Online Therapy

SHELLEY HOWELLS logs in to check therapy sessions and email counselling. Not only in America, it's here too.

The net is a great resource for mental health information and, many argue, cyberspace is a top location for therapy sessions.

Online therapy is a growing trend in the US (six years ago there were a handful of therapists online, now there are hundreds). Patients do their therapy via email, messaging, video chat, internet phone one-to-one meetings, or any combination of the above.

Online therapists are rather more thin on the ground in New Zealand.

Barry Kennedy, a Christchurch counsellor, did email counselling between 1997 and last year, and rates it a huge success.

"It worked well. I had consistent feedback from my clients that it worked well for them," he says.

He would offer a month's contract at a time, emailing clients twice a week in response to their messages. At any one time he had four to six clients on the go, half of them local, and the rest from overseas.

"There was a certain psychological profile of the people who used my service," he says.

"They tended to be shy and reserved people. Email therapy provided them with another option. Once they had engaged in email counselling and found that it worked for them, they were more disposed to seeking face-to-face counselling. It broke the ice for them."

He says that the main benefits of online counselling are convenience and privacy, that it is available to those who live in isolated areas and that writing down problems is a good way of processing the issues.

Disadvantages include the lack of non-verbal indications such as body language, and the risk of being ripped off.

Online therapy is definitely not suitable for people with severe mental disorders. He says he is "appalled" by some of the dodgy online counselling sites out there.

Any idiot can set up cyber shop, claiming to be a therapist.

His top tips for selecting an online therapist:

* Check that whoever runs the site makes their qualifications clearly visible and that they are verifiable.

* Choose an experienced therapist - the biography and CV should be available and verifiable.

* Use any try-before-you-buy options and read all available information on the site before signing up.

* Ensure that payment systems are secure.

* Check their code of ethics.

* Check that they belong to a reputable professional body.

Email counselling isn't as simple as it may appear. Both counsellor and client need to be good at expressing themselves in writing (if not, video or internet phone counselling would be a better web option).

"The counsellor has got to be well trained and have a lot of experience," says Kennedy.

"They have got to be literate, because email is ... very open to misunderstandings and misinterpretations. The counsellor has got to be very cautious and check with the client all the time that they have understood."

Another local online therapist is Kennedy's mate, psychotherapist Walter Logeman, who started up Psybernet, a site dedicated to "exploring the psyche in cyberspace".

But most therapists and counsellors remain traditional. Auckland psychotherapist Mary Farrell says: "The New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists' standpoint is that online therapy is a good adjunct to face-to-face therapy."

She has a client who travels on business a lot and when she is away they do some email work such as dream analysis.

"Obviously it's not an equivalent to having a session because a lot of therapy is about body language, non-verbal communication. In person you can tell what a person means even if the words don't come out right."

She believes that online therapy by itself is not a good idea.

"If a person lived in a very, very isolated area it would be better than nothing," she says. "Even then, I would want to meet with the person every couple of months or so."

Most reputable online therapy sites will point out the limitations of such therapy.

Logeman, for instance, states that his service is "not seen as a substitute for face-to-face counselling or psychotherapy".

A more detailed guide on the benefits, limitations and pitfalls of online therapy, as well as a directory of (US) online therapists, is at Metanoia.

If your budget, inclination or state of mind doesn't run to online therapy there are many free and useful online mental health resources. There is also an awful lot of tripe, so aim for the sites of reputable organisations and follow their links.

The Mental Health Foundation's site is packed with information on a variety of different conditions, and includes links, as well as book lists. Mental health net is a huge US-based resource of all things mental health.

Health E Connections aims to help users find reputable health workers, including therapeutic masseurs, psychotherapists, counsellors and art therapists.

Founder Sam Mitchell has her doubts about online therapy. "You are already dealing with someone wanting to avoid society."

But, she says, most of us could do with a little mental health help.

Psybernet

Metanoia

Mental Health Foundation

Mental Health net

Health E Connections