How to Find the Best Online Therapy For Your Teenager

If you’re a parent to a teenager, you know how much hard work they require. Being a parent to a teen puts you through a lot of struggle. You must ensure they have everything they need while balancing social life, education struggles, job responsibilities, and at-home chores.

Now, try to see things through your teen’s eyes. They must endure a lot of pressure to cope with school, home duties, spending time with their friends, and relationship ups and downs. This pressure that teens constantly feel may cause a lot of distress in their little, busy minds.

Online therapy can help your teen lift some of that burden. However, finding the right online therapy service to address your teen’s unique need is more of a challenge than you know. This article will help you understand how online therapy works and give you some tips to find the best online therapy services for your teenager.

You can view online therapy as an online form of counseling through digital communication channels. This form of counseling for teenagers provides various outlets to help your child release stress.

Teen online therapy covers many different areas of mental health, such as:

• Depression;
• Stress;
• Anxiety;
• Fear of the world;
• Relationship hardships;
• Heartbreak;
• Bipolarity;
• Sexual orientation;
• Eating disorders.

Online therapy includes individual sessions and group therapy for families. Since it’s online, your child can join sessions anytime, anywhere. That’s why most teens prefer online therapy to in-person counseling.

Online therapy also goes by different names, including teletherapy, e-therapy, virtual therapy, or telemental health. It takes place over the internet through telecommunication methods, such as video sessions, phone sessions, text messages, email, or any other channel your teen might prefer.

In online therapy, a therapist will try to ascertain the root of the problem that might cause your teen to experience:

• Sleeping disorders and changes in sleep patterns;
• Low energy;
• Loss of interest in things your teen used to love doing;
• Self-isolation;
• Avoidance of time with family and friends;
• Changes in appetite;
• A decline in school performance and grades;
• Increased irritability.

If you think your teen might be going through any of these hardships, contact an online therapist to determine the best course of action.

According to many studies, online therapy can work for your teenager if your child receives a diagnosis and mental health treatment on time. Easily diagnosis is vital to preventing more long-lasting and severe mental health issues.

In addition, online therapy may work for teens because it comes in an online format. Kids these days prefer talking to their finds over the Internet rather than in-person. With that in mind, you can say that online therapy makes mental health counseling and treatment more accessible in kids’ eyes.

Since it helps them tackle common life challenges that affect their mental health, such as emotional changes, online therapy may be the most effective mental health treatment for teenagers.

Many leading online therapy sites help teenagers manage common mental health problems, such as substance use disorders, eating disorders, stress, emotional buildups, anxiety, and depression. Sometimes, speaking to an online therapist about their problems can help teenagers fight their mental health problems on their own.

In addition, online therapy for teens includes various therapeutic activities that might help your teen improve self-worth, their ways of thinking, and their behaviors that may hurt their mental health and social life.

If you act early on, chances are that your teen will benefit from online therapy. Though it may help improve mental health issues, online therapy isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer to every teenage problem.

That’s why you should get into the advantages and disadvantages of online therapy to decide whether your teen should give it a try.

Pros

Convenience – online therapy sessions allow your child to receive treatment from the comfort of their home. That makes online therapy a convenient treatment option for helping your teen without disrupting their social life and school schedule.

Cost-effectiveness – online counseling and therapy sessions can be more affordable than in-person treatment options.

Broad reach – online therapy makes mental health treatment widely accessible for teenagers worldwide.

Fewer hurdles – since mental health issues can expose your teen to stigma in school, seeking help online makes things easier for your child than traditional ways.

Cons

You depend on technology – you must have an internet-enabled device (laptop, desktop computer, tablet, or smartphone) and a reliable internet connection to tap into online therapy.

Privacy concerns – if your teen doesn’t have adequate personal space at home, they may find online therapy difficult to access. Having private space is absolutely paramount to making online therapy work for your child. Otherwise, your teen may feel less inclined to speak their mind during sessions. In addition, connecting to virtual online services may expose your teen’s private data to unwanted third parties.

Your insurance policy may not cover online therapy expenses – so much has changed regarding insurance policies since the pandemic. Though most policies include access to online therapy, no one knows how long this benefit will last.

