​Using Zoom and Accessing Your Online Therapy Meeting

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My online therapy service uses a secure video link to enable couples, individuals and families to have sessions with me where having a face-to-face meeting would not be possible. I use a platform called Zoom which is simple to use and has a high standard of data security and confidentiality. 

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To use Zoom please ensure:

You have a reliable internet connection: broadband or Wireless recommended at a minimum of 2 Mbps speed. If accessing from mobile devices please ensure you have at least a 3G/4G connection

Zoom works with the following operating systems: 

•  Windows 7 or later 

•  Mac OS X with MacOS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or later 

•  Phones and tablets: IOS, Android and Blackberry 

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In order to ensure that your meetings happen reliably, please check that your device and internet connection meet the above minimum requirements. 

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Bandwidth Test 

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You can check your internet speed by running a bandwidth test.
Go to https://www.speedtest.net and click on “begin test”. The test may take a few moments to complete.
The results will tell you your download and upload speed both of which should be above 2 Mbps for Zoom to work reliably. 

Ping: Ideally this should be less than 30ms, if your ping reads higher than this you may experience some delays in video and sound. 

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Accessing Zoom 

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To access your meeting click on the link contained in your appointment confirmation email. 

Depending on your browser, the first time you use Zoom you may be prompted to download the Zoom software. This will only take a moment to complete by following the onscreen instructions. 

Once downloaded, you will be able to join your meeting. If I have not yet entered the meeting, a waiting screen will appear.

Your video screen will automatically load once the therapist has also joined the meeting. 

 

 

What do I do if........... 

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Please have your phone near to you at all times, if our video connection is lost I will contact you by phone, if contact cannot be established by phone I will contact you via text or email.

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If I cannot use the Zoom link

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Within your confirmation email will also be a Zoom Meeting Number and Passcode.  If you cannot use the link, simply go to the zoom website or app and click on ‘Join a Meeting’ in the top menu bar.  Zoom will then prompt you to enter your Meeting Number and then your Passcode manually in order to join the meeting.

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I have a poor connection (audio or video dropping) 

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If you are experiencing connection issues please follow the instructions at the start of this document to test your bandwidth meets a minimum of of 2 Mbps speed. If accessing from mobile devices please ensure you have at least 3G/4G connection. 

If your bandwidth meets the above minimum speed and you are experiencing issues you may find the following helps: 

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•  Close all background applications and programs that may be running. 

•  If you are on a wireless connection get as close to your wireless router as possible or 

• connect directly to the router using an Ethernet cable.

• Alternatively you may agree with me to mute your microphone on Zoom and use audio via your phone.  To do this I will phone you and we can both switch to speaker phone.  This ensures that even if the video freezes we hopefully maintain a reliable audio connection.  Sometimes this relieves the demand on your broadband and resolves the freezing or breaking up of your video image.  If you we use this option please remember to hang up your phone at the end of the session as well as leaving the meeting.

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If you are still experiencing issues contact your Internet Service provider 

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The audio isn’t working 

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When you first join a meeting you are usually given an option to Join using computer audio, make sure you select this option. If you have not selected this option you can either click the microphone icon in the bottom left hand corner of the zoom meeting screen to switch on your microphone or leave the meeting and re-join so you have the opportunity to select the option again. 

Please also check that your microphone and speakers are switched on and are not muted.  The microphone icon can be found in the bottom left hand corner of the zoom meeting, if the icon has a cross through it your microphone is muted.  To unmute simply click the microphone icon. 

To test your audio within Zoom, click on the settings button on the top right corner of the zoom application. This will open the settings menu. Select the audio tab on the left of the settings menu: 

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You can test the volume and output of your speaker device by selecting "Test Speaker". If you cannot hear, change the output source by selecting a different speaker device. 

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•  Speak at a normal level and check the Input Level meter to see if your computer is registering your voice. A green bar will raise and lower as you speak if it is working correctly. If the audio is not registering, change the input source by selecting a different microphone from the drop down list. You can also select "Test Mic" to playback your microphone input. 

•  You can select “Automatically adjust microphone settings” to adjust the microphone level based on your speech level. 

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The video isn’t working 

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Please check that your video camera is turned on by looking at the camera icon in the bottom left hand corner or top right hand corner of the zoom meeting screen.  If the icon has a line through it your camera is not switched on.  To switch on your camera simply click on the video camera icon.

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If this doesn’t work you also need to check that your camera is not being used by another application by closing all other open programs. You may need to reboot your computer. 

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You can check your video settings in the Zoom app to ensure the correct camera is selected and ensure video is not turned off. You can access this by clicking on the settings menu on the right side of the zoom app. Select the video tab on the left side of the settings menu.

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The video/audio keeps freezing or breaking up.

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This is sometimes remedied by leaving the meeting and re-joining again.  If this doesn’t work or you cannot reconnect, I will contact you by phone to discuss with you how best to proceed.  This may involve muting your microphones and continuing audio contact via your telephones on loud speaker as described above.

The Video or Audio session connection is lost and cannot be re-established during the session time.

If, despite all of our best attempts, the session cannot be resumed we will agree this via text or email and agree to reschedule.  I will support you as best I can before the next session to ensure that the same issue does not arise. 

 

Please be assured that I will never end a session before your time is up unless we specifically discuss and agree this, if our video link or phone call ends it would therefore be due to technical issues.

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Zoom Help Centre 

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Further support for using the zoom platform including video guides can be accessed on the Zoom help centre website:     https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us 

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