5 Innovative Benefits of Online Therapy for Anxiety
Every time you try to step outside of our comfort zone, you have voices in your head telling you to stop. You start to feel your heart racing, shakiness, and a flood of negative thoughts takes over. You try to push through but something inside of you just won’t let that happen. You get to a point where you avoid new situations, avoid engaging with others, avoid living the life that you thought you would have once you finished college. Somewhere along the way you learned that it was safer to isolate yourself from others than to actually engage with them. Every time you would try new things or hang around new people something would go wrong. You started slowly building up this brick wall around you not letting others in and not leaving for fear of what could happen. At some point you convinced yourself that everything outside of your bubble was a recipe for disaster, making the thought of leaving it something you would rarely even consider.
Instead of going out and living it up, you started spending more time on your couch snuggled up with your dog, watching TV, and passing out before 10 pm on a Saturday night. You dream of being able to go down to Midtown and listen to live music with friends on the weekend. You dream of happy hour at the local sushi bar with coworkers. You dream of Sunday brunch at Hugo’s before starting your work week. You dream of being able to answer your phone when it rings instead of having your heart skip a beat.
But you can’t get past all those thoughts spinning around in your head. Anxiety is kicking your ass and you just can’t seem to make any changes.
You may feel alone in what you are going through right now, but the truth is you’re not. There are so many other women just like you sitting at home right now wanting to be out enjoying themselves but cannot shake the negative thoughts that anxiety brings into their head. But there’s a solution, online therapy, just like I provide to so many women like you, is helping to get women out of their homes and move forward in their lives. If you’re wondering how online therapy can help you with your anxiety just keep reading.
Dealing with anxiety in your daily life sucks. Things as simple as ordering your morning Starbucks becomes a rehearsed script so you resort to using the app to order instead. In the office, everyone hangs around the coffee pot discussing the great weekends they had while you sit at your desk checking emails. After work, everyone gets together and heads out to happy hour for a few drinks, while you sit in traffic trying to make your way back home. You know you’re not a boring person, the people that really know you think you’re awesome, but you can’t stop thinking about everything that could go wrong if you were to engage with others outside of your small circle. You’re thankful for things like Amazon and grocery delivery that allows you to isolate yourself even more, even though you know inside that you’re not living the life that you want.
But your life doesn’t have to be this way. I know you have gotten comfortable and learned to adjust to the world around you to limit interactions but it’s not what you really want. You can get up in the morning and chat with the barista at Starbucks as you grab your morning coffee. You can hang out with coworkers before starting the work day laughing and talking about Mike’s danced moves that y’all witnessed over the weekend. You can head out to happy hour for margaritas and tacos letting the traffic die down so you don’t have to sit in it every day. But first you have to be open to trying innovated things to help with your anxiety.
Traditional face to face therapy didn’t work for you as it just increased your anxiety, but that doesn’t mean there is no hope. Online therapy could be just the thing that you need.
First, you may be wondering what is online therapy? Is it legit and does it actually work? Online therapy is just like traditional therapy but done via video conferencing, chat, or email. It’s like being able to facetime or text your therapist. It is done with licensed professionals and has been proven to be just as effective and in some case more effective than face to face therapy. It’s secure and the same precautions to protect your information are taken as with traditional therapy formats.
So, why is online therapy so great for those with anxiety?
Accessibility
One of the most commonly noted benefits of online therapy is how easily accessible it is. Imagine having the opportunity to connect with hundreds if not thousands of amazing therapist throughout your state. Online therapy puts the help you need to your most challenging problems with anxiety right in the palm of your hand.
But how does it help with anxiety? Do you like walking into a therapist office with the name of the practice or therapist on the door so everyone knows what you’re up to? With online therapy there is no anxiety sounding visits to the office. Online therapy takes confidentiality to another level protecting you from even being seen near an office. How’s that for lowering your anxiety?
Online therapy also helps with alleviating the stress caused by commuting. Traffic, bus rides, waiting on an uber at 5 pm is usually not a relaxing situation. I know traffic pisses me off and I avoid it at all cost. When your stress levels go up so does your anxiety. By being able to log in to your therapy session while in your office at work, sitting in your car in the parking garage or after getting home and relaxing a bit makes it so much easier to benefit from the therapy session.
