In the age of COVID and increased isolation at home, the concept of telehealth has been given a golden opportunity to demonstrate its worth, particularly in the realm of mental health issues. Professional telehealth psychologists have been helping many people through the significant mental health challenges that they’ve faced as a result of the global pandemic.
If you’re someone who has used or is considering making use of telehealth services to help you work through issues, then here are some helpful tips that should help make sure you can get the most out of the experience.
- Act Sooner Rather than Later
The longer you leave mental health problems unchecked, the more challenging it is for any mental health professional to offer you effective help. If you’ve already left things festering for some time, then it’s time to act, and even if you only have an inkling right now that something might be wrong, dealing with it head on and in a timely fashion will always yield better results.
Procrastination is a bad habit to maintain in any part of your life, but when it comes to any aspect of your health, then it’s truly a harmful, even self-destructive behaviour. If you’ve thought about seeking help from a telehealth psychologist, then act on it sooner rather than later.
- Keep All Appointments
To get the most out of your experience, it’s imperative that you attend all sessions as planned or agreed with your telehealth professional. In some ways, it’s a bit like going to the gym. If you don’t keep it up and stick to your commitments, then the end result is that you stop going altogether, perhaps telling yourself that you don’t really need it, or that you’ll look into it again some other time when you’re “less busy.”
If you can’t keep to a schedule for telehealth, then it simply won’t work out for you and you’ll have a negative overall experience.
- Take Some Notes and Reflect on Each Session
It’s never a bad idea to keep some notes on what your telehealth professional is saying during each session. You could also record the sessions either via screen recording or just recording the audio. After each session is over, you should reflect on it and think about the advice and suggestions given to you, as well as think over what you’ve shared, what that meant to you, and why it has been a good thing for you to attend these appointments.
- Keep a Journal of Your Experiences
Following on from the previous point, a great way to reflect on individual sessions, as well as keep an accurate record of your emotions and thoughts is to keep a journal. You can then use your journal notes as an aide to better share how you’ve been doing in the time between weekly sessions.
This makes sense for a lot of people since they may not realistically be able to attend daily sessions, and may only be free once a week. A lot of things can get lost during that time, which is a pity because so much of it can be helpful to a telehealth professional as a clear insight into the state of your mental health.
- Speak Up and Offer More to Your Therapist
During sessions, try to speak more and offer full answers to your therapist’s questions. The more you can share, the more effectively a telehealth psychologist can gain insight into your issues and offer helpful and constructive solutions. When you answer in monosyllabic words and short, clipped answers, it can be hard to make any progress.
