Online Therapy San Francisco

Takeaway: Sometimes, the struggles of everyday life can weigh us down. Depression, stress, anxiety, insomnia, and relationship problems are common challenges that many people deal with. However, you don’t have to go through it alone. San Francisco online therapy can help you make meaning of your experiences and live a life you feel good about.

Online therapy in California, used interchangeably with video therapy or teletherapy, is having therapy, through video conferencing and sometimes by phone. It allows clients to receive quality mental health care from licensed online therapists in the comfort and privacy of your home or office, without the need to attend in person sessions.

In this post, I will share helpful information on my approach to counseling in San Francisco CA, how my online sessions of therapy can help, working with licensed online therapists for your mental wellness, and explore how my therapist services may help clients like you.

Meet Simay Gökbayrak, PhD

I'm a clinical psychologist that provides individual counseling to high achievers in the San Francisco area. I can provide my therapy services to adults who live in the state of California.

I have specialized training in a research-backed family of evidence-based therapies for a range of psychological difficulties.

These therapies include mindfulness and acceptance-focused and cognitive-behavioral approaches. Such therapies are proven to help adults learn techniques and skills to work through stress and cope with new and longstanding psychological difficulties.

My clients are ambitious leaders and often have a hard time acknowledging that they are overwhelmed by having to straddle multiple demanding responsibilities. They tend to have a history of being reluctant to ask for support from others.

The very qualities that bring them success at work don't necessarily translate to their personal relationships. My goal is to provide gold-standard therapy with compassion and dignity to help you feel more connected to yourself and those you care about.

My approach to online therapy in San Francisco

For therapy to be succcesful, it is important to find a therapist, the right therapist, that can help you meet your specific needs and goals. My approach to online therapy involves several important steps toward healing and creating a safe space and a private space from the very beginning. The therapy I provide includes:

Measurement-based:

Similar to how it's done in medical settings with for example a primary care physician, measurement-based care in mental health treatment involves therapists using client data or client reported symptoms to inform the treatment course. Although measurement-based therapy is a high standard of mental health care, less than 20% of therapists have been found to practice in this way.

Practically-speaking, this type of care includes strategies to more accurately understand a client's mental health:

• I will give you brief validated questionnaire(s) to fill out at each session that assesses your symptoms,

• We will then review the data together,

• And then incorporate that data and potential trends of data in to where treatment should go.

Through working with me, you would gain access to this underutilized and high quality therapy approach to making a positive change in your mental health, relationships and well being.

Evidence-based and practical:

I practice evidence- and measurement-based therapy. Evidence-based therapy involves a focus on the use of the therapies and behavioral tools that have been proven through scientific research to be effective. This is also practical therapy where we collaborate on setting goals for you to work toward.

Referrals:

An important focus of my online counseling is providing the necessary clinical support for your mental health. That can also involve determining whether you might benefit from additional services in San Francisco.

Such services could include getting a medication assessment, joining a skills group, family therapy, counseling and support services for trauma or domestic violence, and couples therapy in California. I have extensive experience working in a variety of medical settings including academic inpatient and outpatient hospitals.

Those experiences have given me a knowledge base that can help determine whether you might need additional mental health or medical services. As such, I can direct you to the appropriate resources.

Types of therapy modalities I use

Sessions at online therapy San Francisco California include the practice of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): ACT (pronounced like the verb) helps people get unstuck from difficult thoughts and feelings controlling their life that leads to participating in harmful or unhelpful patterns of action. ACT can help you get clarity on what matters to you so that you can move toward a full life of purpose and meaning. ACT has strong research supporting its effectiveness for managing anxiety, depression, substance abuse, chronic pain, coping with medical illness such as cancer and related issues, and a range of other difficulties.

• Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT): CBT aims to teach a person how to better navigate faulty thinking patterns that lead to psychological symptoms and distress. Counseling sessions teach people to recognize unhelpful thoughts and learn ways to face their fears. A specific form of CBT, or CBT for Insomnia (CBT-i) is the gold standardy therapy for insomnia, for example.

• Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): DBT is an offshoot of CBT. It has a strong research background in showing its effectiveness for helping people who struggle with difficult and intense emotions. The varied DBT skills can help people struggling with anxiety, depression, and trauma, and manage relationship and communication difficulties. Developing an ability to communicate your needs and assert your boundaries are an important part of this approach.

  These approaches can also help clients build a sense of self-worth and self-esteem through learning skills of coping, self-acceptance and self-compassion.

How online counseling can help

Online therapy San Francisco, California can help clients work through new and longstanding mental health difficulties, relationship issues, and difficult life transitions in meaningful ways. Benefits of online therapy are:

Convenience:

Participating in online sessions from your home in San Francisco CA can save you time and money. You don't have to hurry to make it to a session and in fact will have a space to slow down.

Openness:

Compared to in person sessions, having actual distance between online therapists and clients can lead to speaking more openly about one's own difficulties.

Active participation:

Receiving mental health care while in your own space can allow for more organization and preparedness on the part of the client. Clients can be more engaged and take notes while participating in sessions.

FAQs about online therapy in San Francisco

I'm not contracted with any any health insurance in San Francisco so I'm considered an "out-of-network" provider. You can find out from your health insurance provider whether CPT code 90834 for teletherapy with "out-of-network" therapists is covered under your insurance plan.

I will address some common questions about online therapy. Don't hesitate to contact me if you have additional questions.

Online therapy in San Francisco can offer you the support you need

I'm a psychologist that practices the most researched therapy approaches in individual therapy. I keep myself abreast of all the well-established and developing therapeutic interventions.

I invest in getting to you know you as a whole person and make concerted efforts to individualize therapies to help meet your specific needs, difficulties, goals, and cultural background.

If you're a person looking for a direct, compassionate and science-based approach for your mental health needs that includes regular therapist feedback, contact me and let's see if I am a good therapist match for you.