General FAQs

You will not be charged for my time in finding you the best practitioner for you. 

In relation to treatment charges, all associates of My Online Psychologist run their own independent practice. Therefore, they set their own fees. These can range between practitioners depending on level of training (Psychologists therefore charge more than CBT Therapists), experience, difficulties treated and day/time of appointment. BABCP accredited CBT Therapists fees are typically between £85-£100 and a Clinical or Counselling Psychologist fees are typically between £110-£140.

Yes. I've run my private practice since 2011, and still very much enjoy providing therapy.

Indeed, it's possible during our initial call that I feel I would be a good person to help you. If that's the case, I'll certainly let you know.

MyOnlinePsychologist.co.uk is the practitioner-finding arm of my personal private practice, which can be found on www.drbenjmead.co.uk

This is always a tricky question to answer before an assessment, but on average, treatment is between 4-16 sessions.

Yes. All ages from age 4. For details regarding which practitioners offer appointments to which ages, please visit the 'Meet the Team' page.

All practitioners associated with My Online Psychologist will be happy to discuss appointments with you over the phone prior to booking in your initial appointment. With your consent, the practitioner will already be aware of the difficulties we discussed on the phone so this will hopefully facilitate this call so you do not have to repeat the information you've already told me.

Every day of the week is covered and some practitioners offer Saturdays and/or Sundays

Times covered are 8am - 9pm Monday to Friday and Saturday/Sunday mornings. The times offered varies from practitioner to practitioner. I do know though what times each work so I will only refer you to a practitioner who I know can offer appointments at a time/times that work for you.

Each practitioner you see will either use Zoom or Teams. Both are highly secure, private video platforms so you can be confident about the privacy of your calls.

No. All associates of My Online Psychologist will charge you the same rate as if you went to them directly. The benefit of going through My Online Psychologist is that I can help you work out who would likely be the best associate for you or your loved one.

Yes. If you’re not confident in setting up video technology, your practitioner will be more than happy to give you a call and help you set this up. You are also welcome to ask me too.

Fortunately, this is rare. However, please liaise with your practitioner about this should this occur. If you do have connection issues, often moving from a laptop/ipad to a phone can make a significant difference, as can being closer to your router, or even better, directly plugging your laptop into your router.

Please be honest with your practitioner if you are experiencing difficulties in the connection as they may not be aware. They have each done 100s of video calls so they will certainly try to assist if problems. 

Online therapy is an incredibly effective medium for clients;  many are surprised just how effective it is. Indeed, beyond my clinic, there is a growing body of research showing that therapies delivered online are as effective as face to face therapy. In some cases, the effectiveness is greater, although the reasons for this are uncertain at the moment. A study by Luo et al (2020) analysed 17 studies into online (including video and telephone) therapy collectively (called doing a ‘meta- analysis’) and found that online CBT was as effective as face to face therapy [https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2589-5370%2820%2930186-3]. This was for depression, but studies also show it’s effective for anxiety too (Morriss et al, 2019 - https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-019-1253-5).

From my own personal experience of doing online treatment for over 10 years, I have found it to be as effective as face to face. Some cases more so, given the convenience it offers and how easy it is to incorporate a session into the day.