Why I Prefer Therapy Online

As someone who loves to shout the benefits of psychological flexibility… flexibility in therapy delivery was not a far reach for me.

The ability to connect from afar is, in my opinion, a critical skill. When the pandemic happened, I had no difficulty transitioning to solely online. While I saw some colleagues struggle with this, I found that my own practices of awareness, acceptance and the identification and use of value-driven actions were easily applied.

Online therapy has been a part of my private practice since I opened in 2018. I have never gone a month without some version of virtual therapy. I saw being an effective online therapist as an absolute requirement.

After working remotely and doing virtual therapy exclusively for about a year into the pandemic, I came to the decision that I was much happier with the life balance I had struck while being in my home office. Navigating the vaxxed, not vaxxed, face-mask, no face-mask drama was also super low on my list of value-driven actions. Let’s just meet from home, or wherever you feel comfortable, and go from there.

I also loved the ability for my clients to meet with me without the restrictions of finding parking, navigating traffic and that pesky thing called work. I’ve met clients while they’re in their car, in their office, or outside in a private setting. As long as I can get help to you if an emergency happens, we can probably meet there. Most clients prefer meeting with me from the privacy of their home, however, like I said, the flexibility of alternative locations has been extremely useful when the situation called for it.

ease of sharing resources

With so much of life happening outside of the therapy setting, and with so much of my approach being behaviorally based, I’ve found the ability to share resources through chat, or sharing my screen really useful.

I’m also a huge reader. If I have a book that I think would help you navigate a situation, I love that I can turn around to my bookshelf, pull it out and show you the page when you can find something that might be helpful.

Licensed in california and hawaii

I’m a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist serving Californian and Hawaiian residents. That’s right, I’m a licensed therapist in both California and Hawaii. Why these states? It’s not only because they’re two of the coolest states America has to offer ;-)

It was so bizarre, actually. Maybe because I was not used to meeting people who travelled or worked in multiple states, but I found myself with an unusual number of clients that went back and forth between Hawaii and California. They did it enough times throughout the year that not seeing them while they were in the other state, would interrupt treatment.

Now, it is not a therapists responsibility to become licensed everywhere a person travels. So why did I do it? Honestly, it was 2020 and having as many opportunities to help people, as well as have something for myself to accomplish (pass the AAMFT exam) was helpful to me too. It was a straight-forward enough process to add another license, even though the horror of my original California clinical exam came rushing back to greet me as I studied for the AAMFT exam. I now have the honor and privilege of working with people in both states!

Let’s Begin Therapy

phone: (619) 763-1176

email: cynthia@letsbegintherapy.com

virtual office hours: Mon/Wed 1-6pm, Tues/Thurs 8-3pm

session fee: 50-minute session $225