Online Therapy Tips
We have been providing high quality and engage therapy services for clients across a variety of ages and with various needs and goals since March 2020. Some people have continued telehealth as their preferred therapy approach since March 2020.
What does this mean for my child?
During COVID lockdowns we transition quickly to online therapy sessions via Zoom. Online therapy means that we will be working remotely and not seeing families face to face at the clinic. These arrangements are consistent with advice from the Minister for Health and medical experts to support a community approach to managing COVID outbreaks in our community.
Zoom is a safe and confidential online platforms for psychologists to continue to provide therapy to support their clients. From time to time, we use online games and activities as a form of engaging children for their participation, as well as using games to help children regulate their energy levels and stress levels by giving them breaks in the session.
Games will be shared via a Zoom shared screen, or through Family Minded owned accounts and content will be monitored by the clinician to ensure it is developmentally appropriate.
How will this change my child’s therapy?
You might be thinking, how will this work? Yes, this has been a big change for us all. There is evidence that online therapy has positive benefits for clients, including children and families. We, as clinicians, have learned how to optimise our skills for delivering therapy online and we continue to consult with colleagues, engage in professional development, and develop different strategies and materials to help ensure that telehealth sessions are valuable and useful to you and your child.
Telehealth can be a new experience for everyone involved: the child, family and us as psychologists. Children are typically tech-savvy and feel comfortable operating technology – we hope this promotes a smooth transition to online therapy for our families.
Similarly to what we currently do at the clinic, we will opt to make therapy as ‘fun’ as possible for our clients and a part of this is collaboratively playing games. These games may be online, and we will ensure games are played in a safe way.
The suitability for online therapy will differ from client to client. It will be based on many things, including their age and developmental level, access to the internet and a computer (or iPad, laptop). For younger clients, much of the work will involve working with a parent/guardian.
Given the nature of the changes to your family’s life during lockdowns (i.e., changes to children’s schooling, and more time spent at home), the goals of therapy may change during this time and we are especially mindful of this and will support these fluid goals.
Online therapy may be a more slow process, especially at first as children become used to it, however it will give us the chance to see children in their own space and for us to practice new skills together in an every day environment which will have some benefits over learning new things in our offices.
What can I do as a parent/guardian to help with this transition?
Set up a space that is reasonably free from distractions (such as the TV or siblings and comfortable for you and your child (perhaps plan another activity for your child’s siblings to focus on during the session if possible).
Plan ahead with your child that they will be having an online session with their psychologist.
Ensure the device is charged and will not go flat. If possible please have your child sit with a window or light in front of them, rather than behind them so we can see their faces, if there is a light source behind them, they will be hard to see. Also, some children have very quiet voices, if you child is a soft speaker, please provide some earphones with a mic, so we can hear your child clearly. Officeworks are selling headphones with mics that are under $10.
Your clinician may send you some resources (i.e., a worksheet) that they plan on completing with your child. This may be shared with you via email or Coviu/Zoom directly.
One of the first things we will do when we first connect online will be discussing some housekeeping matters. Such as:
Please feel free to get in contact with your clinician if you have any queries about this transition to online therapy and we will endeavour to problem-solve with you.
What does this mean for my child?
During COVID lockdowns we transition quickly to online therapy sessions via Zoom. Online therapy means that we will be working remotely and not seeing families face to face at the clinic. These arrangements are consistent with advice from the Minister for Health and medical experts to support a community approach to managing COVID outbreaks in our community.
Zoom is a safe and confidential online platforms for psychologists to continue to provide therapy to support their clients. From time to time, we use online games and activities as a form of engaging children for their participation, as well as using games to help children regulate their energy levels and stress levels by giving them breaks in the session.
Games will be shared via a Zoom shared screen, or through Family Minded owned accounts and content will be monitored by the clinician to ensure it is developmentally appropriate.
How will this change my child’s therapy?
You might be thinking, how will this work? Yes, this has been a big change for us all. There is evidence that online therapy has positive benefits for clients, including children and families. We, as clinicians, have learned how to optimise our skills for delivering therapy online and we continue to consult with colleagues, engage in professional development, and develop different strategies and materials to help ensure that telehealth sessions are valuable and useful to you and your child.
Telehealth can be a new experience for everyone involved: the child, family and us as psychologists. Children are typically tech-savvy and feel comfortable operating technology – we hope this promotes a smooth transition to online therapy for our families.
Similarly to what we currently do at the clinic, we will opt to make therapy as ‘fun’ as possible for our clients and a part of this is collaboratively playing games. These games may be online, and we will ensure games are played in a safe way.
The suitability for online therapy will differ from client to client. It will be based on many things, including their age and developmental level, access to the internet and a computer (or iPad, laptop). For younger clients, much of the work will involve working with a parent/guardian.
Given the nature of the changes to your family’s life during lockdowns (i.e., changes to children’s schooling, and more time spent at home), the goals of therapy may change during this time and we are especially mindful of this and will support these fluid goals.
Online therapy may be a more slow process, especially at first as children become used to it, however it will give us the chance to see children in their own space and for us to practice new skills together in an every day environment which will have some benefits over learning new things in our offices.
What can I do as a parent/guardian to help with this transition?
Set up a space that is reasonably free from distractions (such as the TV or siblings and comfortable for you and your child (perhaps plan another activity for your child’s siblings to focus on during the session if possible).
Plan ahead with your child that they will be having an online session with their psychologist.
Ensure the device is charged and will not go flat. If possible please have your child sit with a window or light in front of them, rather than behind them so we can see their faces, if there is a light source behind them, they will be hard to see. Also, some children have very quiet voices, if you child is a soft speaker, please provide some earphones with a mic, so we can hear your child clearly. Officeworks are selling headphones with mics that are under $10.
Your clinician may send you some resources (i.e., a worksheet) that they plan on completing with your child. This may be shared with you via email or Coviu/Zoom directly.
One of the first things we will do when we first connect online will be discussing some housekeeping matters. Such as:
- What do we do if the internet freezes?
- How much time will be for parents and how much with children?
- How to support the child to engage if they are reluctant/anxious/unsure?
- We have found that the sessions go best when we accommodate the child’s needs in the session, and provide some flexibility about what we do to help children adjust to the different experience. Our goal is to support kids to become comfortable in this new therapy experience which means we need to keep the experience relaxed and safe so they can be open to talking about their difficulties. It is ok with us, if kids show us their favorite toys, play areas, household pets etc… This is one of the benefits of online therapy is the kids get to show us their worlds.
- We can also help kids become used to this by expecting it to go badly from time to time. Kids, like us, don’t like getting it wrong, and we need to model acceptance of mistakes as learning experiences.
Please feel free to get in contact with your clinician if you have any queries about this transition to online therapy and we will endeavour to problem-solve with you.