Life is a therapist...

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 differenc...

In my Internet travels this afternoon, I discovered this very interesting and thought-provoking article originally published in the Washington Post. I have decided to register for a certification training course in "Cybercounselling" -- that is, the online delivery of psychological services -- which I plan to post more about as soon as I find a few extra spare minutes in my day, but in the mean time I thought I would post this article for your perusal.  Google and Facebook raise new issues for therapists and their clients   By Dana Scarton Special to The Washington Post Tuesday, March 30, 2010; HE01  Link to original: Click Here   As his patient lay unconscious in an emergency room from an overdose of sedatives, psychiatrist Damir Huremovic was faced with a moral dilemma: A friend of the patient had forwarded to Huremovic a suicidal e-mail from the patient that included a link to a Web site and blog he wrote. Should Huremovic go online and check it out,...