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Benefits of Online Psychology

 

Is Online therapy and assessment right for you? Although traditional therapy is a great option, it's not always possible. Online therapy provides a new perspective, enabling those with little time or who prefer privacy to seek professional help from home or anywhere in the world, while maintaining high clinical standards.

 

Screening:

An online mental health presence may provide beneficial wide-scale screening for persons with issues amenable to therapeutic intervention. Contact with online mental health professionals may provide an effective introduction to the mental health system for persons who may benefit from therapeutic intervention, but who may not otherwise present to the mental health system.

Treatment of Non-Clinical Problems:

The Internet may be an appropriate medium for treating persons with non-clinical problems who may nevertheless benefit from psychological consultation. Many persons with "normal-range" issues might benefit from psychological consultation but may never present to the traditional mental heath system due to the social stigma, cost, and inconvenience of seeking professional consultation. The Internet might provide such persons with a convenient and private way to seek psychological consultation related to their issues.

Unique Advantages Available to Online Communication:

The text-based medium of the Internet offers unique advantages unavailable to in-person therapy.

 

Asynchronous Communication:

The asynchronous quality of e-mail communication provides both client and therapist with the opportunity to devote greater thoughtfulness to their communication which may encourage greater clarity in their communication and more precisely targeted interventions.

 

Convenience:


Quality of e-mail communication is more convenient for both client and therapist than in-person therapy.

Depth of Disclosure:


People tend to disclose more personal information to a computer than they do with an in-person interviewer. This greater depth of

self-disclosure may lead to greater depth in the therapeutic work.

Transference:


Transference issues on the Internet may be significantly different than in face-to-face relationships and may involve transference to technology and to computers as well as interpersonal transference issues. With the development of appropriate theoretical models, this change in the transference relationship might be usefully exploited in treating clients over the Internet.

© 2013 by Raha Didevar. All rights reserved

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