Build Your Hypnosis Practice by Offering Safe, Ethical & Effective Online Hypnosis Sessions
This Workshop Is NOT About How To Use Zoom, Facetime, Etc.
Cal Banyan, MA, BCH, FNGH, OB, MCPHI
SCROLL DOWN FOR “CLASS HANDOUT”, FREE VIDEOS, ONLINE HYPNOTIC INDUCTION & MORE!
The Banyan tree is the most wide spreading tree. Its branches spread out and send trunk-like roots to the ground in order to support itself. They are found in tropical areas from India, throughout Southern Asia, and can be found in the state of Florida in the United States of America.
Single Banyan trees may cover acres of ground. A single adult banyan tree can be an awesome sight to behold!

BUT FIRST – WOULD YOU LIKE SOME GREAT FREE HYPNOSIS TRAINING VIDEOS?
No catch! Just free, fun & informative hypnosis training videos!
I have some professional hypnosis training videos for almost every hypnosis and hypnotherapy topic.
- Are you watching my free hypnosis training on www.CalBanyan.com
- If not go to www.CalBanyan.com and get my complete library (500+ free) hypnosis training videos!
- Or right now send a blank email to videos@calbanyan.com and you are done. I‘ll send you a link automatically to a page with links to each video by title.
- Links to videos on how to conduct hypnosis sessions online! Go to www.CalBanyan.com/ONLINE
INTRO: Hello Everyone, I’m Cal Banyan and you may know me from my Hypnosis, Etc. Podcast! There I have hundreds of free hypnosis training videos on practically nearly every hypnosis topic for you on www.CalBanyan.com. If you haven’t seen them, go to www.CalBanyan.com and get them all for free! Or you can send a blank email to videos@calbanyan.com! I’ll give you instant access.
Get Certified to Conduct Hypnosis Sessions ONLINE!


AS MENTIONED IN MY TALK…
I have a certification course for you that is about a day long on how to become 5-PATH® IAHP Certified to conduct sessions online.
AS PROMISED – My FREE “HOW TO CONDUCT SESSIONS ONLINE” Videos
Here are the FREE hypnosis training videos I promised in my talk. “In-depth training on how to conduct safe, effective and professional hypnosis sessions online”.
- Hypnosis Training Video #509: Secrets to Conducting Online Live Hypnosis Sessions Like A Pro!
- Hypnosis Training Video #560: Part 1: You CAN Do Hypnosis Online! Tips, Tricks and Insights
- Hypnosis Training Video #561: Part 2: You CAN Do Hypnosis Online! 20 HUGE Benefits for Your Clients
- Hypnosis Training Video #562: Part 3: You CAN Do Hypnosis Sessions Online – Huge Benefits for You the Hypnosis Professional
- Hypnosis Training Video #563: Part 4: You CAN Do Hypnosis Sessions Online – How to Avoid Common Mistakes
- Hypnosis Training Video #564: Do You Need Special Equipment for Online Hypnosis Sessions?
BONUS: Hypnotic Induction for ONLINE Sessions!
5-PATH® Induction for Online Sessions – No Touching (363 Words)
By Cal Banyan
Script for the 5-PATH® Rapid Induction
Revised on 01-17-20 for Online/Not Touching – 363 Words
Take in a deep breath, let it out, close your eyes and begin to relax.
Now push down with your hands, pressing… Good now stop pressing – release and relax 1, 2, 3. Now send that feeling of relaxation through your entire body, from your hands and arms to your chest, from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet, 1, 2, 3. Now I’d like you to slowly begin to lift one of your arms, lifting, lifting, hold it and drop it. Deeper, go deeper, deeper, relaxed.
Once again – push down with your hands, pressing… Good, stop pressing, release and relax 1,2,3. Send that feeling of relaxation through your entire body, 1, 2, 3. Now slowly begin to lift your other arm, lifting, lifting, hold it and drop it. Deeper, go much deeper.
