Online Therapy Organizations - Report Example

Online Therapy Online Therapy Introduction Counseling is a remedy for psychological and behavioral problems, and it involves discussing the problem with a professional who helps to bring in change to end the predicament. The nature of counseling has developed dramatically since the wake of the nineteenth century, which brought about numerous technological developments (Evans, Yeung, Markoulakis, & Guilcher, 2014). The internet has transformed counseling from face to face to online therapy. Online therapy takes place over the internet and it involves communicating through emails, video-conferencing, social media live chats, Skype, and blog chats. This form of therapy has benefits such as convenience, time consciousness, and cost effectiveness for clients and counselors. This paper will discuss various online therapy organizations, the services they offer, the responsibility of experts, rights of customers, legal issues, and their pros and cons. Online Therapy Organizations Onlinetherapy.com Onlinetherapy.com is an online counseling company that offers psychotherapy to customers with a wide range of problems such as addiction, excess weight, panic attacks, relationship challenges, sleeplessness, stress, speech anxiety, and mental disorders such as bipolar disease. This organization uses Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) when offering counseling to all clients. This is a form of remedy that aims at changing the emotions, thoughts, and behavior of consumers (Hertlein, Blumer, & Mihaloliakos, 2015). The organization uses CBT because it believes that changing behavior, emotions, and thoughts is the first process in the healing process. Onlinetherapy.com conducts eight counseling sessions to all clients; the company offers customers with self-explanatory worksheets where they fill information for all sessions with the help of their personal therapists. The therapists provide clients with guidance and feedback for five days every week (that is from Monday to Friday). The company charges $29.95 every week, and it allows customers to change from on program to another and to extend therapy past eight weeks when there is need. Therapyonline.com Therapyonline.com is another online company that offers psychotherapy and counseling over the internet. The organization has highly trained experts who have minimum experience of fifteen years. The experts offer therapy for variety of problems that include anxiety, phobia, emotional abuse, eating disorders, and low self esteem. However, the organization is not limited to helping clients with these problems only; experts may offer help to any problem because they are trained to study customers and determine the help that they require. Therapyonline.com uses Cognitive Behavior Therapy to help customers recover from various disorders; CBT helps clients to change starting from within themselves so that they may then adjust to their environment. The company also uses psychodynamics to provide therapy to customers. Psychodynamics involves studying the reasons for the existence of certain emotions, behaviors, and thoughts of individuals (Hadjistavropoulos, Alberts, Nugent, & Marchildon, 2014). Experts then formulate ways of helping customers to change the behavior because they understand the reasons for such actions. The organization does not have a predetermined procedure of providing therapy like onlinetherapy.com, which offers eight sessions with spreadsheets. Experts in the company mainly conduct discussions with customers during online sessions, and then they offer help based on the topic of discussion. blahtherapy.com This is an online therapy organization that offers three forms of counseling to customers. The three types of therapies are classified according to the individuals who provide help; they include strangers, experts, and the members of the community. Therapy provided by the community and strangers is free; while counseling conducted by professionals cost $25. The community involves all individuals who have ever been helped by experts in the website in the past. This means that individuals who seek help from the community meet others who were healed from similar conditions before; this helps to boost the confidence of clients and it makes them to feel that they are not the only ones who suffer from various disorders (Hadjistavropoulos, Alberts, Nugent, & Marchildon, 2014). Blahtherapy.com offers therapeutic remedies for disorders that include divorce, parenting, eating disorder, homosexuality, addictions, and marriage problems. Clients are also exposed to numerous professionals who may help them meaning that they have the right to choose the person who helps them heal. The professionals are rated by clients on the website so that those who seek help from the organization for the first time may be able to determine the benefits of all experts before choosing to be helped by them. There is no predetermined procedure for therapists to follow when giving help to clients in this organization. Therefore, every expert offers help based on the expertise and topic of discussion. Rights of Clients in Online Therapy Clients have various rights when seeking therapy from professionals online. The first right of clients is known as informed consent; customers have the right to be informed about things such as the qualifications of the expert, benefits of therapy, limitations of counseling, risks that they face when seeking help online, and the functions of technology in therapy (Corey, 2014). Experts provide clients with this information so that they may make a decision whether to continue with the counseling or withdraw from it. For example, the three online