‘Online Mental Health’ at Psychology, Philosophy and Real Life, Page 10

Sudden changes in direction and mental focus caused by handling large volumes of emails can have a greater negative impact on IQ than taking canabis, according to a psychiatrist at London University.

The first part of this article explored the trickiness of quantifying how much online therapy really goes on. It turns out that when it comes to online therapy, figures like years of experience or numbers of clients worked with are — without significant further information — meaningless at best and deeply misleading at worst. This second part offers a suggestion for how online therapists can report their experience more openly, honestly and transparently.

Some of the ‘old timers’ of online therapy will tell you how many years they’ve been at it, while others will tell you how many ‘clients’ they’ve had. But ask a few questions about how much actual online therapy these practitioners have done during all those years or with all those clients, and many online therapists don’t seem to want to talk about it.

A recent AP report on the benefits of taking a break from technology makes me reflect on the pace of my own current work, as well as on the pressures of the business environment, in which some senior managers try to stay plugged in 365 days of the year.

Thanks to a case about wine shipments now before the US Supreme Court, law concerning the regulation of interstate commerce could change significantly, with potentially broad consequences for e-commerce, online psychotherapy and online mental health services in general.