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Category Archives: Online Therapy

Categories Anxiety Disorder, Burn-out, Depression, Eating Disorder, EMDR Therapy, Expats, Online Therapy, Over-stressed, Psychiatrist, Psychologist, PTSD

The benefits of online therapy

Online therapy, internet therapy, or e-health: there is an increasing demand for psychological treatments via the internet. Is this because more and more people have psychological problems? Probably not. It has more to do with the fact that the taboo on mental health care is getting smaller. And because of the many advantages of online therapy, more and more people are turning to professional help in time.

Accessible

It used to be that you first had to go to the family doctor for a referral to a therapist. Saying that you are not doing well and that you would like a referral is different. Therefore, for many people, getting help was a big step. With online therapy, this problem is largely solved. The low threshold ensures that people are more likely to get help. As a result, a larger group of people now receives help. Moreover, better results are achieved through earlier intervention.

Available

Whether you live in a remote area, have no transportation, or are housebound, an online therapist is always available. All you need is an internet connection. That saves you travel time and costs. If you choose online therapy via email or chat, you don’t even need to arrange a date or time with your therapist. You can then start therapy completely in your own time.

Flexible

Many online therapists are also available in the evenings or on weekends. They are not tied to the opening hours of their practice. They may also be working remotely and from a different time zone themselves. That can be very advantageous. This flexibility is very practical if you have little time or a constantly changing schedule. This way you can still schedule regular meetings.

Location-independent

Online therapy is a godsend for people living abroad. Because it is completely location-independent, you can see a therapist who speaks the same language as you without any fuss. It’s available wherever you are in the world. This is also ideal if you travel a lot for work, have a nomadic lifestyle, or are often on vacation. This way you don’t have to interrupt your therapy every time you go abroad.

Trusted

A major advantage of online therapy is the fact that you can do it from home. At home, you undoubtedly feel most comfortable. You are not distracted, can concentrate better, and probably dare to be more open about what is going on. This way you can get to the core of a problem faster and the treatment will be most effective. Moreover, after a session, you can stay on your own couch and let the conversation sink in. What a comfort!

Anonymous

You won’t accidentally end up in the waiting room with the neighbor from across the street. Nor will you run into your therapist at the supermarket on a Saturday. Online therapy is done remotely, with a professional who may live on the other side of the country or the world. Moreover, you can determine the degree of anonymity yourself. Video calling creates a very ‘personal’ contact with your therapist, who can also interpret your facial expression and body language. But at The Online Therapists, you can also chat with your therapist or email them.

Professional

The team at The Online Therapists consists of professionally trained therapists with at least five years of experience. Each therapist has his or her own specialty, which means that you will quickly find the right therapist for you. Online therapists are, therefore, very capable of treating and curing a diverse range of complaints. Think of:

  • stress and burn-out complaints
  • anxiety or panic attacks
  • depression
  • grief processing
  • trauma treatment
  • relationship problems
  • sexual problems
  • eating disorders

Effective

There is now quite a bit of research on the effectiveness of online therapy. Does it work as well as regular therapy? The answer is yes. Most forms of treatment use talking techniques and cognitive behavioral therapy. This can be done perfectly well over the phone or as a video call. Many clients experience the same personal connection with their therapist as they do in the office.

In addition, some people find it more beneficial to write down their story via email or chat. Writing gives you time to think about your words and, therefore, has a therapeutic effect. It also gives you the opportunity to read back your own story and the answers from your therapist.

Low cost

It varies from provider to provider, but the cost of online therapy is usually lower than that of regular therapy. After all, the therapist can also perform his or her work inexpensively and easily from home. Also, early intervention sometimes reduces the costs. Because many people have easy access to online therapy, treatments are less invasive and shorter. So you also save money!

