Online Therapy-Is it for everyone?

Online Therapy BSHS/352 Technology in Human Services

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Online Therapy-Is it for everyone?

There are many reasons people visit therapist, issues ranging from eating disorders, anger problems, relationship issues to psychosis. The levels of therapy that are available may vary and the way in which the therapy is received also varies depending on the given situation. E-therapy, e-counseling, cyber-counseling and tele-therapy are all the same thing, they are all forms of online therapy. Online therapy can be used via e-mail, video conferencing, online chat forums, phone, even texting has become popular because of new technological advances. The type e-therapy that will be used with each client is decided on a case to case basis. There are a number of websites that offer e-therapy from websites that offer many therapist and specialties s to private sites that are just one therapist and specialty. One must however be wary of those sites that are posing as legitimate therapist sites and those that are real sites that are completely working to heal those with serious issues. In order to fully understand the sites, there must be research done on different sites to know what each site offers, knowing the differences can make all the difference is someone’s life. Breakthrough.com is an online based counseling and therapy website that offers different forms of therapy and many therapists to select from. Breakthrough’s tag line is “getting mental healthcare can be hard, breakthrough makes it easy.” ("Breakthrough.com", 2009-2015). This tag line really puts e-counseling in perspective, Breakthrough does just as it states it makes it easy for anyone to obtain mental health services without having to go through a line of doctors in order to obtain a referral. According to "Breakthrough.com" (2009-2015), “A University of Zurich study showed that, 57 percent of online patients showed no signs of depression compared to 42 percent with conventional therapy.”— Journal of Affective Disorders, 2013. (Is 2|Page

Online Therapy-Is it for everyone? breakthrough effective?). This study was conducted during a 3 month span. By posting this on their site Breakthrough might ease some of the hesitation some people may experience when being new to e-therapy. This site even offers a full list of insurance plans that are accepted for their therapist, which is completely beneficial to a potential client. Unlike Breakthrough that has a very detailed list of therapist and has a very detailed website that states all there services and credentials, BlahTherapy.Com is the complete opposite. Blah Therapy offers three different types of services, Therapists, Strangers and Our Community. The therapist’s service is a pay as you go plan, which puts you in contact with a real therapist that could offer advice and guidance for depression, health, mental illness, relationships and more. The stranger’s service offers an anonymous service so that you may speak to a non-professional and vent about your issues. The community services is created like a chat room of sorts, you can create groups based on the type of issue that wants to be discussed, and this type of service is not professional run. This website seems to be more commercialized and does not appear to be very legitimate as you have to sign up and pay before you can see a list of their therapist. Upon doing more research on online therapy I found that there are so many different options when it comes to the types of services that are offered online. 7CupsofTea.com is a website that offers group support and a large list of self-help guides. This type of online therapy is completely based on volunteers that sign up to be listeners. There is not too much criteria that is necessary to be a listener, you don’t even need an education. You just have to sign up on the site. Through this site you have the option to 3|Page

Online Therapy-Is it for everyone?

have someone listen to you immediately or you can browse through a list of listeners that share the same background, who might be affiliated with a certain organization or someone that you feel comfortable with, whether it be based on age or sex. The stand out feature on this site is the self-help guides. It seems that a number of individuals might just be looking for information on a certain subject and this may be beneficial as all they may need is a good read about what they may be able to do on their own. Although online therapy is very convenient to possible clients it can pose a legal and ethical threat to both the client and the therapist. There are many established rules that go along with being a therapist; first and foremost, the therapist should receive informed consent from all of their e-clients. The informed consent protects both the therapist and the client as it is as legal practice that ensures that client knows all of the risks and costs involved in a therapy session. There are many elements to informed consent including, informing the client of the nature of the treatment, it list possible alternative treatments and most importantly it list the potential risks and benefits of the treatment. One of the biggest risks that are involved with the e-therapy is “duty to warn.” Duty to warn refers to the duty of a therapist to inform third parties or authorities if a client poses a threat to himself or herself or to another identifiable individual. ("About Education", 2015). This poses a major threat to the therapist because the person on the other end might be falsely using another person’s information or might have used a different name in order to remain anonymous. Without having knowledge of the correct information a therapist has his/her hands tied if this person is posing a risk to themselves or others, for these type of cases, in person therapy would be more beneficial. 4|Page

Online Therapy-Is it for everyone?

In conclusion, I would have to say that any form of therapy is better than no therapy. Although, online therapy does not appear to be the best therapy for all, it can prove to be very beneficial to those in need of basic services. As previously mentioned research has shown that its can be far more efficient than person to person therapy. It can also prove to be beneficial to those that live in rural communities that don’t have access to a full list of therapist in their area. There appears to be a lot of websites that make themselves out to be online therapist, but many of these have normal people be “listeners” so that someone with issues can vent, this can be very troublesome as a nonprofessional can offer advise that may be detrimental to a troubled individual. It may take a lot of research to find the perfect therapist or “listener,” however, a little time can go a long way in the interest of healing.

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Online Therapy-Is it for everyone?

Works Cited Breakthrough.com. (2009-2015). Retrieved from https://www.breakthrough.com/why/effectiveness About Education. (2015). Retrieved from http://psychology.about.com/od/guidetoonlinepsychology/a/etherapyethics.htm

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