Virtual Therapy

What is Virtual Therapy?

Virtual Therapy means the delivery of health care services through the use of interactive audio and video technology, permitting real-time communication between the patient and an experienced licensed professional counselor, for the purpose of diagnosis, consultation, or treatment. Our platform is HIPAA compliant, in order to protect your privacy and confidentiality. Our technology is at no cost to our patients. You can participate in sessions from home or any location determined appropriate by the patient and their clinician.

Kaleidoscope is offering traditional counseling sessions delivered via Virtual Therapy vs. coming in to the office. Traditional counseling is a collaborative effort between the counselor and client. Professional counselors help clients identify goals and potential solutions to problems which cause emotional turmoil; seek to improve communication and coping skills; strengthen self-esteem; and promote behavior change and optimal mental health.

It is natural to feel stress, anxiety, grief, and worry during these uncertain times, due to COVID-19. Everyone reacts differently, and your own feelings will change over time. It’s important to notice and accept how you feel. Taking care of your emotional health will help you think clearly and react in a positive manner to those around you.

Increased anxiety and stress

The outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19) may be stressful for you. Fear and anxiety about COVID-19 can be overwhelming and cause strong emotions for both you and your children. Everyone reacts differently to stressful situations – that is why stress looks different in others.

Stress during an infectious disease outbreak can include:

• Fear and worry about your own health and the health of your loved ones
• Changes in sleep or eating patterns
• Difficulty sleeping or concentrating
• Worsening of chronic health problems
• Increased use of alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs

When do you know you should seek help?

How much stress can — or should — you handle by yourself? How do you know when it’s time to seek help? American Psychological Association (APA) researchers found that nearly half of all Americans don’t know how to determine when to get professional help. Most people try to “hang in there” and handle their stress alone. But ongoing stress can have serious consequences. How do you know if you need help?

The APA says it’s time to seek help when:

• You’re so worried that you have trouble concentrating
• You’re so stressed that it interferes with the functions of normal living: eating, sleeping, work and relationships with others
• You feel so trapped that it seems there is nowhere left to turn

Virtual Therapy – What to Expect

In many ways, your child’s virtual therapy or play therapy session will be surprisingly similar to what they would experience during a session in our office. They will have a virtual therapy experience crafted to meet their unique set of needs, personality traits and attention span.

Our therapists aren’t afraid to get creative! We’ll use a combination of verbal communication, arts & crafts, storytelling, movement and even online tools to meet our therapy goals. You and your therapist will connect ahead of time if there are any materials to be gathered and/or set up.

Caregiver Participation

Depending on your child’s age, needs and preferences your participation may range from setting up the session and promptly exiting stage left to fully engaging in the entire session.

When you are fully engaged in the session, your therapist may transition into a coach. As a coach, the therapist is supporting and guiding you, as the parent or caregiver, while you are doing the direct interacting with your child. This is an especially effective way of conducting online play therapy with even the youngest children. Or our caregiver session might be centered around parenting tools specific to your child.

For most elementary aged children, they may benefit from your physical presence in the room, even if your active participation isn’t needed. This can help them stay regulated and discourage them from leaving to see what you might be up to in the other room.

If you have been asked to simply provide tech support and then leave, all you need to do is remain available by phone in the event that your presence in the room is needed again.

For most teenagers chances are, soon after getting the online session started, your tween will politely invite you to exit stage left. If that’s the case, then all you need to do is remain available by phone in the event that your presence in the room is needed again.

Your therapist will follow up either at the end of session or will schedule a separate time to check in with you or have a parent consult.

Location

All of our therapists are licensed to provide therapy in the state of Texas.