Disappointed that therapist may not transition back to in-person sessions

I have to say, I kinda agree with you. Though I wouldn't word it as strongly, I just find it quite strange to see that so many therapists seem to think their profession is well suited for WFH (or even that they should WFH the entire pandemic). I wonder if they take into account client needs when they make that assessment. I also wonder if they will realise longterm that maybe they made a mistake to go completely telehealth. It just makes me wonder if this decision is made for personal convenience.

Not to say that telehealth doesn't have a place in covid/post-covid times. Like a lot of areas in our lives, some things will have permanently changed. Office jobs most likely won't move to completely back in office again either. And I think telehealth has a lot of benefits to populations who otherwise wouldn't have access. Or for certain modalities or clients.

I think this move to telehealth should be client-led though, and not therapist-led. So if in the end clients have very limited choice in seeing a mental health professional f2f, I think that would be a problem. I just would like therapists who decide telehealth is a fine substitute for f2f to acknowledge it might not be so according to clients. I hope longterm there'll be more research on the results of telehealth on populations that struggle with trauma, dissociation and attachment issues. Because I think that's the group most likely to suffer from this change.

I'm very glad that this is not an issue in my country, as soon as govt decided it was safe enough for other medical professionals to see people again, mental health professionals followed. The 'work from home' mandate we've been under for a year now counts mostly for office workers. For jobs where it's not an issue to work from home. And therapists here seem to have collectively decided that working from home wasn't optimal.

/r/TalkTherapy Thread Parent