Teletherapy at Manhattan Therapy Collective

If you’re looking for a therapist that can meet with you online, whether on a weekly basis on an as-needed basis, we’d love to connect.

While telepsychology (psychological services delivered via video, phone, or both) has been around since 1960 in order to increase access to mental healthcare for marginalized populations or in remote areas - the popularity of teletherapy has skyrocketed in recent years. At Manhattan Therapy Collective, we began offering teletherapy sessions in 2020 in response to covid-19 precautionary measures and have chosen to keep it as an option for our patients ever since. Research shows that online teletherapy can be just as effective as in-person sessions. Beyond being an adaptive response to a global crisis, teletherapy has opened doors for people who wanted to go to therapy but either couldn’t realistically attend in-person or could not find a specialist in their area. New parents or those with childcare challenges, professionals with unconventional work schedules, people living with chronic pain, or folks living in places with fewer mental health professionals with a desired specialty are now able to invest in their mental health. While we believe in-person therapy also has its unique advantages, we value the flexibility and equitable access teletherapy has added to our modern and diverse lives.

How does teletherapy work?

We offer teletherapy sessions through HIPAA-compliant software. Software that is HIPAA-compliant has built-in privacy and security safeguards to protect your personal information. Your therapist will inform you what secure platform they use for video sessions and provide instructions prior to your first session. To ensure the smoothest online therapy experience, we encourage you to have:

  • a private, uninterrupted space to talk

  • high-speed internet (it often helps to close tabs prior to your session that are actively streaming content)

  • good lighting and sound to promote clear video and sound

  • an agreed-upon back up plan in case technology fails (e.g., a preferred phone number)

Understanding limitations to teletherapy

Please note that teletherapy sessions can only be made available to persons who are physically located in New York during the time of scheduled sessions.

Our psychologists are only licensed in New York state at this time and we cannot legally provide teletherapy to anyone across state lines. If you are hoping to use out of network benefits for therapy, we encourage you to find out if your insurance plan covers teletherapy.

Have more questions about teletherapy? Please contact us.

 

Common questions about teletherapy

 

  • If some of your biggest obstacles to considering therapy or coming back to therapy have been reasons such as scheduling difficulty, new/existing responsibilities at home (e.g., childcare, caregiving), managing a health concern, etc - teletherapy is a great option because of its flexibility and freedom to stay put. If you could schedule a 45-minute session somewhere in your day but factoring a commute takes the option off the table, the time savings of teletherapy can make all the difference. If you’ve noticed that you can be at ease and yourself on video calls just as you would in person, this is also a clue that this modality could work for you. Overall, it’s hard to completely know how teletherapy feels until you try it. If you’re unsure, we encourage you to speak to your therapist about if a trial period and reevaluation makes sense for you.

  • It depends. If scheduling works out between you and your therapist - absolutely! This will always depend on the availability of your therapist and how they work. Bear in mind that our psychologists both WFH and are in the office on varying weekdays, and they often have full caseloads. This means they may not have an alternative time to offer or are simply not in the office to make the switch. If the freedom to switch to in-person is a very important option to you - please let your therapist know before starting therapy.

  • Yes, at this time if you’re opting to meet with your therapist via teletherapy, our policy is to offer video sessions. We’ve found that being able to see each other helps with better listening, communication, and attunement overall - which helps us work with you to the best of our ability.

  • Many insurances do cover teletherapy but we advise you to find out before requesting it or starting therapy. It’s also helpful to ask if some of the policies in place for in-person sessions (e.g., number of sessions, reimbursement rates or coverage of any late cancellations) differ at all to teletherapy sessions.