Online Therapy
Live video and phone teletherapy with the same licensed therapists you would meet in our offices. Get help from (almost) anywhere.
Navigating Online Therapy
What Is Online Therapy?
Online therapy is psychotherapy delivered by secure, live video or phone instead of an office visit. It also goes by teletherapy, telehealth, and virtual therapy: different names, same treatment. At Rowan Center, online therapy sessions are the same evidence-based care we provide in person, with the same therapist every time. It’s not a messaging app, and there’s no rotating cast of strangers.
The honest question most people bring to this page is whether talking through a screen can feel like sitting in a room with someone. It’s fair to wonder. The research answer is just below, in the numbers. The human answer is that a good session pulls you in the way a good conversation does, and the screen stops mattering a few minutes in.
You’ll need very little: a private spot, a device with a camera, a decent connection. We see clients online wherever we’re licensed, so care doesn’t have to end when a move, a diagnosis, or a schedule change takes the office off the table.
Is Online Therapy as Effective as In-Person Therapy?
For most people, online therapy is as effective as in-person therapy. The largest meta-analysis to date compared live video psychotherapy with in-person treatment across 47 studies and found the difference in outcomes negligible, with the strongest results for anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Effectiveness was never virtual therapy’s weak point. Getting to care at all is the harder problem, and it’s the one a screen solves.
Trials, One Answer
Across 47 clinical comparisons, live video therapy was negligibly different from in-person treatment. Fernandez et al., Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy (2021).
%
Get Treatment
Only 50.6 percent of the 59.3 million U.S. adults living with a mental illness received mental health treatment in 2022. National Institute of Mental Health.
%
Chose Telehealth
In 2021, 37 percent of U.S. adults had used telemedicine in the past 12 months. CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Data Brief 445.
The evidence keeps pointing one direction. A 2018 meta-analysis of 20 head-to-head trials found guided, internet-delivered CBT performed on par with face-to-face CBT, though most of that research used structured self-help formats rather than the live video sessions we provide. Carlbring et al., Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (2018). The format matters less than the treatment and the person delivering it.
Who Is Online Therapy For?
Anyone whose barrier isn’t the therapy but getting to it. Some people live an hour from the nearest psychologist. Others are managing an illness that makes a commute expensive in energy they don’t have. Plenty more just have twelve free hours a week and would rather not spend three of them driving. Online therapy makes the distance irrelevant, and the care identical.
Where You Live
Specialist care clusters in big cities, and the right therapist may be licensed in your state but based hundreds of miles away. Video closes that gap. If you move between states, or split the year across them, your therapist can often stay with you. See where we practice.
What Your Body Allows
When chronic pain, fatigue, or a treatment schedule makes leaving the house cost more than the session gives back, therapy should come to you. Much of our chronic illness care runs this way by design.
How Full Your Week Is
Back-to-back workdays, small kids, caregiving. A session from your desk or kitchen table turns a three-hour errand into an hour, and early morning and evening times help it fit even the tighter weeks.
What Can Online Therapy Help You With?
Online therapy can help with anxiety, depression, insomnia, chronic illness, grief, trauma, and adult ADHD. Almost everything we treat in our offices, we treat by video, and online therapy sessions cover the full range of our practice, from everyday anxiety to the health psychology work we’re known for. Below are the concerns people bring to us most often. Yours doesn’t have to appear on this list for us to help.
Anxiety, Depression, and Stress
The concerns with the strongest evidence for video-delivered treatment, and the ones we treat most.
- Anxiety, worry, and panic
- Depression and low motivation
- Work stress and burnout
- Life transitions and hard decisions
- Loneliness and disconnection
Sleep, Health, and the Body
Health psychology is Rowan’s foundation, and it translates to video with nothing lost.
- Insomnia and broken sleep
- Managing a chronic illness
- Chronic pain and fatigue
- Adjusting to a new diagnosis
- Health anxiety and medical stress
Grief, Trauma, and Relationships
The hard seasons rarely schedule themselves near an office. This work goes where you are.
- Grief and loss
- Trauma and PTSD
- Relationship and marriage strain
- Family changes and caregiving
- Divorce and separation
Focus, Memory, and Thinking
Attention that will not settle, and thinking that feels slower than it used to. We treat both by video.
- ADHD in adults
- Cognitive rehabilitation
- Recovery after brain injury
- Thinking changes from illness or treatment
- Executive function and organization
Where We Can See You
We can see you in any state where your therapist holds an active license, plus the PSYPACT participating states. Our doctoral psychologists hold PSYPACT authorization, which lets them provide online therapy to clients located in PSYPACT participating states. That list keeps growing, so check the current map at psypact.org, or just ask us. Our master’s-level therapists see clients in the states where they hold an active license. We also offer in-person therapy in some states; every office is on our locations page. Not sure whether we can see you? It takes our team about thirty seconds to check.