Now slowly and gently begin rocking your head from left to right and as you do that relax your neck, face, jaw. Good, now facing forward stop rocking your head and send that feeling of relaxation all the way down to your feet, 1, 2, 3.
In a moment I’m going to have you repeat the words “deeper relaxed” out loud, saying them softly and slowly, putting about half the amount of effort into each repetition.
After each repetition I’ll say the words “relaxing more and more, fading away to nothing, nothing, nothing.”
After a few repetitions you can relax mentally and easily fade those words away and forget about them for now. When you’ve done that, gently and obviously nod your head to let me know how well you are doing. (Or, When you’ve done that, raise a finger to let me know how well you are doing.)
Now begin repeating “deeper relaxed” out loud; easily relax those words away and forget about them for now. Begin.
(Client says, “deeper relaxed” and then you say, “relaxing more and more, fading away to nothing, nothing, nothing.” Go back and forth this way until your client has indicated that he/she has faded the words away by nodding his/her head.)
Good, now go deeper, and as I count from one down to five let it be as if you could double this mental and physical relaxation.
- Relaxing much further.
- Relaxing more with each breath that you exhale.
- Feeling safe, secure; attending only to the sound of my voice.
- All sounds around you only remind you to go deeper.
- And you just keep going deeper, you can always go deeper.
COURSE HANDOUT FOR #1204
Build Your Hypnosis Practice by Offering Safe, Ethical & Effective Online Hypnosis Sessions
This Workshop Is NOT About How To Use Zoom, Facetime, Etc.
Cal Banyan, MA, BCH, FNGH, OB, MCPHI
Course #12041
Part 1
In this workshop, I’m going to show you why conducting hypnosis sessions online is THE MOST effective way to safely, ethically and build your practice while doing really effective hypnosis & hypnotherapy.
This course is a Readers Digest version of a day long course that ends in certification. The National Guild of Hypnotists Standards of Practice were based on that course outline. To learn more about that course go to www.CalBanyan.com/online
- Background
- This course came about as a result of a meeting at the NGH convention 2019.
- It was brought up that hypnotists were doing online sessions.
- Some in the meeting did not like the fact that NGH members were conducting sessions online. I said, like it or not, it is happening and what the NGH should do is get ahead of things and set the standards and create a certification course.
- I was put in charge. I told them I would develop a course and evaluation procedure and test it out on the 5-PATH® IAHP NGH SIG.
- So here we are, we have an online session certification for hypnotists open to all hypnosis professionals!
- The NGH is taking a cautious but positive stance toward online sessions.
- Certification to Conduct Sessions Online described on Certification to Conduction Hypnosis Sessions Online Course webpage.
- Self-Awareness, Appearance and Professionalism (Confidence Game).
- Dress like you would in a physical office.
- Bifocal glasses make you tilt your head back and it looks odd.
- Look at the camera, not your image.
- Be aware of how you are placed on the screen (horizontally centered and head high and not vertically centered, like a portrait or talking head on TV.
- Be self-aware of how you look and how you behave.
- Make sure your background is office-like or at least not distracting or detrimental
- Don’t look like a target with your face in the center of the screen.
- Fill the screen, look like you are there with them. Be big.
- Microphone and speaker recommendations.
- Things you can do to master your online platform, i.e., Zoom
- Watch videos on Youtube
- Use it to visit with friends and family (or at your day job if you still have one).
- Benefits of becoming certified to do online sessions.
- For the Client (place these on your website):
- Greater confidentiality because clients will not be seen going into your office.
- Greater convenience for your clients because they don’t have to travel.
- Saves time because of not having to travel to appointments.
- Sessions may be more accessible because there may be no hypnotists in their area.
- May feel more able to self-disclose because of distance.
- May feel more able to self-disclose when in a familiar home environment.
- Weather is not a factor unless it affects the Internet connection.
