Why The Virtual Couch?

COVID-19. Coronavirus. Quarantine. Working from home. Postponed plans. Job loss.

These words may bring up a ton of emotions in you including frustration, grief, loss, annoyance, fear, and overall uncertainty. 

Even in beginning to re-open our communities, there is still no denying it. There is no getting around the hard truth that things have changed and that in order to cope with these changes and participate in our hectic and chaotic world, we need to adapt. 

It is no surprise that many people are struggling with the new reality that we face, whether they’re concerned about their financial state, worried that they’re not being productive enough with their time, or falling into other traps that often go hand in hand with unhelpful coping strategies—drinking to deal with the stress or staying unnecessarily busy in order to avoid confronting the truths that lie in stillness and reflection. 

You might be looking on with wonder and disbelief as the world you once knew is being revised right before our eyes. Through all this, one thing is clear: in tragedy, sooner or later, the ways that we learned and have practiced coping with stress will surface. 

With the world on pause, the choice is yours to make

While it may not be wise during this time to expect yourself to write the next New York Times bestseller, to master a new hobby, or to complete all those projects around the home you’ve been putting off, I keep coming back to an all-important question. 

Can we truly justify not using this time while the world is on pause to do a deep dive into the makeup of our internal worlds? Isn’t now the perfect opportunity to address the hurt, the sadness, the fear, or the trauma that has been bubbling under the surface of our lives til now?

You may have been considering signing up for therapy long before this crisis hit and always told yourself that you never had the time to really devote to it. Maybe you’ve been in therapy in the past, but things were beginning to get real which can be terrifying, or “it just wasn’t the right time”, or maybe you didn’t honestly feel as though you could truly open up to that therapist without facing judgment.

It takes a lot of courage to arrive at this point, to risk trying again, and to reach out in vulnerability and ask for help. 

How does online therapy work?

Long ago the therapeutic community has (hopefully) debunked the myth that for therapy to be helpful you must spend an hour each week lying on the couch, never facing your therapist, lost in thought, or rambling in free association. If you decide to give therapy a chance, you’ll find that our practices today are much less archaic. 

Despite many people’s reservations about online sessions, there is much evidence that shows that therapeutic relationships developed online are just as strong, and the effects of teletherapy just as great. These fears flow from an understandable source, however quickly fade away as the therapeutic process begins.

In telehealth, like in the therapy office, we enter in a safe, nonjudgmental space, where you’re able to seek out and access the most authentic ‘you’. We can work to create a life for you, free of the constraints that once weighed you down, a life where it is easier to breathe.

In my own personal style of blending elements of cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, and viewing each situation through a trauma-informed lens, we can work together to discover and address the root of the issues you’re having. 

In honing in also on the sensorimotor (getting into our nervous system connection) process of the body, I can help to guide you back into your own body, into your own visceral sense of self. In somatic therapy, although we focus on the body, it is not a physical presence that heals, but our voice, our essence, our being present in the moment. 

In this, we will also work together to discover the messages that the body has for you. Together, we’ll assess your experience of tension, physically and emotionally, and work to find healing. In honoring and tuning in to the voice of the body, together we can unlock a true experience of peace within you and help you get back to the joy you knew before. 

I see my role as a fellow traveler both in your journey to discover these roots and on the ultimate journey of life. Because you are unique and the expert in your life, you deserve a therapy experience that is tailored specifically for you.

Final thoughts

Although many have their hangups about what it means to do therapy via telehealth, what my clients and I have found is that it still manages to be an incredibly intimate experience, once we’ve surrendered to the process and have allowed ourselves to embrace the format. 

In some ways, it can serve as an even more intimate experience as you allow me into your home, as we let the distractions fade away, and we encounter one another face-to-face. 

Also, in this way, we are able to build upon the sense of safety that you feel in being comfortable in your own space and use this foundation to develop a powerful therapeutic connection. 

In exploring the same session content via the virtual couch as you would in a traditional setting, I am still able to help guide you through whatever symptoms you may be experiencing in the moment, and connect it to the larger narrative of your life where you can find insight and healing. 

For those considering signing up for therapy, now is the time. There is no barrier to healing when you have the right professional in front of you.