Without waiting list

There are still long waiting lists in mainstream health care. It can take weeks or months before you can finally see a care provider. In that period psychological problems can seriously worsen. At The Online Therapists, you can start with online therapy immediately. This is also a good interim solution if you prefer ‘offline’ therapy, but want to bridge the gap while you are on the waiting list.

Are you curious if online therapy will suit you? Feel free to schedule an informal consultation. We are happy to answer all your questions.

 

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    Categories Online Therapy, Psychologist, PTSD

    Talking to a therapist if you have PTSD

    Everyone experiences a sad, frightening, or downright traumatic event at some point in their life. How we react to it and process the memories of that event varies. About 10% of people who experience trauma develop a stress disorder as a result of that trauma. We call this post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and it can cause intense symptoms and have far-reaching consequences. Fortunately, PTSD is often very treatable. Do you have PTSD or do you suspect that you have it? Then let a therapist help you.

    When do you have PTSD?

    When stress symptoms after a traumatic event do not disappear, persist unnecessarily, or even get worse, we speak of PTSD. PTSD is often associated with traumatic events such as wars, disasters, robberies, accidents, or abuse, but in theory, there is no trauma that is “not bad enough” to cause PTSD. Similarly, a stress disorder can occur after illness, childbirth, the death of a loved one, or even after a relationship breakup or losing a job.

    Symptoms

    With PTSD, you experience symptoms related to the memories of the trauma: flashbacks, fear or panic, anger, or depressive feelings. Often people with PTSD avoid certain locations or activities that remind them of the trauma. Memories are also suppressed and hidden away as much as possible.

    Therapy for PTSD

    Treatment for PTSD is often confrontational and emotional. In fact, talking about the trauma and reminiscing are important parts of the treatment. This is not easy for the patient, but it is effective. There are several treatments for PTSD whose success has been scientifically proven.

    EMDR

    Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is one of the best-known treatment techniques for people with PTSD. The therapist asks you to focus on the trauma and at the same time follow his or her hand movements with your eyes. The effect of this is that the memory of the trauma in your brain is moved from ‘long-term memory’ to ‘working memory’, but actually does not get enough space and attention there, because the working memory is also busy with the visual stimuli. As a result, the memory is stored back in long-term memory in an altered, incomplete, or less intense form after the exercise. Thus, in this way, the memories become less overwhelming.

    Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

    Within cognitive behavioral therapy, the following two methods have also been successfully applied to people with trauma.

    • Imaginary exposure: in this, you talk with the therapist about the trauma and the bad memories. Instead of avoiding these memories, you keep talking about them. By learning to talk about it, you get more and more control over the emotions that these memories evoke. As a result, you will be less and less affected by these emotions in everyday life. You will also have less of a tendency to avoid them.
    • Narrative exposure: depending on the trauma, it is also possible to focus on the positive aspects of the trauma while talking about it. Here you can also try to place the trauma in the context of the rest of your life and to put the positive effects of it under the microscope. In this way, you ‘rewrite’ the memories, which makes it easier to give the trauma a place.

    Professional therapist for PTSD

    It goes without saying that every situation, every trauma, and every patient is unique. Moreover, the threshold for seeking help is often very high for people with PTSD. The treatment of PTSD, therefore, requires customization and a very cautious approach. The treatment takes place step by step and is fully adapted to your needs. Initially, the focus will be on your symptoms and you are not expected to talk in detail about the trauma.

    Eventually, you will have to process the trauma yourself and that is not an easy process. A therapist will support and guide you in a professional way. With a therapist who specializes in the treatment of trauma, you are in good hands.

     

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      Categories Burn-out, Depression, Online Therapy, Over-stressed, Psychologist

      The difference between stress, overwork, and burnout

      Everyone is busy these days and has to deal with stress. We all know someone who is overworked or ‘sitting at home with burnout’. Stress-related terms are often used interchangeably in everyday speech. But there are important differences. How do you recognize stress, overwork, and burnout? And at what stage should you sound the alarm?

