AD has been a regular participant for over a year, she’s had great and needed changes, and she’s been remarking on how thankful she is that she could have sessions over Skype, how much better this works than to have to be in the physical presence of someone when she needs not to feel self-conscious at all about what she needs to express:
I want to share my experience of working over Skype. I’ve been working with Dex for over a year and, for many reasons, he’s by far the best counselor I’ve ever worked with. An integral part of the success of our therapeutic relationship, though, is simply due to the fact that it does not happen in person. I didn’t realize how much I’d struggled doing therapy in person until I started working with Dex; just how self conscious I felt when I had to deal with the very real presence of a person with needs of their own. I could never really relax, I could never really cry if I had to, etc. etc. because, well, there was someone sat a few feet away looking at me! And I was always in a space that was not my own. A space designed to be therapeutic but not necessarily in line with my needs.
I can express whatever I want, however I need, without having to worry about traveling after something’s shifted, without having to invest any energy into managing the reality that there’s a physical presence expressing its own energies close by. So much pressure! I always felt I had to be a good patient in some way, to show the therapist that I was transforming in front of them, that I was all ready to go by the end of the session. It was impossible for me to make progress. Working over Skype, I can choose whatever is best for me and it’s fine, it’s functional, it’s great. If I feel I can better express something if I’m not being observed, I just turn the camera away. Easy peasy! I was unsure at first working over Skype, but very quickly it became the obviously best way for me to work. And to speak to another concern I had about working over Skype: I’ve never felt worried that Dex isn’t present because he always is. Thank you, Dex!
– AD,
December 2017