Online Counselling
Online Counselling Services in Langley and throughout Canada
How It Works
Online counselling allows you to get the help and support you want from the comfort, privacy and protection of your own home. This option avails you of the same quality service and interaction with your therapist as you would get by coming into our office.
Utilizing this type of counselling means that we are able to provide you with face-to-face counselling even though it isn’t in person. We will talk about what you are dealing with and how to resolve it and move forward. The only difference is that we are not in the same physical location.
As long as you have a quiet and private place during your appointment time, online counselling sessions can be as effective at building rapport with your counsellor and having a safe space to get some practical coping tools, process some emotions you are feeling, and make changes to the way that you interact with yourself and others.
It’s Effective
There have been numerous studies that have found online counselling to be as effective as traditional face-to-face therapy.
Professor Andreas Maercker, a study researcher wrote that he found “evidence that psychotherapeutic services on the internet are an effective supplement to therapeutic care. In the medium term, online psychotherapy even yields better results.”
It’s Practical
Online therapy is a practical and helpful way to begin getting help on a topic you’ve been wanting to dive into for a while. It can also be helpful to provide you with extra support and coping tools if you are experiencing anxiety and stress at this time of constant change.
Take a look at the bios of our counselling team and see who might be the best fit for you.
How you can prepare for your first online counselling session.
EMDR can help you live a life without the recurring painful thoughts and memories. It can help you look back on an event in your life that shook your world and observe it as opposed to being overwhelmed by it.
Find something to keep your kids and pets busy during your session. This may be tough, especially when the kids are not in school. If you don’t have someone who lives with you that can watch them, maybe you can save their electronics time for this so that you can have concentrated time for yourself.
Be comfortable. Many clients will use their kitchen table or the couch. Go wherever you are comfortable. Maybe the only quiet spot will be your bedroom or bathroom. Or your car.
Find a well lit area. It helps your therapist to better be attuned to you if you have light in front of your face rather than behind you.
Don’t have your cell phone near the computer you’re using, or at least silence it. It’s difficult to not be distracted by an incoming message or email alert if you have your phone beside you.
Ensure your device is sufficiently charged, or plugged in during use - your connection and video can cut out if your battery is drained below 20%.
Use headphones with a microphone for added privacy / sound quality if you're in an area that may have a lot of background noise or traffic.
Be aware that some phone and tablet cases may cover your tech's microphone / speakers which may impact sound quality or cause and echoing effect during use.
Try not to use public wifi (i.e. Starbucks or library wifi) as these connections are unreliable and may not be private.
Also be aware of your data usage if using cellular data for sessions.
Allow extra time to ensure that your audio and video settings are working before your session starts, and make sure you know how to contact your therapist if you lose each other during session.
If you’re at home, try to minimize the chance of delays or being cut off by asking if others in your home can pause their streaming services for an hour (eg. Netflix), unless your current wifi set up can handle the traffic.
Prop up your device on a solid and flat service so that your arm won’t get tired during session. Take a deep breath, and soon enough you’ll have completed your first online therapy session!