What term do I use when talking about teletherapy?

teletherapy defined

There is some confusion regarding what term to use to describe teletherapy services and that makes sense given that there are several terms used interchangeably. Below, I have defined common terms in order to help explain when to use them and why I do not use them interchangeably.

What do these terms mean?
  1. Telehealth (noun): refers to the umbrella of services provided via telecommunications technology. It is the term I use when broadly referring to the use of the internet to provide a health service. Telehealth is being successfully used across several healthcare professions.
  2. Telepractice (noun): refers to a virtual office or business that provides telehealth services. Individuals who perform telehealth services through their business own a telepractice. Individuals who are employed by a company that provides telehealth services can be described as being employed by a telepractice.
  3. Teletherapy (verb): refers to the act of providing therapy services using telecommunications technology. The type of therapy provided can be speech therapy, occupational therapy, counseling services, etc. I use this term to describe what services I provide. For example, I provide speech and language teletherapy services.
  4. Teletherapist (noun): refers to a person who provides virtual therapy services. It is the term I use to describe what my profession is. For example, I am a speech and language teletherapist.
The most common term used among fellow Speech-Language Pathologists is “teletherapy” and this is the term that I use most frequently to talk about what I do when speaking to members of my community. However, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) has adopted the term “telepractice” to describe the use of teleconferencing technology for the delivery of speech-language therapy services. ASHA also accepts the term teletherapy.

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