Text-based Counselling
I recently completed the first of three modules in a course on text-based counselling, or "cybercounselling". I'm interested in learning more about this fascinating method of service delivery so that I can eventually expand my own practice and reach out to a wider population of clients.
I had a lot of questions about e-counselling before I started the course (and still have many now!). Murphy and Mitchell (1998) address many of them in their article, "When writing helps to heal: E-mail as therapy".
According to these authors, one of the primary concerns with online counselling is the question of whether a strong therapeutic alliance can be established. They posit that "a growing relaxation, informality, receptivity and trust" (p. 22) are among the primary components of a therapeutic alliance. They cite previous research suggesting that the actual method of communication has minimal effect on the strength of relationships formed, that any differences would be likely to diminish over time, and that online group therapy may be more 'in-depth' (compared to face-to-face group therapy) as a result of fewer emotional distractions, greater trust, and greater propensity to disclose.
Finally, Murphy and Mitchell outline the many potential benefits in the provision of counselling services online. They include:
I'm interested in what you have to say!
How do you feel about the expansion of counselling and therapy services to an online environment?
If you already incorporate e-counselling into your work, what have your experiences been like? Do you find it more or less challenging than face-to-face work?
What other thoughts come to mind when you think about online counselling (either as client or counsellor)?
Are there other benefits or challenges you can think of might be relevant to this method of service delivery, that aren't addressed in Murphy and Mitchell's article?
Reference
Murphy, L.J. & Mitchell, D.L. (1998). When writing helps to heal: E-mail as therapy. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 26:1,21-32.
I had a lot of questions about e-counselling before I started the course (and still have many now!). Murphy and Mitchell (1998) address many of them in their article, "When writing helps to heal: E-mail as therapy".
According to these authors, one of the primary concerns with online counselling is the question of whether a strong therapeutic alliance can be established. They posit that "a growing relaxation, informality, receptivity and trust" (p. 22) are among the primary components of a therapeutic alliance. They cite previous research suggesting that the actual method of communication has minimal effect on the strength of relationships formed, that any differences would be likely to diminish over time, and that online group therapy may be more 'in-depth' (compared to face-to-face group therapy) as a result of fewer emotional distractions, greater trust, and greater propensity to disclose.
With regard to the lack of non-verbal cues that exist in a text-only counselling environment, techniques such as "emotional bracketing" and "descriptive immediacy" have been developed to allow clients to more accurately gauge emotion, tone, and context within therapeutic e-mail messages. The authors go on to suggest that literary techniques such as "simile, metaphor, story-telling, and poetry, to name just a few" (p. 24) might also aid in providing non-verbal information.
Finally, Murphy and Mitchell outline the many potential benefits in the provision of counselling services online. They include:
- greater accessibility of services to those in rural or remote communities;
- a permanent, verbatim record of what occurred during therapy;
- the ability of 'sessions' to be read and re-read several times;
- asynchronicity of 'sessions', allowing more opportunities for supervision and case consultation;
- externalisation of problems;
- the recursive nature of writing (the authors suggest this will "lead clients to try to make sense of themselves and their [stories] in a way that is not demanded of them in face-to-face therapy. They will see contradictions without the need for a therapist's observation and intervention. We suspect that this will save clients both time and money" (p. 28));
- the tendency for online communication to 'level' power imbalances (perhaps due to factors such as anonymity?) that may result in those who ordinarily would not seek the services of a mental health professional to engage in the therapeutic process; and
- ability of clients to respond "in the moment" vs. reconstructing them after the fact in a face-to-face session (this also has the effect of allowing clients to take immediate action as problems arise).
I'm interested in what you have to say!
How do you feel about the expansion of counselling and therapy services to an online environment?
If you already incorporate e-counselling into your work, what have your experiences been like? Do you find it more or less challenging than face-to-face work?
What other thoughts come to mind when you think about online counselling (either as client or counsellor)?
Are there other benefits or challenges you can think of might be relevant to this method of service delivery, that aren't addressed in Murphy and Mitchell's article?
Reference
Murphy, L.J. & Mitchell, D.L. (1998). When writing helps to heal: E-mail as therapy. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 26:1,21-32.
Comments
Post a Comment