Online Therapy: The Inevitable Future of Mental Health

In a world where our lives and day to day experiences are revolutionized by the omniscience of technology, can mental health services be far behind? Of course not! Gone are the days when we had to depend solely on a face to face session with a therapist or counselor in order to better facilitate our mental health management.

Now, through the help of different computer software and mobile applications, we have got a solution, literally at our fingertips. Experts call this telemental health i.e. mental health services provided with the help of technology. It enables psychologists, therapists and other mental health professionals to extend a helping hand towards their clients despite the client’s inability to travel long distance or make it on time to the therapist’s office.

Mental Health Care during COVID-19

It has been a while since our life has come to a staggering halt due to the sudden and vicious attack of Coronavirus. Many of us are completely stuck at home either due to government regulations or because we want to self-quarantine and maintain social distance ourselves to prevent the disease from spreading. 

Many reports are suggesting that depression, self harm and substance abuse have hit an all time high due to the overall state of panic and loneliness. Visiting a therapist is out of the question in this scenario. But what about reaching out to them online or through a phone call? To make online therapy even more efficient, many therapists have also started using digital therapeutics i.e. evidence-based tools that help both therapists and clients in managing mental health problems. So, now we can take excellent care of our mental health without leaving the safety of our own homes. Amazing, isn’t it?

Benefits of online therapy and digital therapeutics

Using technology to cross the barriers of distance and ability is beneficial not just for such extremities as a home quarantine. It is the inevitable future of mental health. And why wouldn’t it be? It has numerous advantages that can phenomenally influence and supplement traditional therapy practices.

Easy Accessibility: A lot of people shy away from therapy just because they are wary of making an effort to commute to the therapist's office. The reasons for this can be manifold. A client may live far away from their therapist’s office, a client might be unable to travel alone, a client might have moved to another city in the meantime, a client might be physically unfit to commute… the possibilities are endless! But once we start using app-based programs under the recommendation of a mental health professional, it becomes easy to take care of ourselves despite all these hindrances. We can have sessions over phone or video calls and engage with activities such as brain games in an app to practice new habits and thought patterns.

Helps with privacy: One of my friends once quit therapy because she accidentally met a relative in her therapist’s waiting room and things got awkward. And guess what, she was the first person to tell me how therapy has been made more accessible through technology of late which has made her seek help again.

She now feel completely secure since she can do mindful activities on mobile apps anywhere and everywhere and can just call therapist from the privacy of her own home or from a quaint and empty cafe while sipping that cup of latte.

Tapping into the millennial market: Let's face it, millennials love technology. They would much rather do any task online than to so it physically. Which is why apps and websites that have n option of game playing, Skype sessions or online therapy as mental health aides are a big hit among them. 

These enable them to make some time in their busy lives, according to their own convenience, to address their mental health issues without having to remove themselves from the comfort of their present surroundings, not even temporarily.

Daily dose of rewiring: With a little help from technology, it is now possible for therapists to keep their clients engaged in practicing a beneficial thought pattern everyday through certain useful mental health apps.

These apps contain comprehensive programs in the form of fun brain games and other interesting activities that can rewire a client regularly, even outside the four walls of a therapist's office. 

Convenient monitoring of progress: Some of the highly specialized mental health apps in the market (e.g. Enhance Personality App) have been built in conjunction with complementary software which would help a therapist monitor the progress of his/her clients.

With a few taps here and there, each client can send a report of their app activities to their therapists so that both parties can prepare for the next session well in advance. 

Technology has opened a brave new world in front of us and we at Dharma Life Sciences have welcomed it in with open arms. All the Dharma Life Sciences apps and their supplementary software have been built with the sole purpose of making mental health solutions more convenient and accessible for everyone. We strive to remove the stigma around addressing mental health issues by making it as simple as playing brain games on a mobile application in one's leisure time. Everyone does that! And contrary to popular belief, using technology in mental health doesn't mean an elimination of human communication or empathy. Instead, technology must be seen as a conductor, an assistant, a man Friday if you will, in this great human endeavor of managing and improving our mental health. Like Robinson Crusoe, we too, need a little help sometimes if we are to leave meaningful footprints on the vast world of mental health.

~Dharma Life Sciences 

Written by Sanchari Bhattacharya, Manager - Creative Writing at Dharma Life Sciences