E-Counseling: A Waste of Money or Wise Choice?
E-therapy, cyber-counseling, virtual counseling and online therapy are all terms for internet counseling. E-mail exchanges are utilized in this therapeutic modality to help empower people’s lives. While telephone sessions may play a role in the process, the internet provides the primary infrastructure to support a client - therapist relationship which fosters growth and can dramatically increase the client’s quality of life.
Pros: Therapists often notice that clients feel safer during online therapy than in an office setting. This has a liberating effect, allowing many people to dive in faster to both the roots of and the resolution to their problems.
There is a natural time delay during e-mail exchanges, allowing space for reflection on all that has been written. Counter-intuitively, the time delay can speed up the therapeutic process by assisting clients in sorting out feelings, beliefs and thoughts.
E-counseling is convenient. People can set their own pace. They can write from the comfort of their own home, and can send messages at any time of the day or night. In addition, clients can write as often as they like, knowing that everything will be read, and that they will typically receive a reply within 24 hours.
E-therapy makes counseling accessible. Whether somebody has an emotional or physical handicap that interferes with travelling or someone can’t find day care for their baby, online counseling provides a therapeutic framework right from home.
Since online counseling consists of a series of email exchanges, the client and counselor both have permanent records of their “sessions.” These saved records give both counselor and client an opportunity to review and evaluate their work together.
Virtual counseling costs less than seeing a therapist or coach face-to-face. Clients are only charged for the time a counselor actually spends reading their emails, composing replies, or speaking with them on the phone. All transportation costs are also eliminated.
Cons: E-counselors can’t see their client’s body movements (facial expressions, twitches, etc.) that would normally prove useful in understanding what a client feels. This can lead to misunderstandings, and can make online counseling more difficult than face-to-face counseling for the therapist.
Clients need to be able to put their thoughts and feelings into writing, and write about themselves in a fairly articulate way.
Online work is inappropriate for some clients, including people who are currently in crisis or feel suicidal, people with serious emotional problems; people under the age of 18.
Online therapists cannot yet provide their clients with a formal diagnosis.
Online counseling has only been done for a few years. It is truly pioneering work, and a bit experimental in nature.
Technology certainly supports this flexible therapeutic modality, allowing cyber-counseling to be a creative tool to provide convenient, affordable, competent therapy. E-therapy should not to be avoided simply because it veers from the traditional mold any more than it should be embraced because of its novelty. The quality of a therapist’s training and experience, as well as the goodness of fit between counselor and client are ultimately more important than the setting in which the therapy takes place. Perhaps you will find virtual therapy worth exploring to see if it is right for you.
