Online Therapy and Online Counselling With the Privacy of Email

Secure Online Therapy: More Choice, More Options

In 2008, the CounsellingResource.com online counselling and online therapy service was spun off and expanded into a new service of four independent online practitioners working from MyTherapist.com.

MyTherapist.com is now the preferred email counselling services provider for CounsellingResource.com; a separate page details an alternative synchronous service providing counselling via live chat.

I have fully relocated my own practice to MyTherapist.com, and I have also moved the primary contact point for my online supervision services to the new site. After half a decade in private practice as an online therapist, I no longer felt able to keep up with the growing demand for online mental health services, and by 2008 it seemed the time was right to offer a bigger and better service with shorter waiting lists and more choice.

In addition to my own practice, you can also choose from services offered at MyTherapist.com by Fadeela Kirsten, Sarah Luczaj, and Louise Young.

The new site operates under the same ownership structure as CounsellingResource.com and offers the same high standards of security, confidentiality, and open and honest service to which the users of online therapy at CounsellingResource.com have become accustomed. The only difference is that at the new site, you’ll have a choice of four different practitioners, all of whom are working independently and are able to offer their own particular approach (including fees, terms of service, etc.) to meet your needs. I hope you’ll find someone you’d like to work with at MyTherapist.com!

Additional Information About Online Therapy: Advantages and Disadvantages, Suitability, Encryption and Security, and How to Get the Most from Email Communication

While the online service itself has moved to MyTherapist.com, we’ve retained several articles of background information about online therapy, which we believe will be useful to people working with any online therapist, whether via MyTherapist.com or any other service. These include:

Advantages of Online Therapy

Working online provides counselling and therapy clients with several advantages in terms of choice of counsellors and ‘meeting’ arrangements. It also eliminates many of the overheads which clients normally have to pay for, as well as the investment of time necessary to get to a physical office. It can offer new levels of security and privacy, in addition to providing special advantages for the therapeutic process itself.

Disadvantages of Online Therapy

Communicating online introduces particular challenges for creating and sutaining a working relationship — and relying on computers as a communications medium can bring technology into the foreground of the counselling process as an unwelcome participant.

Assessing the Suitability of Online Therapy

In addition to the many Advantages of Counselling by Email and the Disadvantages of Counselling by Email, a few specific questions are worth pondering before deciding to try out online therapy or counselling services. There are no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answers to any of these questions, but reflecting on them may influence how appropriate you feel online therapy or counselling by email would be for you.

Encryption and Security in Online Therapy Practice

Because security, privacy and confidentiality are central to the counselling process, this section specifically addresses encryption and security in the context of online counselling.

About Secure Web Forms

You’ve probably been told to check for a locked padlock icon in the corner of your browser window — and an ‘https:’ in your address bar — to be sure a web page is secure, right? Well, unfortunately, the received wisdom about providing your personal details on a ‘secure web form’ is just plain wrong…

Hints, Tips and Caveats for Getting the Most from Email Communication

These simple suggestions can help make all kinds of email communication more effective. In the case of counselling by email, they may help make your experience more productive and enjoyable.