(504) 302-7771

Now Extending Telehealth Counseling Services to Help all of Louisiana

by | Counseling

telehealth counseling therapy

There isn’t a single person in the world, not to mention metro New Orleans, and the entire state of Louisiana who hasn’t been affected by the pandemic.

Aside from contracting the virus and worrying over exposure, you may be working from home because your office is shut down. You might be staying at home during the day and unavailable to attend to personal appointments because you need to help your kids with virtual or hybrid learning. You might also be staying home more often because you or someone in your family is immunocompromised.

Whatever your unique case, many people like you are cutting down on trips outside of the house due to pandemic restrictions or healthcare needs.

These are among the many reasons that physically going to a counselor’s office isn’t feasible for some right now. That’s why we’re proud to offer telehealth counseling sessions for our metro New Orleans patients. We’ve also recently expanded our telehealth services to include clients all over Louisiana.

What is Telehealth Counseling?

Telehealth counseling is the use of HIPAA-compliant video conferencing software in a manner so that you, the patient, can participate in a virtual counseling session from home with our counselors. Typically, our counselors are either working from home or our office depending on their own healthcare needs.

Telehealth is a safe and secure way to continue your regular counseling sessions with us without having to arrange for childcare for kids who are virtual schooling or leave the house if you or someone in your household is immunocompromised.

At our metro New Orleans counseling practice, we have earned our TeleMental Health Training Certificate and use a safe and secure telehealth platform that is HIPAA-compliant. This means that with our telehealth counseling sessions platform:

  • We’ll never send you an email that contains your private health information (PHI), but rather a notification to sign into our secure, HIPAA-compliant portal to view a secure message from your counselor. This keeps your PHI safe.
  • Your video counseling sessions will be held over a secure video conferencing system, not Skype or Zoom or another free platform that is easily targeted by cybercriminals during their increased usage in 2020.
  • You can contact your counselor from our safe platform with any questions or to coordinate appointments in between your counseling sessions.

What is a Telehealth Counseling Session Like?

While you may be used to conducting all your business meetings over Zoom by this point in 2020, you might also be curious how virtual meetings translate to counseling sessions. After all, counseling offices are typically furnished to be comfortable, relaxing places where you feel safe opening up about what’s going on in your life.

In general, here is what a telehealth counseling session looks like:

  • You log into the secure system at the time of your appointment and are sent to a virtual waiting room to wait for your counselor.
  • When your counselor is available, you will go into a private secure counseling room in which you’ll both hear each other’s audio and have the opportunity to share your video from your computer or mobile device.
  • You’ll conduct your counseling session just as you would if you were in person. Instead of meeting in one of our welcoming counseling rooms, you meet from the comfort of your favorite space in your own home. Many of our patients conduct their telehealth counseling sessions from their bedroom where they can have extra privacy from the kids or other family members who may be home at the time of their sessions.
  • After your session, your counselor will end the virtual meeting.
  • In between sessions, you can send secure messages to your counselor that will never include the text of the messages in email.

Take Care of Your Mental Health Especially in Uncertain Times

It’s now more important now than ever before to take care of your mental health. Life is always stressful, and it’s common to experience challenging events such as:

The uncertainty and upheavals of our current time is making life all the more challenging. Many of our patients have come under extreme stress in 2020 from financial troubles due to:

  • Job losses, furloughs, or reduced hours
  • Challenges balancing working from home with virtual schooling
  • Loss of connection to friends and family due to pandemic restrictions and business closures
  • Working long hours in the stretched-too-thin healthcare industry.

Counseling, whether in-person, or via telemedicine can help metro New Orleans residents like you during these stressful and unprecedented times.

Now Serving Clients Throughout Louisiana

We’re excited to announce that we’ve expanded the reach of our telehealth counseling services!

Our counselors are now serving clients throughout the state of Louisiana. This includes the Baton Rouge area, Southwest Louisiana, Lake Charles and other areas affected by Hurricane Laura, and northward through Shreveport. We’re here and ready to help you overcome the emotional struggles of life and of overcoming a natural disaster. Contact us for telehealth services today.

How Do You Sign Up for a Telehealth Counseling Session?

If you’d like to sign up for telehealth counseling, we’re happy to help. Simply call us today at (504) 302-7771 to get started or fill out our online contact form and we’ll reach out to you to match you with a counselor. We want to help you take care of yourself in this uncertain time.

Questions? Call Anytime