The next best thing to being there, telephone and Skype counseling are a great choice when you want to get up close and personal from a distance.
I have done many sessions in this way and find them very close to face to face sessions in the information I am provided with as to what is going on with my client. You get immediate feedback from the therapist, and recieve the subtlties of verbal (voice) communication. You can almost hear a smile, and can certainly hear praise and laughter.
Certainly in phone counseling the non-verbal cues are missing. And, in Skype some of the subtle in the moment connection is lost. However, to some degree it is like listening to music on a CD versus and MP3, some of the sound signals are gone, but most of the good stuff is still there.
Set up a session now and find out for yourself!
Ron Dollar, MA, LMHC, CAP