organizations discussed above provide information such as cost of counseling, qualifications of experts, and benefits of online therapy. This information helps customers in making decisions. Customers also have the right to confidentiality of information when seeking treatment online. In therapyonline.com and onlinetherapy.com, clients do not provide their personal information on the websites unless when it is essential. The clients receive anonymous treatment from therapists who have signed up on the website using anonymous user names (Amichai-Hamburger, Klomek, Friedman, Zuckerman, & Shani-Sherman, 2014). The anonymous user names enhance the confidentiality of information of consumers. Clients have the right to participate in the therapy without being coerced by professionals. The customers also have a right to stop participating in the therapy when they make the decision by their own (Corey, 2014). The freedom to participate in therapeutic treatment enables customers to decide what is best for them every time. The three online companies discussed above offer clients the freedom to participate and withdraw from counseling. Clients also have a right to receive fair treatment from professionals online. Fair counseling is where consumers are charged fair cost, not discriminated, not abused, and not given wrong information (Hadjistavropoulos, Alberts, Nugent, & Marchildon, 2014). This right of clients is in accordance with ethical guidelines, which require experts to treat customers fairly regardless of their financial ability, race, ethnicity, color, and disability. Therapyonline.com, bhahtherapy.com, and onlinetherapy.com require professionals to treat all clients fairly in accordance with the code of ethics. This helps these organizations to attract numerous clients and retain them because they feel free. Obligations of Professionals Online therapy experts have the obligation to maintain integrity and professional competence when providing therapeutic treatment to customers (Evans, Yeng, Markoulakis, & Guilcher, 2014). The experts have to adhere to ethical guidelines, professional principles, and applicable laws when providing treatment. Adhering to these laws and principles enables these experts to avoid conflicts with the law and with clients (Corey, 2014)s. This also uplifts the popularity of the professionals, thus enabling them to get additional customers and to maintain the existing ones. For example, on Blahherapy.com, therapists observe the code of ethics and other applicable guidelines strictly because they are rated by the clients they serve on the website (Hadjistavropoulos, Alberts, Nugent, & Marchildon, 2014). This means that those who do not follow principles receive negative reviews and future clients avoid them. Professionals also have the obligation to maintain the confidentiality of information of their clients (Hadjistavropoulos, Alberts, Nugent, & Marchildon, 2014). This is an ethical obligation of experts and it helps to avoid the exposure of the problems of clients; professionals who break this rule may face legal consequences. The information that experts must maintain confidentiality includes diseases, personal information such as names, marital status, and level of education. Professionals may expose such information only when they are allowed to do so with written consents that also contain the original signatures of the clients (Hertlein, Blumer, & Mihaloliakos, 2015). This obligation coerces online therapists to store clients’ information in secure data bases that may not be accessed by unauthorized individuals. This prevents unauthorized individuals from accessing private information of customers. Professionals also have the responsibility to inform clients everything about online therapy, for example, limitations, benefits, and risks. This information enables clients to make decisions, and failure to give it to them may lead them to making different judgments (Hadjistavropoulos, Alberts, Nugent, & Marchildon, 2014). Therefore, experts have to give all information that is within their knowledge to avoid conflicts with the law and with clients. Professionals also have the right to provide clients with the right treatment and to involve them in determining the treatment strategy that suits them. This means that professionals may not make any decision without involving customers; this is why therapyonline.com and blahtherapy.com require therapists to involve a lot of discussion with clients. The discussions help in formulating personalized treatment plans for all customers (Amichai-Hamburger, Klomek, Friedman, Zuckerman, & Shani-Sherman, 2014). Ethical and Security Issues Confidentiality of information is a critical ethical and security issue in online therapy. The internet is prone to misuse by fraudsters who may invade data bases with virus and thus access the information of clients (Hadjistavropoulos, Alberts, Nugent, & Marchildon, 2014). For example, fraudsters my crack passwords of the sites above and pretend to be experts; the criminals then steal the personal information of clients and misuse it. This poses a major threat to clients because they may face unfriendly legal consequences when criminals use their information to break the law (Corey, 2014). This challenge may be difficult to overcome because cyber crime is unpredictable and it keeps changing with developments of new technology. There is also a risk of sending information to unauthorized individuals by mistake when using online therapy (Hertlein, Blumer, & Mihaloliakos, 2015). For example, an expert from blahtherapy.com may send an email containing information of a client to the wrong address. This is because confusing even one letter or number in an