About Us
Video Counseling has many benefits:
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Access to counseling services for rural or remote areas of New Mexico
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Ability to see your counselor more quickly and easily
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Maneuverability of location with a laptop, tablet, or smartphone
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Ability to see your counselor while traveling / out of town
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Access to counseling services for homebound individuals
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No travel or parking hassles
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Gives another option to face-to-face counseling, if it is preferable
Some drawbacks to Video Counseling can be:
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It is not face-to-face so that the whole environment may not be viewable (body language etc.)
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From time-to-time there can be connection problems or technical issues. If they arise, we will do our best to troubleshoot these problems together. If the video/audio connection cannot be recovered we will have the option to continue the session telephonically.
About
Open Access Video Counseling was started by Brian Milliken and Alicia Ryan in 2019. After years serving thousands of clients in Albuquerque and Santa Fe they became aware of the great need for counseling and mental health services in the remote areas of New Mexico. They discovered access to quality counseling and mental health services was very limited and people often go without support, ending up in crisis as a result.
Additionally over the years, clients have requested video counseling for a variety of reasons, such as weather events preventing travel, wanting counseling with a far-way family member, being home-bound, or simply wanting the convenience of having a session from their home, car or wherever they were. Seeing the need and advantages of video counseling, they started Open Access Video Counseling to fill this demand. Providing much needed services to those who could not otherwise receive them, motivated them to make a system which would be convenient, easy to use, and with the highest standards and confidentiality for clients.
In March 2020, Covid-19 hit the U.S. and Open Access was ready to meet client needs, serving those who would otherwise come face-to-face to the ABQ or Santa Fe offices. Open Access Video Counseling will continue to serve clients across the state of New Mexico for Video/Telephonic counseling services during the pandemic and beyond.
New Mexico law states that Video Counseling must be treated the same way as in-person counseling, in that it must be reimbursable by all insurance carriers including Medicaid. This means that most residents of New Mexico can have access to quality, confidential services no matter where they live.