      Stress

      Stress is something we all deal with from time to time. When that big deadline kept getting closer or when you had taken on that extra project. Or that time when an unexpected situation arose that demanded a lot of attention. Stress is usually short-lived. Often you can look forward to the moment when your life will become less stressful – as soon as that big deadline has been turned in, for example.

      Persistent stress

      Sometimes stressful situations keep presenting themselves or we ourselves are not able to take rest properly. The tension caused by stress is then permanent. You are constantly under pressure and this manifests itself in various mild stress symptoms:

      • An agitated feeling.
      • Worrying and sleeping problems, and as a result, fatigue.
      • Difficulty concentrating, causing your performance to deteriorate and the quality of your work to decline.
      • Mood swings, which make you irritable and your social contacts suffer.
      • Headaches, stomach aches, or neck and shoulder problems.
      • An increase in the use of alcohol or medication to temporarily suppress the symptoms.

      Reduce stress

      Do you recognize yourself in these symptoms? Then raise the alarm immediately. It is probably not yet necessary to seek professional help, but it is important that you remove the source of the stress as much as possible. Talk to your boss, outsource a big project, stop certain activities or simply take more time for yourself.

      Overwork

      If stress continues for too long, it can turn into overwork. We often only notice this when something unexpected happens that we can no longer cope with. The stress symptoms then increase in severity and really start to get in the way of your functioning. Symptoms of overwork are:

      • anxiety and panic symptoms, hyperventilation or palpitations
      • dejection and sudden fits of crying
      • a feeling of exhaustion
      • memory problems, forgetfulness, and confusion
      • hypersensitivity to external stimuli
      • strange physical symptoms, such as tingling muscles, impaired vision, or tinnitus
      • increased blood pressure
      • bowel problems

      Overwork therapy

      When you are overworked, it is clear that something needs to change about the situation. The good news is that this is also quite possible. Being overworked is relatively easy to reverse: as soon as you remove the source of the stress, the ‘overworkedness’ often disappears within a few weeks. It is wise, however, to seek help from a therapist. A therapist can guide you in this process and give you tips to ensure that you avoid too much stress in the future.

      Burnout

      If you continue to ignore overwork, you are seriously depleting your body. Overwork then slowly turns into burnout. When overwork ends and burnout begins is not clearly defined. The complaints and symptoms are largely the same. The difference between the two is the degree of physical exhaustion of your body. If you continue to ignore your limits for years, all your energy reserves are eventually used up. This can have serious consequences:

      • a complete inability to perform the simplest of tasks
      • serious physical disabilities
      • extreme hypersensitivity to stimuli, such as from visitors, music, or television
      • feelings of fear of failure, low self-esteem, and depression

      Treating burnout

      Refueling for a while is no longer the solution in the case of burnout. Burnout is not easily reversible. Some people with burnout, therefore, have to stop working for more than a year. Although recovery is all about rest, expert guidance from a therapist is essential. Burnout is caused by years of ignoring your own limits. You need to figure out how this could have happened to make sure it doesn’t happen again in the future. In therapy, you learn to change your beliefs, thoughts, and behavior and to adopt a new lifestyle. With that new lifestyle, you will maintain control of your energy and the direction of your life in the future.

       

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        Categories Anxiety Disorder, Online Therapy, Psychologist

        Help with anxiety disorders and panic attacks

        Do you regularly suffer from anxiety or panic attacks? And are you worried that you might be developing an anxiety disorder? You are far from the only one. Nearly one in five adults currently has or has had an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders are especially common among adolescents and young adults, and more common among women than men. Anxiety can have a major impact on your functioning and completely control your life.

        What is an anxiety or panic disorder?

        Fear is a crucial emotion that protects us from danger and in some cases is vital. When danger threatens, we become afraid and our bodies prepare to flee or fight. That preparation involves an increased heart rate, faster breathing, and a lot of tension on the muscles. Thus, you are ready to avert the danger by any means necessary.

