Who Is Most Suitable For The Instant Messenger Based Online Therapy Session?

By Author: Arnold Bucky
Total Articles: 3
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The instant messenger or real time chat based session in online therapy is a highly useful and effective therapeutic style. This format gives the client the greatest level of anonymity and often times clients find themselves becoming comfortable quite quickly with their online counselor. Clients will be very forthcoming with deeply held personal thoughts, feelings, and beliefs while behind the veil of the IM screen. The working relationship in this form of online therapy, if successful, is engaged rapidly and the presenting problems the client is dealing with are presented to the online therapist very soon into the initial session. The chat based format also has a tremendous advantage to both parties as most IM type software logs everything that is typed in the conversation between both the client and online therapist. This presents itself as a great resource when needed to backtrack and reflect upon further previously discussed issues or for the online therapist to highlight contradictions in the clients thought processes as well as irrational statements and beliefs.

This eliminates the need for the online counselor ...
... to delegate any focus on taking progress notes as the entire dialogue is there for review. Both parties do not need to rely so much on memory either with this resource at hand. The time lapse in between messages also allows for greater reflection on the part of both people to express a more well thought out dialogue. Yet, this format is not without limitation as this very time lapse can present a problem in the online therapeutic process. One of the standards in counseling is the time limit boundary that is set in each session. Online counseling sessions usually last an hour and it is important that both client and online counselor adhere to this boundary to maintain the professional nature of the relationship. With that in mind, the time that it takes to type and send each instant message is longer than in the time it takes to have a normal vocal exchange. Couple this with the greater potential for misinterpretation on the account of both parties and more time is going to be spent discussing the issues than in traditional therapy. So, the process takes longer and more sessions will be required to attain resolution and the client must pay for it.

So, for the person considering this model of online counseling it is important to recognize their own ability to express themselves in typed word. Is this person able to articulate their thoughts clearly and concisely? Can they do so at a proper rate of time so that the individual session is not spent in its entirety waiting in between each message sent? Furthermore, a person must determine if they are more comfortable expressing themselves vocally/visually or under the anonymous format of the chat session. If one is more comfortable or prefers speaking in person, than perhaps a video session is more suitable.

Even though the therapeutic process usually takes longer with the IM session it can still be a very beneficial form of online therapy. For those working with an online counselor whose internet connection is not sufficient for video transfer, or who cannot make international/long distance phone calls, the IM session is the best alternative. A dial-up connection is all that is needed to conduct the session(s) and the IM based software (Skype, MSN Messenger, Google Chat, etc) are all free and the fees that online therapists charge for these sessions are usually very low which means ones finances do not have to suffer just because the therapeutic process takes longer.

Robert Morse, M.A. is the sole operator of the e-therapy service website http://rmetherapy.com. He can be contacted by email at contact@rmetherapy.com or by telephone at (800) 313-1169.

Sophisticated E-therapy website offering online counseling, internet therapy.For more details about Online Counselor and Online Therapist please visit our website.