Compared with finding a therapist in a big city, signing up for text-message therapy was a breeze. All I had to do was open an app on my phone, pick a username, and type my first message. Predictably, the first thing I wrote my new therapist was a question: “Hi. How does this work? Do I just tell you about myself?” (Textual healing are apps the future of therapy?)
Is the future of therapy going to come via texting?
Thanks to my good friend John Dyer for sending this article to me, Textual healing: are apps the future of therapy?
When I first found out that some colleagues of mine were texting clients (mainly to answer client’s questions about appointments, etc — rarely about therapy) I was pretty shocked. I don’t use my personal phone for my therapy practice and I had never texted any client till about January of 20014. I started using a new phone service called Ring Central that allows for text. And it wasn’t long before I would get texts from clients about appointment times, scheduling/cancellations, telling me they were running late. I can say that up to this point, I don’t believe anyone has tried to use texting as a means of therapy in my practice.
I have no idea where technology will be taking the world of therapy. I do remember this post from 4 and half years ago where I was talking about therapy on the go via iphone and video streaming. I do know that therapy and the rules that govern the practice of it at national and state levels always seems to be behind in terms of keeping up with technology. But isn’t that true of most professions and areas of life? Technology outpaces our ability to keep up with it and understand how to put boundaries and structure around its use.
But I’m curious.