- Some clients cannot leave their homes, and online hypnosis enables them to have sessions.
- Some clients are so introverted or shy they will not have sessions if they have to look a hypnotist in the face in the same room.
- May be fearful of being alone in a room with someone of the opposite gender.
- May not be able to have sessions because of transportation issues such as not having a car or unwilling to drive.
- May be better able to schedule sessions with a busy hypnotist when they don’t have to factor in travel time.
- Can have hypnosis sessions when traveling like on a business trip.
- Client saves money.
- Client may be more hypnotizable and go deeper because she is feeling safe because of the home environment or because of distance from the hypnotist.
- Can adjust the room temperature according to what she wants rather than what the hypnotist wants (but if too warm may increase the likelihood that she will go to sleep).
- Less likely to react to smells or chemicals that she may have reacted to in the hypnotist’s office.
- The practice of hypnosis by non-licensed professionals may be illegal in the client’s state so access is limited, but she can access services from an out of state hypnosis professional.
- Experiencing the transformation in the home may better enable the client to continue to experience the positive effect of the session (state learning)
- Your client does not have to get up and go right after the session they can just sit there and process for a while.
- Clients who are physically disabled can have sessions without the physical or emotional discomfort of onsite sessions (avoid possible embarrassment about their immobility).
- For the hypnotist:
- Less expensive to get started in the profession if you do online only at first.
- Less expensive to continue to have an “office” because it is virtual.
- May be safer for the hypnotist because unethical touching could not be alleged.
- May be safer for the hypnotist because he or she is not being placed in physical proximity to clients.
- May enable the hypnotist to serve a greater number of clients because of ability to serve clients anywhere in the world.
- May have fewer no-shows when you eliminate variables like distance, traffic, travel time and the hassle of having to drive to a location.
- May also be able to conduct sessions when traveling.
- May be better able to see clients after hours when done online.
- Could be healthier for the hypnotist because of not being exposed to germs from seeing multiple clients in person.
- Be able to see clients if injured or unable to get to the office because of a medical condition.
- Ability to “time shift” and see clients in the evening by serving clients in other time zones.
- Don’t have to be concerned about noise from sessions being heard and bothering other people in the office (when using headphones).
- Less chance of being liable for a client tripping or falling, etc. in your office.
- Lowers the cost of car insurance because they don’t have a daily drive to work.
- May not have to pay for child or pet care because you can work from home.
- When you work at home you don’t bring negative energy into it from clients (DFEs or just the energy of negative emotions).
- For the Client (place these on your website):
- Common Concerns About Conducting Online Sessions (What if…?)
- What if your client doesn’t have an adequate computer or the power goes out?
- What if your client’s house catches on fire?
- What if there is a medical emergency?
- What if your client’s location is too noisy?
- What if there are interruptions by family members, pets, etc.?
- What if the Internet connection goes down during the session?
- What if you can’t see your client’s face clearly during the session?
- What if you can’t see your client’s finger signals, head nods, etc.
- What if your client doesn’t know how to use video conferencing?
- What if your client doesn’t have an adequate chair or recliner to do the session?
- What if you have to have your clients fill out forms?
- What if you want to get paid for the sessions?
- What if you want to show your client a video, like the pre-talk video?
- What if your client is concerned about confidentiality?
- What if you want to record your sessions?
- What if your client becomes emotional during the session (privacy)?
- What if you need to contact your client about scheduling, etc.?
- What if you are not trained using inductions, deepening, depth-testing needed without touching the client?
- What if the online situation leaves you and your client not feeling as “connected” as when you are face-to-face?
- Ethics (See NGH Code of Ethics)
- Work must be equally ethical to doing onsite sessions
- Provides services when otherwise they may not be available.
- Provides better choice for clients of who, when and where they can receive services.
- When you work with clients you are regulated by the laws of the state you are in NOT where the client is in.
