My experience with telehealth as an Active Duty psychologist
Telehealth is needed now more than ever before in my opinion. As a licensed counseling psychologist, I have been trained to provided therapy face to face. So, when the opportunity came to be trained to conduct telehealth, I was initially ambivalent. Reflecting back eight months ago, I am so glad I took that training.
Who am I: For those that are not familiar, I am currently an active duty military psychologist currently deployed in support of a NATO mission with my assigned armored brigade combat team. You might be thinking are you a “real” psychologist. Yes, I am, and I have lots of colleagues who are also licensed counseling and or clinical psychologist currently assigned to different types of brigade combat teams throughout the world. I enjoy being assigned to a brigade combat team; because wherever the Soldiers deploy, so do I.
My experience: Again, prior to this rotational deployment, I had little if any experience with telehealth. In the matter of seven months, I have conducted almost 200 patient encounters through telehealth. Granted not every single encounter has been for individual therapy. Those patient encounters have consisted of everything from individual therapy utilizing evidenced based treatments ranging from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), cognitive behavioral therapy for depression (CBT-D), cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTi), cognitive process therapy (CPT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), or brief solution focus therapy (SFT). Additionally, telehealth has been utilized for consultation with medical providers, unit leaders, safety checks, advanced military assessments for sniper school, recruiting school, White House appointments, and even drill sergeant candidate evaluations.
The Approach: You might be asking yourself, what about all those soft skills (i.e., non-verbal) that are so important in face to face therapy. I assure you those are just as important when utilizing telehealth. Setting clear expectations is vital towards the success of telehealth. An example, during your initial session, providing the patient with limits of confidentiality and discussing implications of network connectivity. Yes, I have had the internet to go down mid-session; therefore, informing patients that this might occur prior to is so crucial. Another factor to consider, is being true to your identity as a clinician. What does this mean? Basically, how you approach and or prepare for face to face therapy, I would challenge you to do the same for telehealth. Not hard at all!
The Benefits: Telehealth has been a significant benefit throughout this rotational deployment. Particularly being geographically dispersed from many Soldiers and or medical providers who might require behavioral health. As a licensed counseling psychologist, one of my passions is attempting to reduce and eliminate stigma associated with seeking behavioral health treatment. Having telehealth services has greatly done just that. In a study conducted by Leman et al., 2017, they found that participants felt less stigma associated with seeking treatment when utilizing alternative methods such as telehealth. As a nation, we have taken great strides towards the elimination of stigma associated with seeking treatment. Sadly, the unfortunate reality is, it still exists.
Conclusion: Lastly, with our new reality in life, I urge clinicians throughout the world to give telehealth a consideration. Understanding restrictions might be different depending on your license and or agency employed with. I promise you might just find it as rewarding as face to face therapy. If you have questions, please feel to reach out Dr. Darnell Durrah Jr., licensed counseling psychologist drdarnelldurrah@gmail.com.
