Can Online Therapists Learn From Research on Trust in Online Communication?

My own online clients have sometimes commented on the development of trust within our counselling relationship as that relationship develops from the initial contact through to much more in-depth work together. Initially, some clients have described themselves as essentially throwing caution to the wind, discussing personal information and just ‘hoping for the best’; later on in the relationship, though, clients then describe developing a much deeper trust, one that is informed by their actual experience of the therapeutic process, as distinct from their initial hopes of how it might all work. This later phase of trust is well-characterized as trust in a specific individual person, as distinct from ‘blind’ trust in someone largely as yet unknown to the client.

Scholarly work and research on the general topic of trust in online therapeutic work doesn’t seem to have moved on much from the oft-cited ‘online disinhibition effect’, a phrase coined a decade ago and mentioned in seemingly every publication on the topic of online therapy. (The online disinhibition effect is essentially that initial phase of disclosure I described above.) With so little that is new being written about the topic — beyond the very basics — in the field of online mental health, I was interested to read of research recently published in the journel of the IEEE that addresses the topic of building trust between teachers and students in online courses.

From a press release from the New Jersey Institute of Technology:

“While our study focused on trust formation among teachers and students in online courses”, said Nancy Coppola, PhD, associate professor, in the humanities department at NJIT, “our results are applicable for any group or team that interacts online. For example, we think our results could be applied to emergency response teams, which although it may be temporary, uses computer-mediated communication”.

The press release goes on:

The most effective on-line teachers establish communication early and quickly. “Team members must perceive the instructor’s presence as soon as they enter the course”, said Hiltz. “Instructors do this by providing students with clear course introductory information and personal introductions that set the climate for warmth and responsiveness. By ’swiftly’ replying to each student’s initial comments, and modeling constructive responses, the most effective professors provide students with a sense that there really is a professor at the other end of the communication link and reinforce responsive behavior in students”.

Although the therapeutic process differs greatly from the types of student-teacher interactions which are the focus of this study, nonetheless there is much here that is broadly applicable to all kinds of online communications, online therapy included. (At least, I think teaching makes a pretty primitive metaphor for counselling and therapy, but I recognize that many might find it attractive.)

The article goes on to discuss overcoming the potential coldness of the electronic medium, providing predictable patterns in communication and action, offering regular responses and feedback, and more.