- Online platform services:
- This certification covers conducting sessions over the Internet (not phone). The telephone can be used as a temporary backup. This is not a how to use Zoom class.
- The service must be secure (at least as secure as a phone call).
- The service must be easy to use.
- The service should enable recording of sessions.
- The service should work on PC, Mac and Android.
- May need to be HIPPA compliant for medical professionals.
- This certification covers conducting sessions over the Internet (not phone). The telephone can be used as a temporary backup. This is not a how to use Zoom class.
Part 2 – Issues and Solutions
The rest of the course consists of addressing all the issues raised in Part 1, generally restating them and addressing each one.
Reminder: This is not a “how to use Zoom Course”. The purpose of this course is to address non-platform specific technical issues, client environment issues, safety issues, administrative, security and confidentiality issues as well as quality of service issues.
- TECHNICAL ISSUES First we outline the issues and then cover solutions.
- Is the device capable of video conferencing?
- Do they know how to use the video conferencing platform?
- Do they have an adequate Internet connection?
- Do they know what to do if they lose the Internet connection during a session?
- Are you able to see the individual’s face clearly?
- Are you able to see finger signals if you intend to use them?
- Are you able to record the session if you intend to?
- Is the connection secure?
- Does your client know what to do if the screen freezes or crashes?
- All of the above issues can be addressed by doing the following:
- Provide the client with written instructions on what the minimum requirements are regarding the computer used and the Internet connection they are planning on using.
- Providing the client with a pre-online-hypnosis meeting with the client before the first hypnosis session to test the computer/Internet connection and assess your client’s ability to use the software/platform, such as Zoom.
- If your client is using a phone or tablet, it needs to have a stand and securely stand on its own and not be knocked over.
- Create expectation for a call if something has a technical problem. Inform your client during the session that if the Internet connection is lost or there is any other technical difficulty during the session that causes you to be unable to communicate with you, that she will notice the silence and be prepared for a call. In every other case, when the session is going on, she will ignore any incoming calls and attend to them after the session. The ringer should be set on a low setting.
- Computer with Simultaneous Phone Contact You can simultaneously be connected with your client via the video conferencing platform, such as Zoom, and by phone. Your client can have her phone on in loudspeaker mode and you can have your phone on mute. In any event where you need to talk to your client you can take your phone off “mute” and talk to her.
- Some phone and tablets allow dual connections. Some phones enable the user to both communicate via video conferencing and take calls. Apple iPhones have this capability.
- Safeguard the online session by having an uninterruptible power supply and second Internet Connection. Uninterruptible power supplies can be purchased that provide power instantly if you lose power to your computer. Your phone can be equipped to share its data connection so that you can use it for the session if your regular Internet connection goes down.
- CLIENT’S ENVIRONMENT ISSUES First we outline the issues and then cover solutions.
- Is the location safe for a hypnosis session (no burning candles or boiling water)?
- Is it likely that the session will be interrupted or be too noisy?
- Will your client be using an adequate chair with a headrest for the hypnosis session?
- Is their adequate privacy in case the session becomes emotional?
- Do you know how to handle it if your client needs to take a restroom break during the session?
- All of the above issues can be addressed by doing the following:
- Providing the client with written instructions on what the minimum requirements are regarding safety concerns such as making sure all cooking fires are out, doors are locked and so on.
- Make sure that the computer has a safe and usable position where it will not get knocked over.
- Providing the client with a pre-online-hypnosis meeting with the client before the first hypnosis session so you can see the environment that your client will be using to ensure that it is adequate, including a proper chair and place to put the computer.
- Make sure that they talk to others who live in the home to know that they are not to be disturbed during the session.
- Handling your client needing to go to the bathroom during a session is handled the same as when doing sessions in your office.
- SAFETY ISSUES We continue by first outlining the issues and then cover solutions.
- Do you have a plan to respond in a fast and effective way to handle any medical emergencies during the session?
