Online vs in-person therapy.

Now that online therapy is mainstream, the question for most people isn't whether to have therapy, but how. Online has obvious practical advantages, no travel, no waiting rooms, easier to fit around work, but is something lost? The research has actually answered this clearly, and we've watched it play out across our own client work for years.

Here's the honest version, written by people who offer both.

What the research says about effectiveness

Online therapy has been studied extensively, particularly since 2020. The consistent finding from systematic reviews and randomised trials is that, for most common issues, it's as effective as in-person therapy. That's true for anxiety, depression, PTSD, OCD, and several other conditions. Online CBT in particular has very strong evidence behind it. The therapeutic relationship, the part that does most of the heavy lifting in therapy, forms perfectly well over video for most people.

There are some specific situations where in-person can be more suitable: certain kinds of group work, work with young children, and a few cases where being physically present matters for safety. But for the typical adult coming to therapy, the research treats online and in-person as broadly equivalent.

When online tends to suit

Online tends to work especially well if you: work irregular hours or travel for work, live somewhere rural or far from a clinic, are managing childcare or caring responsibilities, find leaving the house difficult (anxiety, agoraphobia, chronic illness, mobility), value privacy and don't want to be seen entering a clinic, or simply find it easier to be honest from your own space.

Online is also the only way for some people: British expats, people living abroad temporarily, partners trying to do couples work from different cities.

When in-person tends to suit

In-person can be the better choice if you: don't have a private, reliable space to talk from, find it hard to focus on screens, want a clear physical separation between 'therapy time' and home life, or are doing certain kinds of trauma or body-based work where being in a room with your therapist matters.

It's also a perfectly valid preference. Some people just want to be in the room. That's reason enough.

How we'd help you decide

If you're not sure, get in touch and we'll talk it through. We offer both, so we have no agenda either way. We'll suggest whichever genuinely fits you better. And it isn't a permanent decision: we have clients who start online and switch to in-person, and others who do the reverse.

Either way, you'll be working with the same team of qualified, accredited UK therapists, at the same prices, starting at £50.

Whichever format suits you, the most important thing is who you're working with, not how. If you'd like to talk it through, we're here.