What is the case FOR online counselling ?

There are lots of reasons in it's favour, such as for people in remote areas who have no access to a professional counsellor, people who find it difficult or even impossible to leave their homes due to disability, illness, phobia or lack of childcare.  People who have impaired hearing or find difficulty with other people understanding their speech can for the first time have access to a counsellor who cannot sign.  People lead busy lives, and working this way means no travelling time or expense, and in the case of e-mails work, no need to even make an appointment, let alone be there in person.  Anonymity is both preserved and enhanced. There is no possibility of being physically abused or attacked, for either party.  Also because you can record large chunks of online meetings on your own computer, you can re-visit each session time and time again and get more from it, like re-reading a good book.  Counsellors have to be on form too, because everything they communicate can be recorded. The important practice of supervision is also eased for the same reason.

Even people who come along in person can have further means of making contact between sessions or to get something prepared for the next session or simply get something off their chest.  Again, because people can communicate just when they want to without an appointment, things can be said whilst the ideas are fresh in the mind.  Documents can be sent, worked on and exchanged and shared simultaneously, even drawings and diagrams on a whiteboard can be exchanged.

The first approach that people make for therapeutic help is often fraught with anxiety about the meeting itself, as well as the reasons for the meeting.  Although these anxieties are common among those who physically attend, there are still likely to be those who never attend at all, and the counselling profession has a duty to make its services as available and as easy to access as possible.

It is useful to understand that there is a hierarchy of difficulty within different means of communication, especially when it comes to emotional subjects.  Counsellors have a duty to assist communication and the internet offers the least threatening route of emotional communication of all, short of putting an unsigned message in a bottle.  The hierarchy of difficulty is easiest by letter, fax or e-mail, then live-type chat, online audio or traditional telephone call, video-conference and then face to face meeting.  The level of each meeting can be determined by the client rather than the counsellor.

I think an early intervention is better than a late one and in face to face work people often leave things very late, but the internet lends itself too early, and this way of taking the stress out of the whole thing is a good idea.  Sharing a problem with anyone in any way helps, but couple this with therapeutic skills and it can be even more beneficial.

What are the limitations of online counselling?

Though much of the case for online therapy could be described as the limitations of face to face work, it is still true to say that online work has it's limitations for some things.

Therapy is a lot about communication and although most people think they communicate the most in language that is in fact untrue.  Most human communication takes place through sight, sound, touch, and to some degree taste and smell.  Much of this is denied to people online.  Human communication can be so subtle and detailed that it is transmitted and received unconsciously through inflection and other voice characteristics and complex body language.  A screen cannot make up for this loss.

As the hierarchy of difficulty (described above) is climbed, communication increases in effectiveness.  In this light it would be less than ideal to put a computer in front of a person who (for example) had just experienced a major trauma or was contemplating suicide, but again, better a computer than nothing at all.

A computer cannot shake your hand and a tear might not be seen and the subtle gestures that differentiate a joke from something serious may be lost in typed communication.

There are lots of benefits, but for some people in some situations, electronic communication may not be the first choice or the best choice, but it does offer a choice, which is better than no choice at all.

It may be that for some, electronic work is only a stepping stone to something more appropriate, but many will get by with it really well.

ALL types of communication have both uses and limitations.

If you are unsure of whether online counselling is for you, please bear in mind that you can write to me at the address on the 'Contact me' page or click here and it will take you directly there.  I will arrange a postal reply.  The reply can be sent to an address specified by you. It does not have to go to your home address and it will be marked 'Confidential'.