- Do you have a way to contact your client in case of an important but non-medical situation such as your client fell asleep or you become aware of some other situation that needs to be attended to during the session.
- All of the above issues can be addressed by doing the following:
- Non-Medical Situation or Emergency – Getting an emergency contact number for the client. Make sure that this is an individual who can be contacted immediately during the session. The hypnotist should also have the client’s phone number so that the client can be contacted in case she falls asleep or needs assistance to get back online if disconnected.
- Non-Medical Situation or Emergency – Computer with Simultaneous Phone Contact You can simultaneously be contact with your client via the video conferencing platform, such as Zoom and by phone. Your client can have her phone on in loudspeaker mode and you can have your phone on mute. In any event where you need to talk to your client you can take your phone off “mute” and talk to her.
- Medical Emergency – Ask About How She Would Like You To Handle Things In your hypnosis session intake forms and pre-hypnosis interview, you should ask your client about any previous serious medical conditions. For example, if your client has a history of heart problems or seizures ask her how she would like these events to be handled. Find out about an emergency contact number with a friend or family member or a local emergency service provider.
- Call 911 in the USA – Also, in the event that something like this happens and you don’t have this information, if your client lives in the USA you can call your local 911 number and let the operator know what is happening and where your client is. They typically have a way to contact emergency service providers in areas outside of their own.
- ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUES
- How are you going to give to and get forms from clients?
- How are you going to give them materials such as books, CDs & pre-talk video?
- How are you going to avoid confusion about Time Zones?
- How are you going to receive payment for your services?
- All of the above issues can be addressed by doing the following:
- Have in place, a system that the client can use to either mail in forms or scan them and email them to you.
- IntakeQ
- WUFoo
- Send out reminders to clients about the time and remind them of any Time Zone issues. Tell them their appointment time in their Time Zone.
- Be able to take common forms of payment such as:
- Mailed in checks
- Credit cards over the phone
- PayPal
- Interac E-Transfer
- Have in place, a system that the client can use to either mail in forms or scan them and email them to you.
- CONFIDENTIALITY AND SECURITY ISSUES
- How are you going to assure your online security and confidentiality?
- How are you going to ensure that any recordings of the sessions are secure?
- How are you going to contact and communicate with your client confidentially?
- Does insurance cover doing sessions online?
- All of the above issues can be addressed by doing the following:
- Make sure that the Internet connections used by both the hypnotist and the client are secure.
- If sessions are recorded using Zoom or other system that records the sessions, make sure that the recordings are deleted from the system and saved locally such as on a DVD.
- Ensure that the contact information that you have is private and not accessible by your client’s spouse or other individuals.
- Need to check with your insurer to make sure that they cover online sessions. American Professional Agency insurance does at the time of this writing.
- QUALITY OF SERVICE
- Are you competent in using inductions, deepening, depth-testing needed without touching the client?
- Do you know how to create a feeling of connection with clients with whom you are meeting online?
- All of the above issues can be addressed by doing the following:
- The hypnotist should be confident and competent regarding her ability to perform all the techniques that she intends to use before using them with clients online. For example, she may use the same techniques that do not require touching her clients with clients in Onsite sessions before using them with a client online.
- Using Eyelid Catalepsy Convincer can be accomplished without touching. Tapping on the forehead can be replaced by tapping on the computer screen, another part of the computer or by snapping fingers.
- To ensure that there is a personal connection with the online client, additional pre-talk and pre-hypnosis interview time may be required to build the same level of interpersonal connection.
- Younger clients may feel more connected to you over the Internet. They are more likely to have done video chat or other conversations online.
- Older people (40+) may not feel connected with you over the Internet and may need more time to adjust. Talk about things other than sessions and the Internet so that they cannot focus on it for a few minutes and just connect with you as a person.
REMEMBER!
You can get hundreds of free hypnosis training videos on practically every topic on www.CalBanyan.com. Or you can send a blank email to videos@calbanyan.com!
