Counselling, Psychotherapy and Mental Health Resources on the Web, Page 2
This mixed list includes just a few of the myriad counselling and psychotherapy resources available online which may be useful to clients, practitioners or researchers. Unlike some large directories that use automated systems to enable webmasters to submit their sites — which we’re then told will be ‘professionally reviewed’ (uh huh) — every site in our list has been personally visited and evaluated. What you read about a site is not what the site owner submitted on a form or a reciprocal link request: it’s my own personal assessment of the site.
Government Organizations
Sites listed here are specifically state-run and may address mental health in particular or provide broader information about general health, including mental health.
- HealthInsite – Australian government general health site.
- MEDLINEplus – Online access to information from the world’s largest health library, the US National Library of Medicine.
- National Institute of Mental Health – Comprehensive US government site covering a wide range of mental health issues.
- NHS Direct – UK government general health site.
Journals
- Journal of Medical Internet Research – Covering health broadly, this journal has published several articles on mental health and the internet.
- Journal of Online Behavior – Especially relevant for those interested in online service provision.
- The New Social Worker Online – This print publication’s website is especially notable for its lengthy list of links to other resources, including many in the mental health arena.
- Psychotherapy in Australia – Rather than just an advertising mechanism for the print publication, this journal’s website is actually useful, with a guide to training resources in Australia, professional events and other web links.
Professional Organizations
Professional organizations, usually open only to members who have attained particular academic or practical qualifications, typically operate under a binding ethical framework and have a complaints procedure or disciplinary procedure which incorporates due process.
- American Psychiatric Association
- American Psychological Association
- British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
- European Association for Psychotherapy
- National Board for Certified Counselors – This organization’s ethical guidelines on ‘The Practice of Internet Counseling‘ are among the best thought-out of those presently available.
- UK Council for Psychotherapy
Non-Professional Organizations and Special Interest Groups
Non-professional organizations and special interest groups (SIGs) typically have open membership policies and no binding ethical framework, and they may lack any type of complaints procedure or disciplinary procedure which incorporates due process. It may sometimes happen that members of such organizations try to pass them off as something they are not — perhaps to lend credibility to themselves, or perhaps just because they don’t understand what a professional organization actually is. Therefore I recommend caution and a degree of skepticism when folks throw around that term ‘professional organization’.
- American Telemedicine Association – This organization works broadly to promote access to medical care (not just in the area of mental health) for consumers and health professionals via telecommunications technology. Around 20 percent of members are physicians, 11 percent nurses; around 10 percent have PhDs.
- International Society for Mental Health Online – This small special interest group includes students, practitioners, online marketers, and interested members of the public. Relatively few mental health professionals with actual online clinical experience have ever associated themselves with the group. Note the recent serious ethics problems at this organization, exacerbated by the board’s ‘closed door’ policy and the lack of any system of due process. Regrettably, senior members of the organization frequently attempt to pass it off as ‘professional’, which arguably only damages its tarnished reputation even further.
Psychiatry, Medicine, Psychopharmacology
The separate Medications Centre includes Psychopharmacology News as well as information on many of the drugs most commonly prescribed for mental health reasons.
Forensic Psychiatry
- Psychiatry & The Law – Includes case notes and information on the history of forensic psychiatry.
- General and Forensic Psychiatry – This site for Pogos H. Voskanian’s private practice also includes an extensive set of links to other web resources.
General
- BNF.org – Online version of the British National Formulary: indispensable in book form and useful in electronic form. Unfortunately, as of January 2003, faulty scripting meant that not all functionality was available to Macintosh users.
- Center for Drug Evaluation and Research – This FDA site includes an extensive section for consumer drug information.
- DSM – Several people seem to have gone to the trouble of either manually typing in large tracts from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or copying them from someone else who has already done so. This material is copyrighted by the American Psychiatric Association and to my knowledge has not been authorised by the APA for free electronic distribution. Nonetheless, searching on Google for “DSM-IV” or “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual” will turn up many partial copies. This site includes short extracts, fully cited, from the DSM, in the section “Mental Disorders and Symptoms Guide”.
- MedLibrary.org – Another medication information database, covering a broad range of medicines (i.e., not focusing specifically on medications used in mental health).
- Pharmacy Medicine Information Web Site – Includes a superset of the information in ‘Your Medicines-Any Questions?’, one of the most accessible books on psychiatric medication available.
- PsychopharmINFO.com – Current news and research in psychopharmacology.
- Royal College of Psychiatrists – Site includes information on a wide range of mental health issues.
Publishers (Commercial Sites)
This section is very incomplete! (Although many commercial sites are very useful, linking to them isn’t a primary focus of CounsellingResource.com.)
- Blackwell
- BPS Blackwell – New Blackwell imprint with the British Psychological Society.
- Routledge
- Routledge Counselling and Psychotherapy – Dedicated Routledge counselling and psychotherapy section.
- Routledge Mental Health – Dedicated Routledge mental health section.
- Sage – A leading publisher of counselling-related books.
Religious Movements (Background)
General
- The True Light – Set up by an individual named Mike Shreve, these pages cover 11 different religions. I cannot comment on the overall quality because I haven’t examined the site in any depth, but a cursory look at some sections suggests there is worthwhile material here.
- University of Virginia Religious Movements Homepage – This is the best electronic source of information on world religions and movements I have encountered.
Meher Baba
No other figureheads of religious cults or sects are included here, but I’ve listed a few Meher Baba sites because some colleagues in the UK feel Meher Baba provides a useful spiritual context for counselling.
- Avatar Meher Baba – Large site with good links to others.
- Meher Baba Association, UK – Comprehensive UK site.
- MeherBaba.com – Another general Meher Baba site.
- Sheriar Foundation – Nonprofit organisation dedicated to Meher Baba.
- Trust Meher – This one is a little garish.
- University of Virginia Religious Movements entry on Meher Baba – Useful entry from a top religious movements library.
Research
Also see the section on Evidence Based Care, which includes several sites covering research results.
- Network for Research on Experiential Psychotherapies – Covers a wide range of experiential approaches.
