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"If you need to talk to someone but are reluctant to meet with a mental health expert face-to-face, online or phone talk therapy might be right for you. A growing number of psychologists and psychiatrists are getting in on this trend, and websites like thecounselors.com, etherapistsonline.com and callfortherapy.com are making it easy to find help when you need it. Should you give distance therapy a try? Maybe. I can&amp;#039;t speak for how good any of the particular sites are (including the ones I just mentioned), but there is proof that phone or chat therapy really can work. A study published in the Lancet, for example, found that depressed people who got regular cognitive behavioral therapy online in real time got better and stayed better for at least 8 months afterward. Some people believe that online or phone therapy might be even more effective than meeting a counselor face to face, because people are less apt to hold back when they don&amp;#039;t have to sit in the same room with the therapist. What&amp;#039;s more, people who might have never seen a traditional therapist (because it&amp;#039;s too hard to travel to appointments or they&amp;#039;re embarrassed to seek care) might be more apt to get help if they can hide behind a phone or computer screen. The downsides: Depending on what service you choose, you might not be talking/chatting to the same therapist every time, and continuity of care is important to building a trusting relationship. Distance therapy, in my opinion, isn&amp;#039;t ideal for someone who has a severe mental health problem and needs to be closely monitored. (Online/phone-only docs can&amp;#039;t prescribe medication.) That being said, the convenience factor is a big plus. And if the choice is between phone/internet care and no care, I&amp;#039;d definitely vote for technology. What do you think? Would you consider &amp;quot;seeing&amp;quot; a therapist you&amp;#039;ll never meet in person? "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/health-fitness/a42258/dial-a-therapist-12874/>