Yet here, you have the least preferred modality of psychotherapy showing up at the end. Matt maintains his therapeutic relationship via text. He has never actually met nor conversed with his therapist Gary, a licensed clinical social worker who lives hundreds of miles away from Matt. He receives guidance, to some extent on demand, regarding his triggers and the ultimate anger that he harbors for his girlfriend.
It helps to keep him at bayβat least most of the time. Apps like talk-space and better-help market to the young who were raised in the tech and on-demand age, particularly those who are busy and unavailable.
They offer immediate and budget therapy. Perfect for the millennials for whom patience is not on the high-valued list items and listening to a voicemail is more painful than nails on a chalkboard.
Yet what can we expect of them when they group up in the age of technology when although the app texting them when their laundry was finished in the washing machine in the laundry of their building, they had information at their fingertips, a full-time GPS and knew little about the path of real-time other than to experience immediate gratification in most if not all aspects of their life.
It fails to allow for that attunement, the patterned connection between two people, which, ironically, is what is often drives the need to reach out in the first place. In summary, there is nothing, no process, no alternative that takes the place of good old-fashioned in-person psychotherapy. While these other solutions online counseling and texting offer other options, traditional face-to-face is still the favorite. And text-therapy eliminates what is often most needed with our patients.
