtual appts, going on 16 months now. She is going to have very limited in person appt slots starting in September and agreed for me to do weekly if I want, but I think we will end up doing a combination of virtual and in person. She reduced her office time from 3 days a week to only 2 half days.

I’m still doing remote therapy. My therapist has a condition which has put some question marks around the effectiveness of the vaccine for their specific circumstances. I’m a little worried it’ll never be safe enough and they will stick with remote. I don’t think that’s my therapist’s preference but I think they are concerned enough about their health that it might just work out that way. If my therapist decides to stay remote, I might end up needing to make a change. Tough since I’ve seen them for over 7 years plus I’m starting a counseling grad program and I’m required to be in therapy.

I’ve been thankfully back to in person since February.

I'm still doing telehealth (though I did meet my T for an outdoor session about a month ago). He's supposedly going to start in-person for fully vaccinated clients (which includes me) at the end of this month, but I'm not holding my breath because he was originally going to start that as soon as his wife was fully vaccinated, in early May. He's a Licensed Psychologist, and he said that guidance from the American Psychological Association was still saying to wear masks in the offices (under the medical professionals heading). And he doesn't want to have to wear a mask or have his clients wear one (I offered to come in and have us wear masks, but he said something about having to talk louder when wearing a mask and it hurting his throat if he had to do that all day--which...wouldn't he adapt? He also said would block him seeing some emotional reactions, which I understand more)

Our state has a high vaccination and low case rate right now, so the state's Psychological Association is now saying it's just up to individual practitioners, so his intention is to start in person again (he's on vacation in 2 weeks, so he's just waiting until he returns).

Wanted to mention that part about the APA because if someone is seeing a psychologist and still doing telehealth, that could be the reason why.

That is a matter of opinion. I don't see why they / some wouldn't choose to do so. Personal preference, particular life circumstances, added to a spreading virus that is still rather concerning, it seems common sense to choose to do so.

We went into subjects more in-depth in 2 in person sessions than we did in 14 months of teletherapy sessions. The difference is remarkable.

Yes, Dr. K is still doing telehealth. It's okay. I don't mind it. I have never seen him in person so it's all I know. Pdoc does teleheath too because it takes a whole day there and back to get to the appointment.

My T moved during the pandemic and she now lives 2 hours away. I hate it but we’ll only be s
Doing telehealth from now on.

Thankfully, yes, I am. I prefer it and I feel safer. She is keen for us to either meet or work with the video function, but I don't want to. I like being unseen. Not to mention that covid rates are increasing in my country and we are in another wave.

I requested an in-person appointment with Pdoc foe my last appointment. They are doing F2F because they serve some families who are homeless or just can't afford internet access. I am no where's close to their verge client but I followed my long term pdoc there. The building was nearly empty it was really creepy and we had to wear masks. It was very uncomfortable.

T very briefly mentioned a discussion with her husband . Her husband will be returning to in person work in September so he felt it was safe foe her to do the same. However, the discussion between T and I she realized that he likely thinks she and her clients would wear a mask. She is not comfortable with that. So she realized she and her husband need to discuss it more.

Ok thanks for the replies. I thought my former practice was just being overly stubborn by not having the therapists return to in person. But now I’ve realized it wasn’t just mine and it’s still common to do virtual sessions.

I'm not doing it anymore, but a lot of therapists in my Ts office still are. The situation is a bit different than in the US here, but if possible people still try to do virtual sessions and meet virtually for other things as well. 30% of people are vaccinated twice, but currently a lot of people are going to other countries to take a vacation and the newest variant is taking hold in Europe. The other Ts are on the older side (I'd say 60-70), but my T is too.

The safety precautions are pretty big too, so that's probably a factor as well. Masks are mandatory within the whole office space, the comfy chairs in the waiting area are sort of blocked off and you can only sit on those that can easily be disinfected, there's no magazines lying around for while you wait, the bathroom contains disinfectant as well as gloves for everyone, there's also disinfectant at the door and masks provided for those clients who can't afford it or forgot. And my T disinfects the clients chair each time and has to open the window to air the room out too each time. Depending on how many people you're seeing, that's a lot of work in order to stay safe.

I'd like to add that about reading emotions with masks, I'm not that affected by that because I almost never look at my T, I have my eyes closed almost constantly. But he can tell pretty well when I'm getting upset (either my other face muscles move as well, I make noises and he knows what we're talking about anyways or the rest of my body moves of freezes up), the mouth of course helps, but it's really not that difficult. There have been more issues with understanding each other sometimes, but the vocal stuff works for both of us. It would feel nice to see his face again completely sometimes, but I have some old pictures of him and sometimes he just got out of his kitchen and is taking out his mask and I can see his face. I'm pretty sure if I asked him to hold his breath for 30 seconds and take off his mask while looking at me, he'd do that too.

I'm in the UK and have been doing remote sessions since March last year. We are hitting a 3rd wave now, the government is basically opening everything back up and letting it run, vaccines help to reduce transmission and severity but aren't as effective on the 'Johnson variant'. I don't see us going back to face to face in the autumn but I'm really struggling now with remote sessions, attachment issues are through the roof and quite frankly it's just not therapy, but then I'm in a more psychoanalytical type of therapy and it doesn't translate well to remote working.

I am still doing telehealth and have been over a year. I've never met my current therapist in real life and her last day is July 30. they opened the office so I am going to her office in person on her last day to surprises her. My new therapist will be online as well but there is an option of in person if I choose it.

I’ve been virtual since March 2020. I now have a new therapist whom I have never actually met in person. I do FaceTime (or a different glitchier online platform/same concept) with her whereas it was just phone with old T.

I have been a frontline HCW in the covid trenches from the start. So I’ll own my bias upfront but it strikes me as bizarre and a bit precious that while teachers, for example, are expected to assume the risk of seeing 30-90+ kids a day (some of whom are crap with masks), therapists who see maybe 4-8 people per day, and could easily screen them, are not returning to in-person work. Now almost everyone in our area is at least partially vaccinated and we’re getting closer and closer to fully vaccinated. We are in an area where delta/lambda haven’t really hit (yet), the case rate is low and society has reopened to a great extent. Plus we could always go back to online if/when necessary.

For a time the vaccine wasn’t easily available, for a time kids were distance-learning and parents often had to work from home for that reason, for a time we were in a major crisis. But now none of that is true and I honestly have nothing but contempt for therapists’ unwillingness to buck the eff up and provide a decent service.

I find it galling that they would expect vulnerability from their clients while they are so intensely risk-averse that they cannot even show the fuq up under the most controlled and sanitized of circumstances. Imagine if they were called upon to show actual courage.