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How Telehealth Therapy Has Changed the World of Mental Health Care

Making Mental Health Accessible Through Telehealth

The COVID-19 pandemic changed many aspects of our lives, and while much of that change has been difficult, one positive shift has been the greater accessibility of reliable mental health care. Virtual therapy allows me to connect with you directly from your home, helping remove barriers such as travel time, scheduling challenges, or the absence of nearby providers. This convenience makes it easier to attend consistently and to stay engaged in your therapeutic journey. If you have found it difficult in the past to maintain regular sessions, telehealth therapy may be a meaningful solution.

The Benefits of Telehealth

Telehealth therapy has transformed the way care is delivered. I use secure, private platforms to ensure the same confidentiality and professionalism as an in-person session. The rise of virtual therapy has created new opportunities for you to:

  • Receive consistent care, even if you live in a rural area or face mobility challenges.

  • Fit therapy into your schedule without needing to commute or arrange childcare.

  • Feel more comfortable opening up in a familiar environment, which often supports deeper reflection.

I can offer individual counseling, couples therapy, or even group sessions online. While there are still some situations that may benefit from in-person support, research and experience show that telehealth is highly effective in addressing concerns such as anxiety, depression, and stress. It provides flexibility while maintaining a high standard of care, making it a valuable option for the realities of modern life.

A Holistic and Empowering Approach

From a narrative therapy perspective, telehealth can help you re-author your story. By creating space to reflect and share, you begin to separate your identity from the challenges you face, allowing you to recognize your strengths and values.

Through positive psychology, I guide you to build upon resilience, gratitude, and personal meaning. Telehealth makes these practices more accessible and helps you integrate them into daily life.

Using cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), we work together to identify unhelpful thought patterns and develop healthier ways of thinking and responding. The virtual format ensures that these tools can be practiced where you live, making it easier to carry skills from session to real life.

Finally, mindfulness is central to this process. In our virtual sessions, I can guide you in grounding techniques and mindful awareness that bring calm and clarity, even when life feels overwhelming.

Making Your Mental Health a Priority

If your mental health has been placed on hold because of time constraints or limited access to services, I want you to know that telehealth therapy is here to help. It offers you the opportunity to prioritize your well-being without leaving home.

I invite you to schedule a virtual session with me and experience firsthand the benefits of professional, compassionate support from the comfort of your own space. Your story, your healing, and your growth deserve to take center stage again.

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How to Navigate Challenging Life Transitions

When we’re young, life transitions are fun and empowering. We go from crawling to walking, walking to running. We start with training wheels but soon no longer need them. As we age we graduate into higher grades and become more independent.

But as adults, life transitions can feel not so fun and far from empowering, because life transitions can often include loss: loss of a job, a marriage, and loved ones. During these life transitions, we can feel out to sea, completely at the mercy of the tides that seem to be tossing our lifeboat around.

If you are feeling stressed and overwhelmed right now because you are facing one or more life transitions, here are some ways you can navigate these choppy waters:

Slow Down

Have you noticed that the pace of life has picked up? Most likely your heartbeat and breathing have also picked up as a response. It’s time to slow down.

As simple as it may sound, slow, deep breaths are a powerful way to tell your body that everything is okay. Right now, your body is in “fight or flight mode,” as you subconsciously, and maybe even consciously, feel you are being attacked. Making time each day to be still, away from the noise and chaos to breathe deeply and slowly, will slow down your heart rate and make you feel calm and peaceful.

Embrace Uncertainty

I know, it seems completely counterintuitive if not downright impossible. But when we surrender control and embrace the unknown, with an almost scientific curiosity about outcomes, we feel positive emotions (curiosity, wonder) instead of negative emotions (lost, out of control).

Acknowledge the Cycles of Life

Someone once said, “This too shall pass.” Life, like weather, has seasons. While you may feel stuck right now and like nothing is going the way you hoped or planned, recognize the truth, which is, this too shall pass. Transitions are just that, an uncomfortable bridge from one part of life to the next.

Fall Back on Traditions

Rites of passage have been used for thousands of years in all cultures to help people transition from one place in life to another. It’s time to call upon this ancient wisdom of our ancestors and empower ourselves.

Rites of passage put us in the driver’s seat. We can acknowledge that things MUST change because we intuitively understand that the human journey is all about facing challenges and becoming new versions of ourselves.

