When dealing with a crisis of the magnitude of the global coronavirus pandemic, therapists have to be willing to adapt in order to address the needs of our patients. For the faculty at Emerging Practices, this has meant expanding our use of remote therapy options, including phone therapy sessions and video conferencing therapy sessions using web-based video chat platforms like Google Hangouts, Skype, Zoom and FaceTime.

While most, if not all, of the therapists instructing courses at Emerging Practices used some form of remote therapy platform in their practice prior to the spread of COVID-19, the faculty understands the current importance of allowing patients to stay inside (and stay healthy) while addressing their mental health by producing a range of remote therapy options. By doing so, this has allowed our faculty to address the numerous issues that have come up for patients, including individuals, couples and families, living in the time of the coronavirus. Individuals are struggling with isolation and anxiety, namely dealing with tolerating uncertainty and the unknown. Couples are struggling to find a balance between alone time and together time, while trying not to regress into old unhelpful relationship dynamics. Families are attempting to balance working at home and parenting, while grieving the loss of their family’s old day-to-day routine. And pregnant women are particularly vulnerable when navigating getting their needs met in an overwhelmed medical field, especially in New York City.

Teletherapy and video chat therapy sessions have provided a platform to not only continue to help patients through these experiences while in quarantine. But, they have also allowed Emerging Practices faculty to provide leadership in remote psychotherapy in general, from discerning the difference between phone therapy and video chat therapy, understanding the opportunities that remote couples therapy can provide to couples in quarantine, and answering numerous questions from our patients about how exactly online therapy can work best for them.