Response to Covid-19

Due to the widespread infection of the COVID-19 virus, Dr. Aylor is seeing all clients, new and existing, electronically.

Electronic, Digital or Tele-Therapy are all different names for Telemedicine. Most major medical plans including MediCare have now authorized psychotherapists to see their clients electronically. Most recently, the Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) has ordered that all health plans, effective immediately, shall  reimburse providers at the same rate, whether a service is provided in-person or through Telehealth, if the service is the same, regardless of the modality of delivery, as determined by the provider’s description of the service on the claim. Your health plan is also prohibited from charging more for your copayment than you would normally pay for your services.

PROs- no risk of transmission from virus to either the patient or the therapist, no need to travel away from your home, continued access to your therapist during a stressful time.

CONs- limitations of your privacy in your home, not all non-verbal communication from either the therapist or the client can be assessed in the moment thus requiring more verbal feedback and checking in by the therapist and the patient, which may feel uncomfortable if this is not the norm for your therapeutic relationship, imperfect technology and currently many, many, people using up the computer bandwidth, you might get cut off during a session because of the technology. I am unable to schedule or conduct therapy with anyone who lives outside of the State of California, as I do not maintain licensure in any other states.

Dr. Aylor has been established with Teletherapy for several years and has tried numerous platforms for conducting teletherapy and has, as yet, not found a perfect platform. Hopefully, as Google Fiber expands into the area there can be a more seamless interchange between the client and therapist. Currently, Dr. Aylor prefers the use of ZOOM, a free downloadable app that be used on a desktop computer, a laptop computer, tablet or smart phone. According to the research she has conducted, at this time, this app will provide the greatest level of security as even the free, basic version of the app has a high level of end-to-end encryption.

If you do not feel comfortable with your computer skills, Dr. Aylor is willing to walk you through the steps of installation of the program on your computer or can schedule a telephonic session, although the lack of non-verbal feedback makes this form of therapy less desirable.

The link below is for a consent for teletherapy that was developed by my office-mate and modified by me to meet the needs of my particular therapy practice. As you can see by the document, she is very thorough.

Informed Consent for Telepsychology