 Other Aspects
Who is right for online counseling?
Not all clients are suitable for online counseling. Specifically, professionals are advised to avoid working with clients who are likely to become suicidal and require a face-to-face crisis intervention. Clients with thought disorders or who otherwise have difficulty with abstract thought are unlikely to be good candidates for this work. Although it is not necessary to rule out other populations, like couples and individuals with personality disorders, these cases will require special care to avoid the pitfalls of online counseling and feeding into existing pathology (e.g., using the medium for splitting or manipulation).
How it works?
Studies "proving" the efficacy of online counseling are a major sticking point for state boards and individuals who are withholding their support of online counseling and psychotherapy.
In brief, the empirical evidence on cyber-counseling is scant, but there is no convincing evidence to suggest that online work would be any less effective than other modalities, generally speaking. Unfortunately, many people get stymied by the question of equivalence in treatment outcomes and forget that the most important question is whether consumers find it helpful in improving their well- being, reducing symptoms, or promoting insight.
Research is currently being conducted to examine these questions, and studies are presented annually at APA and other conferences. With time, there will be a comprehensive body of research literature on the process and outcome of online psychotherapy. For now, there can be many positive anecdotal clinical case reports as well as the extensive body of literature on distance-based learning that shows a robust result of "no significant difference" in material that is taught online and by correspondence compared to in-vivo teaching.tp://www.freewebs.com/second-chance-/
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