Teletherapy Reflections

I’ve been providing services remotely for several months now. Like many clinicians, I didn’t have any experience with telepractice prior to the pandemic and was quite intimidated to start.

What I’ve learned:
There is no ‘ideal’ candidate for teletherapy. At the beginning, I expected my older clients with more educational focused goals would be easier than my early intervention kiddos. I quickly learned that much like traditional therapy, you cannot predict which intervention will work best best on client profile. I’ve worked with 2 year olds who love playing with me through the screen, and 5 year olds who have cried through an entire session because they didn’t like my activity.

WFH can be exhausting. Although it was intimidating, part of me was excited to start working from home. My prior setting was in-home visits so that meant a lot of driving, using public restrooms and eating lunch in the car. The prospect of immediate access to my own bathroom, WiFi and kitchen all day long felt like a gift. I still definitely appreciate these aspects, but full days in front of a screen takes a lot more out of me than I would have expected.

It’s easier for clients to forget an online session. I certainly didn’t have perfect attendance rates doing in-person sessions, but my no-show rate is much higher than when I physically showed up at their house. I try to be flexible, I know every family is going through a lot right now. Sometimes I can’t tell if I’m nagging a family with reminders or not being proactive enough by sending more confirmation texts.