Before you start looking for the perfect online therapy solution for your teen, here are some things to keep in mind:

• Price – the cost of online treatment for your child varies from program to program, so calculate how much you can afford to spend before deciding.
• Therapist credentials – checking the therapist’s credentials and other similar criteria is vital to selecting the right online therapy service for addressing your teen’s unique mental health condition. The therapist you choose must have the training and the skills to make the therapy as effective as possible. Ask for the therapist’s areas of expertise, experience, and training before committing.
• Type of therapy – the type of therapy you choose should teach your child everything they need to cope with their mental condition and associated issues. You should only consider evidence-based therapeutic methods with proven results and include ongoing assessments to measure your child’s progress.
• Home space – having an adequate space where your teen can speak freely about their feelings is critical to making online therapy work for your child.
• Your involvement – you should consider some level of involvement in your child’s online therapy. Your presence may expedite your teen’s recovery. While you don’t need to know everything your child shares with the therapist, your care for them may positively impact your teen and help them learn new mental health coping techniques.

While you can search for online therapy services on Google, that’s not the best way to conduct a serious search. If you’re an insurance holder, start by checking whether your policy covers specific therapists or subscription services.

You can also ask your doctor to recommend reliable services. If that doesn’t work, use an online therapist directory to filter your search and look for the best services by areas of specialty, types of therapy, experience level, budget, and location.

You can also use an insurance directory to discover in-network therapy services or access additional therapy options via your EAP (Employee Assistance Program).

The best way to find the most reliable online therapy services for your teen is by contacting your child’s primary care provider to receive information about the best clinics and local teen therapists.

You should also consider different types of online therapy services to determine the best treatment for your child’s unique mental condition.

Online services range from individual and family sessions to talk therapy, specific care programs, and management plans based on your teen’s individual needs.

Here’s a hand-picked selection of the best online therapy platforms to consider for getting proper therapy treatment for your teen.

BetterHelp

BetterHelp gives you access to thousands of seasoned, skillful, and knowledgeable therapists trained to mitigate an array of teen mental health issues.

The platform offers affordable treatment rates, flexible communication methods, and therapy options your child can tap into on the go.

Teen Counseling

Teen Counseling is an excellent choice if you’re looking for a safe and secure way to tackle your teen’s mental challenges with parental involvement.

The platform offers effective therapy treatment methods in a safe virtual environment where your teen can receive help from various skillful and well-trained therapists.

LiveHealthOnline

LiveHealthOnline is an excellent online therapy platform for helping your teen cope with general life stress, panic attacks, grief, and other similar mental health struggles.

The platform caters to teens between 10 and 17. LiveHealthOnline gives you access to the online therapy app that you set up on a device your teen prefers using.

Talkspace

Talkspace caters to teens between 13–17 and requires you to submit a short video of you giving consent for committing your teenager to therapy.

Aside from helping teens with common mental health issues (anxiety, stress, and depression), Talkspace also caters to teen problems at school.

In addition, the platform offers several online therapy methods, such as live online sessions, video treatment, audio messaging, text treatment, etc.

Many factors can determine if online therapy is driving the desired results. To ensure your teen stays engaged with online therapy, they must develop a trustworthy, strong, and meaningful connection with their therapist.

This relationship helps your child confide in that person and tell them what truly weighs heavy on their soul. You can tell whether online therapy works for your child if they seem open and relaxed during sessions.

Here are a couple of tips to help you keep your teen engaged in online treatment:

• Ensure you have reliable technology in your home to provide top-quality sessions (excellent audio/video quality is mandatory);
• Keep things as simple as possible without any unnecessary complications;
• Communicate with the therapist on the best way to set up the area in your home for online sessions;
• Talk to your teen about the preferred device setup they feel most comfortable with;
• Validate your child’s feelings and concerns and be there for them when they make progress to encourage their efforts.

If your child spends too much time on online activities that may prevent them from engaging in online therapy, consider using a screen time tracking app to limit the time they spend on the internet.

Parental control apps like FamiSafe give you access to user-friendly features that limit the time your teen spends online, block apps and websites you don’t want them to visit, remove inappropriate content from their device, and monitor your child’s daily device activity.

The FamiSafe app gives you access to any app or website your teen visits daily. You can check how much they spent on the online therapy platform to monitor their session presence.

When considering the best online therapy service for your child, communicate your teen’s mental health condition with your doctor to receive some guidelines on where to start.

In addition, the therapist’s experience, skills, training, license, certification, and areas of expertise are vital factors that can help you determine the best treatment for your teen.

If your child’s mental health issues aren’t too severe, early diagnosis and timely treatment may help them accomplish a remarkable recovery and get back to normal life without too much disruption to your teen’s social and school activities.