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Online therapy, email therapy, virtual therapy, cyber-counseling, e-therapy: they all refer to therapy or counseling using the internet, most often by email. Online counseling is a powerful tool for helping people to gain insight and resolve the problems that interfere with the quality of their lives.
Therapists typically use email exchanges in online counseling work, and may supplement them with phone sessions (if necessary or requested) at appropriate points in the process.
Pros:
- Online counseling has a liberating effect. People feel safer, and can write about their thoughts, feelings and issues freely. This often allows them to get to the root of problems more quickly than in traditional face-to-face therapy.
- The exchange of emails gives you time to reflect on what you’ve written, and what the therapist has said in reply. This inherent time delay can be of great benefit in working through thoughts, feelings, decisions and beliefs.
- E-counseling is convenient. You can set your own pace. You can write from the comfort of your own home, and you can send messages at any time of the day or night. In addition, you can write as often as you like, knowing that everything you send will be read, and that you will typically receive a reply within 24 hours. You are free to do whatever feels helpful and comforting to you. You can even send drawings or photos, or arrange a telephone session.
- Getting you and your baby out of the house to a face-to-face counseling session can be daunting. Even if you live where there are no professional counselors, an online counselor can be available to help you right away.
- 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. This is because you are only charged for the time a counselor actually spends reading your emails, composing replies to you, or speaking with you on the phone.
Cons:
In online therapy or phone sessions, therapists cannot watch your facial expressions and other behavior to better understand what you are feeling. Because of this, online counseling is NOT easy for the therapist, despite the fact that it costs the client far less than traditional therapy.
- You need to be able to put your thoughts and feelings into writing, and write about yourself in a fairly articulate way.
- Misunderstandings are possible.
- 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, and people who are not able or willing to put their feelings into writing.
- Unlike traditional psychotherapy, online counseling cannot provide formal diagnosis and treatment.
- 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. I invite you to look further into the online counseling resources we offer at www.Mommy-Muse.com .
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