BONUS ARTICLE
Model the TV “Talking Heads” for Best Online Hypnosis Session Results
Cal Banyan, MA, BCH, FNGH, CI
PUBLISHED IN THE JUN 2021 NGH JOURNAL OF HYPNOTISM, VOLUME 36, NUMBER 2
I’m excited for this next NGH convention. One of the talks I’m going to be giving is about how to conduct safe, ethical, and effective online hypnosis sessions. In that talk I will go over the many important things that you need to keep in mind and prepare for when doing online sessions. In this article I am going to reveal some often overlooked but very important online hypnosis session skills that will help you to get great results when conducting hypnosis sessions online.
Your Appearance in the Video Either Builds or Lowers Client Confidence
As you get setup up to work with clients online remember that, as I always say, “Hypnosis is a confidence game, if you don’t get their confidence there will be no game!” Always be mindful of this whether you are conducting sessions at your office in person or online. I believe that it is even more important that you keep this in mind when conducting sessions online because not looking professional in the video can greatly decrease your client’s confidence in you and how well the session will go.
When you are doing online sessions, you must build confidence in your clients so that they believe that you know what you are doing with regard to conducting your sessions online. As a starting point toward accomplishing this goal, I suggest that when you start setting up for your hypnosis sessions online, think about those “talking heads” on TV. The first “talking head” example that might come to mind is the news anchor. How they look on your TV screen is not an accident. They want to come across as professional and as someone you should listen to and trust. As hypnotists conducting hypnosis sessions online, we want to do the same thing. We want our clients to focus on us, trust us and have confidence in us.
Example of Doing It Wrong

This image #1 is a great example of how to look bad on video and not create a feeling of confidence in your clients.
If you don’t look good in your video stream because of bad lighting, proportions, placement on the video and so on, not only are you not looking your best, you do not look like you know what you are doing. Fortunately, all these problems can be easily fixed.
I conduct hypnosis training courses online all the time and I have been doing so for years. And, of course, I do hypnosis sessions online each week as well, starting long before the COVID-19 problem began. When I am online with hypnosis students and clients, I am always surprised at how unaware people are of how they look on their video stream. They have bad proportions, bad lighting and often a distracting background as well.
In image #1 as I said, there are many problems! It is an all-too-common example of what I see when looking at clients and students. The lighting is bad. I’m way too low in the frame. I’m way too small in the frame and the angle is bad because you are looking up my nose! If I were to work with my clients looking like that, I think that they might never show up for the next session and I wouldn’t blame them!
Example of Doing It Right
In image #2 you can see how I appear to my clients when I conduct online sessions. I have an image of my office in the background. I have much better lighting. In that image, taken from a live video, the lighting comes primarily from the front while being illuminated by a ring light (shown in images #3 and 4 below).

The lighting on your face should come predominantly from the front. It is important that your eyes are illuminated as well. Lighting that comes mainly from above can cast dark shadows on your eyes making it difficult or impossible for your client to see your eyes. A great deal of human communication is accomplished with the eyes. Also, if your client cannot see into your eyes, she may have difficulty connecting to you or trusting you.
Strong back lighting is the worst. Back lighting from windows for example turn you into a faceless, expressionless silhouette. In that case, your client cannot see any facial expressions and communication, trust and confidence can be further diminished.
Notice also that I am sitting with my head in the upper part of the frame and the size of my face is proportional as well. My head is in the top two thirds of the image. If you look at most good portraits you will see that these proportions are used as well.
Never have your face so close to the webcam that your face fills the whole screen. The camera will distort your face, and it can give your client the feeling that you are too close and can be off-putting.
I believe that this kind of positioning works the best with a business-like background, as also shown in image #2. The business-like office background sets the expectation that we are together to work. Some folks like to use backgrounds that are provided by Zoom or whatever platform they use. I think a background image of my office works best, rather than some general image of someone else’s office or other indoor image. To make that happen, I simply took a photo of my office (using the camera on my phone) and saved it on my computer. Then in Zoom I uploaded it and set it as my background image (using green screen technology available in the Zoom meeting software).
