Re:on-line counselling and therapy

Istra,

I have used e-mail correspondence and telephone discussions only as modest supplements to face-to-face therapy. Classical Adlerian psychotherapy, as a depth therapy, requires a high degree of immediate connection and access to all of the emotional clues (eyes, posture, gestures, tone of voice, breathing patten, etc.) that go significantly beyond words. Communicating convincing empathy and understanding are difficult, perhaps impossible, in an e-mail or an online chat message. Knowing the right moment to offer interpretation, and monitoring the impact of that interpretation, cannot be adequately achieved without a visual and auditory connection. It is possible that teleconferencing (i.e, Netmeeting w/audio and video) capability may help bridge these limitation, but I have not had sufficient experience with this to venture a knowledgeable opinion.

Brief counseling, on the other hand, with more limited objectives, might be conducted effectively via the Internet. Almost sixty years ago, Anthony Bruck, who was trained by Alfred Adler, developed a number of creative Adlerian strategies that included the use of graphics and letter writing. His collected works, including a manuscript of case histories illustrating his brief counseling methods titled "Twenty Lives," will be published in the future by the Alfred Adler Institute of San Francisco.

In summary, increasing a client's courage and feeling of community are best achieved in person so that any intervention can be seen and felt, as well as understood, but one can always provide some modest degree of encouragement just with the written word.

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Re:on-line counselling and therapy, by istra, 11/02/00

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