Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Therapy Websites

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Dear Student,
Hello & thank you for using Brainmass. May I advise, if you are looking for more online therapy sites to check the affiliates of the listed sites below. Good luck.

Sincerely,
OTA 105878/Xenia Jones
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Online E-therapy Practices

1. http://www.etherapistsonline.com/

This online therapy group describes itself as an innovation in counselling. Private online chats via their web gateway, email and phone sessions are utilised to get in touch with clients using the web. Essentially, the group acts as an online agency with their own in-house specialists. Maintaining the web interface for marketing and sales and connecting clients to a specialist after screening. They encourage therapists savvy in IT to join their network to create a national network of therapist and answer the geographic challenges should a need to 'see' the client regularly face-to-face arise. They maintain another website, Find-a-therapist Inc. linked to the therapists' site indicated. They also maintain specialist sites for specific counselling issues which are then linked to the main site which allows the client to contact them directly for access to therapists. A step-by-step how to book sessions is presented. If not for the pages being linked to sister sites, the lay-out is simple and navigable enough. Their welcome-page reads:

"Online counselling or eTherapy is a new way to 'see' a therapist. Use of the Internet allows us to make available therapists chosen from a large pool of expert licensed clinicians from various locations throughout the US. Online counseling means that someone is always there when you need to talk. We offer three types of sessions with licensed professionals."

Ethically, the issue in question here points to confidentiality. The client on first contact sends an email to an agency, that, while has an in-house therapist seems to be all over the place fishing for specific clients. While they assure clients of good counselors, they advertise at the same time for 'online counsellors' to join their network making one question the process of their selection. Since this is not shared to clients, it is difficult to validate the ...