| Online
Therapy - Is it Right for You?
By Dr.
Jeri Fink
It's the middle of the night
and you can't sleep.
No surprise. There are so many
problems racing through your mind - so many questions
- and so many concerns that there's simply no
room for sleep. Wish you could get some professional
advice? But there's not enough time in your schedule
to start psychotherapy - or there's not enough
money to pay for sessions - or, well, there are
really a lot of different reasons why it's not
the right time to make that appointment. Until
recently, there weren't many choices. See a psychotherapist,
talk to friends or family. Maybe meet with a member
of the clergy if you belonged to a church or felt
comfortable enough to really spill those feelings.
Or what so many of us do - keep it all inside.
Now there's another option.
It's called online therapy or cybertherapy --
and it makes professional counseling readily available
to all of us.
Only a few short years ago most
people never heard of online therapy. That's changed
with improved technology and people willing to
"talk" on the internet. A recent Harris
poll found that nearly one hundred million adults
searched the web for mental health information
last year. There are over fifteen thousand websites
that offer such information. The only way to get
truly customized internet mental health information
is with online therapy. Although still in its
infancy, it's been estimated that over five thousand
mental health professionals will hang their shingles
online. Some are solo, others practice with partners
or small groups. There are also mental health
e-clinics with a wide range of choices and therapists.
What exactly is online therapy?
What does writing e-mail have to do with spilling
your innermost secrets? Can you really chat away
your problems?
Mental health professionals
have been debating that question ever since the
first therapist appeared online. Basically, online
therapy helps people by directly answering questions
and offering advice. In traditional, face-to-face
therapy people try to learn more about themselves
in order to make permanent, long-term changes.
Online therapy is faster, to the point, and more
like support or counseling. In other words, somewhere
between Dear Abby and Dr. Freud.
Online therapy is conducted
in one of several ways. The most popular therapy
is through e-mail where there's a lot of time
to collect your thoughts before revealing them
to your therapist. Some people choose private
chats that occur in real time. And others, who
have more expensive technology, use real-time
video conferencing complete with web cams and
audio hookups.
Is online therapy right for
you? First you must decide what you need. If you
have serious psychological or emotional problems,
have a history of medication or mental illness,
have feelings that you want to hurt yourself or
others, you must seek face-to-face treatment right
away. Online therapy is definitely not for you.
On the other hand, if you need to solve some problems
and want input from a professional, online therapy
might work. It's for people who want to take a
closer look at their lives, think about their
relationships, and get some solid advice - not
life-altering treatment. Keep in mind that you
need to have access to computers where your privacy
is secure (not your desktop at work or the machine
you share with a roommate, friend, or prying family
members), you have to be a fairly capable typist,
and perhaps most important, you need to be truthful.
The online therapist has no other "cues"
but your words. In face-to-face treatment, therapists
use an entire vocabulary of body language, oral
cues (such as tone of voice, sighs, etc), and
visual motions (glances, "looks", etc)
to work with patients. Online, you can say anything
- and everything - you want. If you're not honest
with an online therapist, his/her solutions won't
fit the problems.
For more information check out
these web sites:
|
|