When I work with people with anxiety online, I encourage you to get as comfortable as possible even if that means putting on your pajama’s and hoping into bed. You are better able to open your mind and talk about things when you’re not boggled down by the stress of the day or from sitting in traffic prior to sitting down in front of me.
Mobility
Also, online therapy is mobile. You don’t have sit in one place for an hour, you can move around if you need to and take therapy on the go. Exercise is great for reducing symptoms of anxiety so if you feel comfortable with others hearing your side of the conversation, go stroll through the park during your session.
One of the things that I do in working with women with anxiety is exposure. In the office setting the ability to expose yourself to situations that trigger your anxiety are limited. We are left with assigning it as homework and having you report back to us. With online therapy we can walk through the process together and I can see firsthand what you’re experiencing.
Say you have a fear of being out in public alone. The thought of sitting in a restaurant, ordering food and having a meal by yourself is something you would never dream of doing. With online therapy you can connect with me on your phone, plug in your headphones and head over to that restaurant. I can walk you through the process and help you to challenge your irrational thoughts right in the moment. Even if you don’t even get in the restaurant we can still walk through all the emotions that you are experiencing in the moment.
This is awesome because it gives you insight into your problem in the real world. One of the most commonly reported problems with traditional therapy is that it’s easy to practice in that setting but being able to apply it to your real life is a challenge that you often fail.
Comfort
n addition, online therapy provides you with a more comfortable environment where you feel safe. Traditional office settings can increase your anxiety level, being in someone else’s space, however nice it may be is, can be difficult. I think about how therapists advertise as wanting to create a comfortable environment for their clients, but what’s more comfortable than your own home? Well, maybe a spa.
Also when you’re at home and behind that screen it’s like you’re wearing a super cape. Think about the trolls on social media sites that be keyboard thuggin’. They feel real brave talking shit online but wouldn’t dare say what they’re saying to someone’s face. One of the things that I have observed in my practice is that everyone is so comfortable that they want to jump right into what is going on with them. They’re focused and ready to do some amazing work. I don’t see many women needing to get comfortable with me or me needing to work on building rapport. Instead of spending time and money on building a relationship, many of my clients save time and money jumping right into things because they are already comfortable.
Also, when you don’t have to face someone in their environment it makes it easier to be honest and reduces anxiety around being judged. You don’t feel the same judgment through the computer screen as you do with someone sitting right across from you. Many women find it easier to be honest with someone that they don’t have to face. How many times have you sent a text to someone with something you needed to tell them instead of going over to their house to meet with them about it?
Support
Fourth, online therapy can provide you with support when you are most vulnerable. Anxiety often attacks when we are alone and don’t have distractions. Think about how often your thoughts get out of control when you’re at home. At work you have things to distract you, other people, work related task. But once you get home, managing your over thinking can be hard. Having the ability to connect with a therapist at home, when things are hard makes fighting your anxiety so much easier.
Many online therapists also offer the ability to message them in between sessions. This helps you with getting information about your symptoms to your therapist in the moment so it can
be discussed in your next session or even quickly that day with a quick response from your therapist.
When I receive messages from the women I work with in between sessions, I like to give them a task to complete or a tip to get through whatever it is they are dealing with in the moment. Anxiety can attack at any time and I try to at least reach out even if it is a short response to provide you with a bit of relief until we have our next session.
Perception
Finally, this last one is not so much how online therapy is awesome for anxiety but more about how awesome your therapy can be with online therapy. See, online therapy allows a therapist to see you in your natural environment instead of only seeing the piece of you presented in the face to face session. It’s like watching the animal channel looking at the cheetah roam through the prairie in search of food. Being able to see a person in their environment helps to connect the missing pieces to the puzzle.
One of things I always said when I worked with clients face to face is that I wish I had a way of watching them at home. Seeing how they behave when they’re not in my office helps me have a better understanding of what is going on with them. Online therapy makes me a better therapist and assists me with being able to customize the work that I do with you to your specific needs. How awesome is that?
Being able to conquer your fears and face your anxiety is truly possible with online therapy. You’ll finally enjoy answering your phone and making plans for the weekend. You’ll be able to interact with others around you without fear of judgment or making a fool of yourself. But you’re not going to get there if you don’t take action. If you want to be able to face your anxiety and live a more fulfilling life than click here to schedule your free video consultation and get started with online therapy.