Using a photo of my office as a background works especially well because I sometimes see the same clients both in my actual office and online using Zoom. Sometimes I see clients online from my home office as well. But I use the same background whenever I am seeing clients no matter where I am. This way my clients tend to feel as if they were in my usual online office even though I am at home. That way they are not distracted by the use of different backgrounds (or the actual background view of my home office environment).

Here is my online office setup as it is set up at the Banyan Hypnosis Center. See image #3. I have both an “onsite” hypnosis office where I see clients in person, and I have a classroom where I can setup this “online” hypnosis office shown in the image #3.
Before COVID-19 broke out, I saw most of my clients in my hypnosis office in person. Now that things are starting to get back to “normal” I have started seeing some clients in my physical office again. But, I still see most of my clients online.
For me, it is a hassle to set up for an online client (laptop, external speakers and a ring light) and then take it all down in order to see my next client in the office. Since I have a classroom at the Banyan Hypnosis Center, I have set up the back of the classroom for seeing clients online. I will only need to take that setup down when I have classes with students in the classroom.

In the photo of my online office set up in the back of my classroom, shown in image #4, I use one of the classroom tables on which I have my laptop, lavalier microphone, laptop stand, speakers and ring light. Notice that my ring light is setup high enough so that the light does not reflect in my glasses which looks odd to anyone watching the video stream.
In image #4, you can see what the setup looks like from my perspective as I sit in the back of the classroom at my computer and ring light setup.
I like to have my files, clipboard, etc. set up like I have it set up in my physical office when I see clients in person so that I feel just as comfortable when conducting my online sessions because everything is where I am used to having it.
Notice that I have my laptop on a stand in image #4. I do this to raise my laptop up so that the internal webcam is about eye level. I do this to keep the video image looking natural, and my clients do not get the bad looking-up-the-nose perspective I showed you at the top of this article in image #1. Having the laptop elevated like this would not be comfortable if I were typing, but during my sessions I am only looking into the camera and talking, so having the laptop up on a stand works great.


Notice that in image #2 and #5 I am looking directly into the webcam. Not doing so is one of the biggest mistakes I see folks making when working online. It is important that you make a personal connection with your clients like you would in a face-to-face session. When you speak to your clients you must look into the camera not at your video image! Looking at your image on the screen can make you look off to the side or downward, making you seem disengaged.
Important Points to Remember
In my talk in the upcoming convention, I’ll be able to go into what you can do to have great online sessions, including ethics, safety and efficacy. But for now, here are some key points to remember.
- Be self-aware – Think like a TV producer. Your video image should look professional and instill confidence. Use the TV “talking heads” as a model.
- Proportions should look like the talking heads on TV. You should not be too close, and not too far away from the webcam.
- Lighting should be predominantly from the front, and ring lights work well.
- If you use a ring light, place it high enough so that it does not reflect in your glasses if you wear them.
- Using green screen technology is not difficult and provides you with a professional background that can look like your physical office (if you have one).
- Eye contact is important. Make sure that there is enough light on your face so that your client can easily see into your eyes.
- Look into the webcam or you will look disconnected from what is going on.
Online Sessions Have Become the Norm
Everything has changed. It used to be that doing sessions online was mostly something we did as a special service for those who cannot get to our office. But because of COVID-19 it seems like most everyone was forced to interact at work or with family using online video. They learned how to do it. Now they will expect it.
I have rethought my approach to seeing clients. From this point on, I consider online sessions to be the norm in my practice and in-person sessions to be the premium service. As such, I charge more for face-to-face in-person sessions. This new approach has been readily accepted by my clients.
I hope that this article helps you to optimize your online sessions results and I look forward to seeing you in one of my upcoming talks at the next NGH convention online!