For referring providers: If your patient is relocating, traveling, or outside driving range of care, we are glad to help. Refer a patient or learn more about our multidisciplinary care.
What Are Online Therapy Sessions Like at Rowan Center?
An online therapy session at Rowan is a normal therapy session that happens to reach you through a screen. You set the pace, and the structure holds either way. Here’s what the work looks like.
Your first sessions map what’s going on, what you’ve tried, and what you want back. It’s a conversation, not an intake form, and it works the same on video: two minutes of hello, then you forget the format.
There’s no single online-therapy protocol. Your therapist matches the approach to what you’re carrying and what you want from the work, and explains why it fits.
You’ll pick up usable tools in the first weeks, and learning them at home has a quiet advantage: you practice in the exact rooms where you’ll need them.
With your permission, we coordinate with your physician, psychiatrist, or medical team. Online care doesn’t mean disconnected care; those calls happen either way.
We set measurable, evidence-driven goals and track them with standardized measures. Our data shows most patients experience significant improvement within 8 to 12 sessions.
Video from home, phone when video isn’t an option, and in-person options in some states. Early morning and evening times exist because most lives don’t pause at 2 p.m. on a Tuesday.
How Do You Get Started With Online Therapy?
Getting started with online therapy takes four steps: reach out, a one-on-one intake call, a therapist match, then your first session. Starting is often the hardest part, so here’s exactly what happens.
Start by Reaching Out
Call us, fill out the interest form, or book a free consultation, whichever feels easiest right now. You don’t have to explain everything to get started.
One-on-One Intake Conversation
Our intake team reviews your information and reaches out for a one-on-one call to talk through your history, concerns, and goals. You share only what you’re ready to share, and if you’d rather skip the phone, this step can happen over email.
Expert Therapist Match
Based on your needs, your preferences, and your state, we match you with a therapist who is licensed or authorized to see you there, factoring in the type of therapy that fits your situation.
Start Your Journey
Once you’re matched, you begin sessions through our secure video platform, by phone, or in person where we have offices, whichever fits your life best.
Is Online Therapy
Right for You?
You don’t have to have the right words to start. A free 15-minute consultation is a conversation, not a commitment: tell us what’s going on and where you’re located, and we’ll be honest about whether we’re the right fit and whether we can see you in your state.
Which Therapy Approaches Work in Online Sessions?
The evidence-based approaches we use in our offices all work in online sessions: cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, mindfulness-based therapy, and trauma-focused therapy. They are chosen for you rather than by format. Virtual therapy runs on the identical structure an office session does. What changes is your commute.
If you’re not sure which of these you need, that’s normal. Choosing is our job, not yours.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Structured, skills-first work on the thought and behavior loops that keep anxiety and low mood running. CBT’s worksheets and between-session practice translate to video with nothing lost. Learn about CBT.
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)
For getting unhooked from the tug-of-war with your own thoughts and moving toward what matters, wherever you happen to be sitting while you do it. Learn about ACT.
Mindfulness-Based Therapy
Attention and nervous-system training, guided live by your therapist, for the rumination and stress reactivity that follow you around all day. Learn about mindfulness-based therapy.
Trauma-Focused Therapy
Evidence-based trauma treatment, paced carefully. For some people, working from their own safe space makes the hardest conversations easier to begin. Explore trauma therapy.
CBT for Insomnia
CBT-I, the first-line treatment for chronic insomnia, and a natural fit for video: your sleep logs and your actual bedroom are right there. Explore insomnia therapy.
Health Psychology
Care at the border of mind and body: illness adjustment, symptom management, treatment adherence. Built for the clients who benefit most from not having to travel. Explore health psychology.
Most people don’t need all of these. Your therapist recommends what fits and changes it as your needs change. And if you’re near one of our offices, you can mix formats: individual therapy in person some weeks, online the others.
Why Choose Rowan Center for
Online Therapy?
The things that make us a good office practice are the same things that make us a good online one.
Most online platforms staff for scale. We staffed for depth: a team built on PhD- and PsyD-level licensed psychologists, with licensed master’s-level therapists alongside them, and doctoral-level assessment thinking behind every plan.
Book a free consultation
No queue, no reshuffle, no retelling your story to someone new because an algorithm reassigned you. You and your therapist build the work together, week over week.
Meet your therapist
Sessions run on HIPAA-compliant video. One link, one click, no account gymnastics. And if the technology ever misbehaves, your therapist calls you and the session continues by phone.
See if we’re a fit
We track progress against the goals you set using standardized measures, not a general sense that things feel better. The format changed. The standard didn’t.
Find a time that works
Anxiety, sleep, health, and relationships rarely stay in separate boxes. We treat the person carrying all of it, not one symptom at a time.
Get started today
Early morning and evening appointments with zero travel on either end, so a session can fit inside a lunch break. The drive home becomes closing a laptop.
Ask about availability