On many occasions during my three decades as a New York State Licensed Psychologist, clients canceled appointments or failed to show up for one reason or another. This phenomenon is quite common to psychology practices– it goes with the territory– and there doesn’t seem to be much you can do about it.

However, upon further examination, it is my firm belief that much of this was related to the inconvenience coming to therapy often entails. At times, office visits conflict with other doctor visits; or they occur simultaneously with other kid-repsonsibilities such as, religious instruction, soccer games and practices, karate and other after-school pursuits; and those clients with appointments often need to compress time to accommodate routine home activities, including dinner. Add to this the idea that those who live a considerable distance from the office, and on occasions of inclement weather, find maintaining appointments challenging, then the idea of “telephone counseling” becomes an interesting if not curious alternative for many people.

Those who are merely curious might wonder about its effectiveness. Some research results indicate that there is no difference in the effectiveness between office visit or phone counseling. And these studies measured outcome variables across different “schools” of therapy. The precepts of the model I use, “The Mythogenic Self Process”, developed by Dr. Joseph Riggio, are vastly different from those of ‘traditional psychotherapy.’ First and foremost, what is tracked for in this work is the physical position one holds known as the ‘somatic form’ and the themes he expresses out into the world through the “stories” he tells himself and others. Secondly, the work is focused forward through time, as the objective is to identify from a positive framework what someone truly wants — not what he does not want, and facilitate his having an experiential realization of this expression (in his body and behavior) as he will achieve it sometime in his future. It’s potent, unique and highly goal-directed work that leads to someone having a much more enlightened experience of himself.

Compounding the challenges of office visits is the fact that the number of individuals– me included– trained to deliver counseling from this cutting-edge model are few and far between. So unless you live within driving distance of someone who possesses this skill set, you would ordinarily find it a challenge to avail yourself of this work. Hence, the potency of “counseling by phone.” There are many advantages to phone counseling:

1- It is considerably less costly. Someone who engages me for telephone consultations can save almost 50% of the fee they would otherwise pay when coming into the office.

2- Phone therapy is more convenient. You can arrange the time(s) to have sessions around your home, work, and children’s schedules. You can have a session in your pajamas– or the tub– if you so choose!

3- Whether or not the weather is cooperating, your sessions can take place. No worry about driving in hazardous conditions.

4- Your counseling is long-distance friendly. I can call anywhere in the country for free so once you have contacted me to arrange sessions, I will call you anywhere, at your convenience. Check out the video.  Then, arrange an appointment, today!