I was home, depressed with the flu New Year's Eve 1998--and did what many other unfortunates did that holiday: I signed onto an AOL chatroom in search of some therapeutic banter on the crucial inanities of life.
But what I found was "Dr. Michael"--a credentialed therapist. And he wasn't asking me my opinion on the Grammys.
"How are you really feeling?" he asked.
That was a little more than I was looking for, but, the truth is, I had toyed with the idea of counseling for over a year but had never made room for it in my schedule or budget. Over the next hour, in private Instant Messages, I shared with the Florida-based psychologist the intricacies of my recent break-up with my boyfriend of four years. When we signed off, he said, "Talk to you tomorrow?" (There was no mention of money.)
Dr. Michael, 43, sent me his resume, and I called his offices in Florida to verify his identity. He passed the test. We ended up chatting about my gripes and goals one evening a week for the next year--for free. At the time, his wife was ill and nearly unconscious. The two were homebound, and he had become lonely and depressed. "Giving therapy online is more gratifying than short-lived Internet frolicking," he told me. "Anyway, I went into therapy because I like to help people."
Many therapists have flocked to the Web for a whole slew of reasons, resulting in 200 "online therapy" and online counseling sites offering access to about 350 online counselors. Since 1995, psychologists of varying stripes and credentials have offered everything from "Answers to three questions for free" to "submit a question about sexuality for $75" to private chatroom meetings for $40 an hour, to three months of unlimited e-mail therapy for $300. In addition, there are thousands of support groups, moderated by some type of therapist, organized around every conceivable need, ranging from depression to infidelity and trauma. Most online therapists also maintain conventional, face-to-face practices.
A growing number of people are depending on Web for emotional support, advice and counseling for bargain basement prices, right from their living room, during any of the 24 hours in a day. And the need is dire, says veteran online counselor David Sommers, Ph.D. Online counselors are reaching victims of abuse and trauma who are too embarrassed to look someone in the eye as they share their struggles. In fact, this text-based, faceless medium tends to put all people at ease--victims or not. "There's no eye contact while confessing insecurities or sins," says Sommers. Moreover, he adds, online counseling, with its varied pricing, reaches people who can't afford standard therapy fees.
But, for me, the best part was this: I was a freelance writer at the time, and our meetings were conveniently mobile. We continued therapy while I traveled, and even after I moved about the city. Such convenient access to therapy is unprecedented.
And since you can save your correspondences, "It's like having a hug inside your computer that's waiting for you whenever you need it," says Martha Ainsworth, an Internet communication specialist and founder of www.metanoia.org--a private, nonprofit website that explains and celebrates the virtues of online counseling.
Already, experts estimate that there are thousands of online support groups attended by tens of thousands of people. And they predict that online counseling--be it group chats with a therapist moderating, e-mail correspondence, private Instant Messaging, or video-conference technology, for which a quantum leap forward is considered imminent will be ubiquitous within five years.
At least one university is paying heed to what may be the reshaping of psychotherapy. Allen Calvin, Ph.D, president of the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, has introduced what may be the first program in the country training psychologists in "telehealth." Beginning in the fall of 2000, students will be taught how to provide mental health guidance online.
BUT IS IT "THERAPY"?
Most therapists and academic institutions remain suspect of the new field. The term itself, "online therapy," is considered inaccurate and offensive by many psychologists. Smart Tentoni, Ph.D., coordinator of the Norris Health Center at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, says that "Internet therapy" is an oxymoron. "Psychotherapy is based upon both verbal and nonverbal communication," he says. "Without seeing the person, it is impossible to get a full sense of that person's situation in order to adequately render therapeutic advice to them."
According to John Grohol, Psy.D., the director of MentalHealth. Net, one of the most comprehensive guides to mental health online, many online providers do, in fact, call themselves counselors rather than therapists. The most conservative among them say they offer mere "advice," while others use the weightier, though clunky term, "behavioral telehealth." But from his five years of online counseling experience, Grohol contends that, "Online relationships are just as real and intense as they are in the real world. So it's no surprise to me that people are trying to establish therapeutic-type relationships over the Net." But, he adds: "Whether it's therapy or not, I do not know."
