March 2010 - On-Line Therapy: What are the Real Issues?

The CNN report gives us initial hope that there is a place in the future for online therapy. Unfortunatley the article raised more questions than it answered. Would the results be the same if the trial included some other form of therapeutic intervention other than cognitive behavioral. For instance would on-line treatment work effectively with psychoanalysis. Is there advantages to using this medium before it is approved in areas where there is a shortage of available therapists? Could on-line therapy be expanded to supervision for unlicensed workers needing to do interventions with child protective service and supervision to rural community mental health systems. I think another important question top ask is, "what are the criteria needed to confirm on-line therapy as a suitable tool for licensed mental health professionals today"? I believe clarifying this is an important step to validating on-line treatment. Perhaps allowing on-line treatment in rural communities in conjuction with community mental health systems might give us the chance to further study this promising new opportunity.

On-line therapy is coming to us as an acceptable form of service delivery at some point in the future. We would serve ourselves and our clients well to assist in it's formation!

This article covers the waterfront for online therapy, with its references to ELIZA, the computer program which simulates a therapist's response, Skype-type therapy,i.e., real time audio/video therapy, and instant messaging therapy.  Perhaps depressed patients who have the ego-strength to take a positive therapeutic connection with a therapist for granted could benefit from these therapies more than patients who have underlying trust problems and/or anaclytic depression.   Finally, it seems that the study cited would be more 'apples to apples' if the control group were patients who saw a therapist in person.