Sophomore Elias Roessler is no stranger to counseling services, having been in and out of therapy since they were 9 years old. Yet there’s one key difference between Roessler’s past and present experiences — he’s never met his current therapist in person.

“I started virtual therapy for the first time about two or three months ago,” Roessler said. “Overall, I’m actually really enjoying it.”

Roessler isn’t alone. In an American Psychological Association survey from Oct. 2021, 96% of psychologists reported offering virtual sessions in some capacity in 2021, including 46% that were exclusively virtual, compared to just 1% before the pandemic. While phone sessions were initially the most popular means of virtual therapy, psychologists have increasingly moved to video conferencing platforms like Zoom or SimplePractice, securing confidentiality while ensuring face-to-face contact.

University Counseling Services offered virtually no remote services before the pandemic and had to make an abrupt transition. UCS Assistant Director Mariko Lin said counseling staff were concerned about losing out on the therapeutic relationships with their clients they had developed while in-person.

“It was about maintaining our services while still maintaining a sense of confidentiality and privacy,” Lin said. “There was a lot of significant concern from many of us, including myself, asking ‘Is this going to be as effective as in-person work?’”

Accessibility has been a major hurdle of virtual therapy. Many clients and students don’t have a confidential space to talk about their problems without being overheard, while others don’t have access to secure internet service.

“I’ve had online appointments with students in their cars or in the park, ” Lin said. “Where they’re trying to find that place where no one else is going to hear about their concerns.”

To combat this problem, UCS now offers rooms that students can reserve for virtual therapy appointments with either an on-campus or off-campus therapist, which she notes have been well-used thus far.

Nonetheless, virtual therapy has proven beneficial for many clients and therapists, some of whom enjoy the convenience of counseling from home.

“As someone with anxiety about being on time and having a place I need to go, just going and logging on from my computer is really helpful for me,” Roessler said. “In high school, I would have to take two or three hours out of my day to leave for therapy and come back, and I would always have to catch up on what I missed.”

Roessler’s counselor is also based in Portland, allowing him to maintain a therapeutic relationship from Eugene that he couldn’t otherwise.

For Lin and other UO counseling staff, virtual therapy has not significantly limited therapists’ ability to work with their clients.

“For me, it’s just as effective,” Lin said. “And it has not significantly impacted relationships with clients, at least not in decreasing the symptoms we see when dealing with anxiety, depression, trauma … whatever it is that comes up.”

Lin also said attendance among her clients has increased since the pandemic began, likely due to the decreased hassle in using Zoom from home.

However, that doesn’t mean the pandemic hasn’t taken its toll on patients and counselors alike.  In 2021, 68% of counseling practices reported longer waitlists than before the pandemic, and many therapists are feeling the burnout from their virtual schedules.

“We all know what kind of toll the pandemic has taken on everybody’s mental health, and that applies to therapists as well,” Lin said. “I would imagine we’re all more mentally exhausted than the start of the pandemic as a result of doing it by Zoom.”

Likewise, college counseling services across the nation are suffering from being understaffed amid surging student demand, and UO is no exception. Lin said, while UCS typically closes its waitlists when “there isn’t a chance students will be seen before the end of the term,” the window has gotten narrower. Before the pandemic, waitlists would typically close at the end of week six; this past fall term, they closed during week four.
In spite of these trends, counseling services are more important than ever, virtual or in-person, and Lin encourages all students and potential clients to seek help if needed. She takes pride in UCS being consistently able to set up clinical consultations within one week for students, despite the increased demand.

When asked if she would ever be comfortable returning to in-person services, Lin was optimistic. “I hope that we’re able to get to a place where we can meet with clients in person safely again, since it makes that connection stronger for me,” she said. “In the meantime, I do feel like meaningful work is being done virtually even so.”

Roessler isn’t sure they’d consider going back. “The stress of a new environment, the stress of getting there on time and planning out your whole day around therapy, is really anxiety-inducing,” Roessler said. “I don’t think I would put myself through all that when I could just log on immediately and still be at home.”