        Anxiety symptoms

        Under normal circumstances, fear is often short-lived. It lasts until the danger has passed, or until we recognize that what startled us is not a real danger. We speak of an anxiety disorder when anxiety symptoms persist for too long or arise for no apparent reason. This soon gets in the way of normal functioning and causes unnecessary suffering.

        Panic attacks

        At certain times, anxiety can rise to such a level that it turns into panic. Such an attack of panic lasts about ten minutes and is characterized by the rapid worsening of anxiety symptoms. People having a panic attack suffer from palpitations and hyperventilation, which gives them the idea that they have lost control over their own bodies. This results in the fear of going crazy, having a heart attack, or even dying.

        Symptoms of an anxiety disorder

        The symptoms of an anxiety disorder are partly psychological but largely physical. Therefore, sometimes people with an anxiety disorder fear that there is something physically wrong with them, but this is often not the case.

        Physical symptoms

        • dizziness or blurred vision
        • nausea or abdominal pain
        • headache
        • numbness or tingling in the arms, hands, and fingers
        • stiff, almost paralyzed muscles, trembling, muscle twitching, or high muscle tension
        • palpitations
        • shortness of breath, hyperventilation, tightness in the chest, or a feeling of suffocation
        • fatigue and difficulty sleeping
        • flushing
        • sweating
        • a dry throat

        Psychological symptoms

        • irritability and restlessness
        • persistent anxiety and excessive brooding

        Causes and effects of anxiety disorders

        In some cases, trauma is the cause of an anxiety disorder. Usually, the anxiety disorder is part of what we call Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD). For this, there are specific treatment methods aimed at processing the trauma. In other cases, it is often unclear exactly how an anxiety disorder develops. Often multiple factors, such as stress and problems in the emotional or relational realm, play a role.

        However, the consequences of an untreated anxiety disorder are significant. For example, if anxiety often leads to panic attacks, you will increasingly avoid certain situations. Often people with an anxiety disorder avoid places where they cannot get away quickly, such as festivals or concerts, public transport, or large department stores. Avoiding these types of situations soon results in an obsessive-compulsive disorder, which involves compulsively checking to see if future situations might cause anxiety. If this starts to control your life to a far-reaching degree, you run the risk of developing depression.

        Treatment of anxiety disorders

        Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

        The most widely used treatment technique for anxiety disorders is cognitive behavioral therapy. Unlike tranquilizing medication, which only fights the symptoms of anxiety, cognitive behavioral therapy treats the source of the anxiety: your thoughts. The therapy assumes that anxiety doesn’t “just happen” or isn’t only triggered by a particular situation, but that your thoughts (about a particular situation) are the culprit.

        People with anxiety disorders often unconsciously have certain thought patterns that cause a fear response. By putting these thought patterns under the microscope, you get a better grip on them. In this way, you learn to control your fear reactions. In practice, this is practiced by consciously confronting situations that evoke fear.

        Breathing exercises

        If you suffer a lot from panic attacks, hyperventilation, and palpitations, breathing therapy can be a valuable addition to therapy. Controlling your breathing reduces palpitations and thus has a positive effect on the physical component of a panic attack.

        In about 70% of patients, therapy with a therapist has a positive effect, partially or completely overcoming the anxiety disorder. In this way, serious psychological symptoms are prevented and you regain control of your life.

         

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          Categories Eating Disorder, Online Therapy, Psychologist

          Can a therapist help with an eating disorder?

          For people who have not experienced it themselves or in someone close to them, it is sometimes difficult to understand. The solution to an eating disorder is very simple, right? ‘Just’ start eating healthy! Unfortunately, it is not that simple, because eating disorders are mental disorders, not physical disorders. Eating disorders are characterized by disturbed eating behavior and (often) an obsession with appearance and weight, but the causes are psychological. Do you have an eating disorder? Then a therapist may be able to help you.