Life, such as it is, throws us curve balls and sadness and things that cast fear and doubt into our vision. This is natural and no one escapes.

But there ARE ways to navigate these challenges. Try these three tips. And if you’d like additional help along your journey, please get in touch with me.

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Does Online Couple’s Therapy Work?

The current global pandemic has caused most people in this country to have to shelter in place for many months. This has caused a lot of stress and strain for families and couples. And, often acute or sudden stress can bring underlying relationship issues to the surface.

But, since many states are still in lockdown mode and residents are still practicing social distancing, how can couples facing these issues get the help they need? Through online therapy.

What is Online Couple’s Therapy?

Online couples therapy offers the same benefits as face-to-face therapy, with the added convenience and privacy of getting the help and support you need at home. Usually, sessions are held via video chat and with the couple in the same location. However, online couples therapy can be particularly beneficial for those couples who are dealing with the stress of living apart because of long-term hospitalization or military deployment.

Besides the lockdown or being apart from your spouse, what are some other reasons couples may choose to try online therapy as opposed to face-to-face therapy?

  • It’s easier for those couples with busy schedules
  • Convenient for those couples living in geographically isolated areas (rural America as opposed to big cities)
  • Some people find going out into public or driving stressful
  • Couples may not want to be seen by anyone in their local community walking into a therapist’s office
  • When one or both partners has a disability that makes attending in-person therapy more challenging

Online therapy follows a similar model to traditional therapy and in most cases, therapists do nearly everything online that they do in person. The only real difference is that it may take a little bit longer to get comfortable with each other, as human beings tend to connect more when they are in each other’s physical space. But once the connection has been made and everyone feels comfortable, there is no real difference in how sessions are conducted.

When Online Couples Therapy is Not a Good Idea

While online couples therapy can be very effective and beneficial to a majority of couples, there are those situations when it would not be suitable. For instance, in the case of domestic violence. Couples therapy, whether online or over the internet, treats both partners as equal in the relationships and aims to save the marriage. But when there are abuse and violence, the partners are not equal (ie, partners are not contributing equally to the problems) and the goal should not be to keep a victim in a dangerous relationship.

Some other instances where online therapy may not be suitable:

  • If the couple has outdated technology and/or can’t access the internet
  • One or both partners distrusts technology or feels anxious about sharing over the internet
  • One or both partners feels uncomfortable having sessions in the home and would prefer a more professional setting

Again, for a majority of couples, online therapy can be very beneficial and even preferred. If you’d like to explore treatment options and do so online, please reach out to me. I’d be happy to discuss how I may be able to help.

 

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Is Telehealth the Future of Therapy?

As a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, many therapists have had to quickly pivot and offer their clients online sessions in an effort to help them to continue to make progress while at the same time abide by the social distancing guidelines to flatten the curve.

While it seems our country and the rest of the world are slowly opening back up, many of us have learned something very important during this crisis: telehealth offers clients something very valuable, and that is therapy on THEIR terms. It’s really not so surprising that telehealth is currently a $6 billion industry that is expected to reach $20 billion by 2025.

Here are just some of the benefits of “virtual therapy”:

Privacy

Traditionally, many people, especially those that live in smaller towns and cities, refuse to seek help from a therapist for fear people will find out. With telehealth, a patient can receive help from the comfort and privacy of their own home. This can be particularly helpful for therapists who treat teens and young adults who go to the same school/college and can feel ashamed of seeking professional help.

Telehealth is a Time Saver

Not many of us ever feel we have enough time in the day to accomplish all that we need to. You will find your clients will appreciate telehealth because it saves them having to deal with traffic, scheduling in possible long drive times, and looking for parking.

Flexibility

I have found in my own practice that those clients who often require my services the most are the ones that are overworked and often have scheduling conflicts. Telehealth helps you to offer clients timeslots outside of regular hours that you may not normally have available.

Clients Show Up on Time

Therapists benefit from telehealth as well. In any given month, many clients may show up late to an appointment. When a session can begin with the simple mouse-click, timeliness is greatly improved.

Cost Savings

Online therapy means a therapist can run their practice without the need of a front desk staff or paying for office space each month. This extra revenue can greatly impact their life.

These are only a handful of the benefits telehealth offers to both providers and patients. And while it will be a bit more time before clients and therapists fully embrace online therapy, the future looks bright.

 

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Orlando, FL 32803

(407) 986-2888
alan@azupkacounseling.com