          Types of eating disorders

          What most eating disorders have in common is that the patient has a distorted body image and is afraid of getting fat. The result of this is an obsessive preoccupation with weight control. How this manifests itself varies by eating disorder. The different eating disorders often have different causes and therefore different treatment methods.

          Anorexia nervosa

          People with anorexia nervosa have such a distorted body image that they always think they are too fat, despite the fact that they are (severely) underweight as a result of the disorder. If you suffer from anorexia nervosa, then you are constantly trying to lose weight – either by eating too little, and exercising excessively (the restrictive type), or by eating too little, vomiting, and using laxatives (the purging type). A lack of grip on life, the need for control and excessive perfectionism may be the underlying cause of anorexia nervosa.

          Bulimia nervosa

          In bulimia nervosa, obsessive dieting, exercise, vomiting, and laxative use are the result of (and compensation for) uncontrolled binge eating. People suffering from this disorder usually have a normal or highly fluctuating weight. The binge eating often serves as comfort and stems from loneliness, boredom, or not knowing how to cope with unpleasant past events.

          Binge Eating Disorder (BED)

          BED is similar to bulimia, but people suffering from this disorder do not feel the need to compensate after a binge. Consequently, they are often overweight or obese, resulting in many physical symptoms.

          Orthorexia nervosa

          Orthorexia nervosa is always part of another disorder and does not stand alone. People with orthorexia nervosa have an obsession with healthy eating and are therefore afraid of unhealthy foods.

          Pica

          People with pica have the urge to eat inedible things, for example, sand, clay, soil, or pebbles. The disorder has nothing to do with weight loss or disturbed body image. Pica is common in young children and is often seen in combination with a developmental disorder, such as autism.

          Avoidant or Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID)

          ARFID was not officially recognized as an eating disorder until 2013. Suffering from this disorder, you avoid food products with a certain color, taste, smell, or texture. In addition to demonstrable, physical causes such as an allergy or intolerance, traumatic events or emotional problems can cause ARFID.

          Rumination disorder

          People with rumination disorder feel the urge to “regurgitate” food. Food is regurgitated, chewed again and swallowed, or spit out. This disorder is also particularly common in young children and often in combination with a developmental disorder.

          Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (NAO)

          The abbreviation NAO is used for people who exhibit features of several disorders or do not fully meet the conditions for one disorder. Obsessive thoughts about food or weight are the main symptoms.

          Psychological consequences of eating disorders

          In addition to the many, sometimes very serious, physical consequences of eating disorders, patients often suffer greatly from their psychological effects as well. Eating in company is very frightening or simply impossible for most people with an eating disorder. This is due to shame or the fear of losing control. Social isolation and loneliness are therefore common among patients. Over time, this can lead to serious symptoms, such as anxiety disorders and depression.

          Eating disorder treatment therapist

          Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

          If you suffer from an eating disorder, it is important to seek help from a therapist as soon as possible. The treatment of your eating disorder depends on the type of eating disorder, your symptoms, and the probable causes of the disorder. Cognitive behavioral therapy, however, is very effective in many cases. It involves taking a close look at your compulsive thoughts about food and examining how they can be replaced with less obsessive and more positive thoughts.

          Behavioral change

          In addition, ways are found to break undesirable behavior patterns, such as eating too much or too little, exercising excessively, vomiting, and taking laxatives. Many people with an eating disorder have established certain ‘eating rules’ for themselves. With the help of therapy, these become less important and ultimately unnecessary. At the same time, the treatment looks for ways to teach desirable behaviour, such as eating small portions regularly.

          Themes

          Depending on the issues central to your disorder, therapy focuses on themes such as insecurity, perfectionism, and negative self-image. You also learn to deal with emotions, such as anger, fear, or disappointment, in other ways.

          With the right psychological help, half of the patients overcome the eating disorder completely. In the remaining patients, the symptoms often reduce significantly, resulting in a significant improvement in physical health and quality of life.

           

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