email may lead to sending information to the wrong person. Although this takes place by mistake, it is a violation of the confidentiality rule of ethics. Another ethical issue that may arise in online therapy is that of failure to observe professional guidelines and maintain integrity when providing treatment (Evans, Yeung, Markoulakis, & Guilcher, 2014). For example, on blahtherapy.com, some individuals may pretend to be professional therapists by faking qualifications and credentials. These individuals may also do this by using information of other people who may be experts, but lack skills of using the internet to provide counseling. These criminals give the wrong advice to clients thus misleading them; this leads to the worsening of the customer’s condition and it may cause conflicts (Hadjistavropoulos, Alberts, Nugent, & Marchildon, 2014). The lack of face to face communication, which helps in communicating body language between therapists and clients, may lead to wrong treatments (Evans, Yeung, Markoulakis, & Guilcher, 2014). Body language communicates things that individuals may not be able to tell through the word of mouth. This helps experts to understand customers in a better way and to give them remedies that suit them. The absence of this form of language Advantages of Online Therapy Online therapy is considered fairly affordable and convenient. Hadjistavropoulos, Alberts, Nugent, & Marchildon (2014) assert that online counselling eliminates usual requirements to spend to time and money travelling to the office of the counsellor. The counsellor and the client meet at the comfort of their rooms, but connected through computers and networks. The client is fully in control of the costs used in emailing and receiving responses from the counsellor. Online counselling is also convenient for both the counsellor and the client because the counsellor respondents to the clients’ questions and the client ask queries concerning the treatment process at their comfort (Amichai-Hamburger, Klomek, Friedman, Zuckerman, & Shani-Sherman, 2014)s. People who live in rural or remote areas have access to mental health information through online therapy. In most cases, therapists identify business opportunities in towns and cities because they harbour large populations. According to Amichai-Hamburger, Klomek, Friedman, Zuckerman, & Shani-Sherman (2014), most therapists prefer establishing counselling centres in towns because they have large populations that guarantee markets to therapists’ services. People in rural areas are usually forgotten, thus, lacking therapeutic services. Online therapy presents a solution to the problem of inaccessibility by providing platforms for therapists to meet their clients and providing the required services. Both current and prospective clients may be disabled or housebound. Disabled and housebound clients cannot be able to travel to the therapist’s premises. It would be almost impossible or expensive for disabled clients to move from their homes to the counsellors’ offices. Online therapy helps the disabled to receive the services of counsellors through online platforms (Hadjistavropoulos, Alberts, Nugent, & Marchildon, 2014). Sometimes, clients would wish to relocate to other places due to job transfers, business, studies or other factors. Regardless of the physical distance between the client and the counsellor, the treatment process continues without any interruption. The ability to continue the counselling process without any interruption is also supported by the fact that online therapy is flexible and client-driven (Corey, 2014). The client can be entirely free to set their own pace of counselling work. Disadvantages of Online Therapy Online therapy is not advisable for people suffering from serious psychiatric illnesses. Examples of serious mental problems that cannot be treated through online therapy include schizophrenia and chronic depression. When a client is having serious mental illness, face-to-face counselling with the counsellor becomes of critical necessity (Amichai-Hamburger, Klomek, Friedman, Zuckerman, & Shani-Sherman, 2014). The therapist must close-examine the client in order to determine the best treatment for such a client. Confidentiality of the client’s information is a professional requirement for the therapist. Ensuring confidentiality in online therapy is sometimes more problematic in the internet than traditional therapy (Hertlein, Blumer, & Mihaloliakos, 2015). This is due to increased instances of hacking that characterise the contemporary online world. Online therapy lacks physical presence. Lacking physical presence may make some clients experience reduction in intimacy, commitment and trust (Hertlein, Blumer, & Mihaloliakos, 2015). A physical setting enhances the level of intimacy, trust and commitment among the clients since both parties meet and share emotions as they discuss issues affecting one another (Corey, 2014). Conclusion Online therapy is a form of counseling that takes place between a client and a counselor with the internet as the main medium of communication. Individuals who provide counseling online mostly operate through websites that specialize in therapies; this enables clients to identify them easily and it makes it easier to provide general information to all clients at the same time. Companies such as onlinetherapy.com, therapyonlne.com, and blahtherapy.com offer counseling for variety of problems such as depression, marital problems, eating disorders, weight related problems, and mental diseases. These organizations provide clients with the rights to consent of all necessary information, confidentiality of information, efficient, treatment, and freedom to take part and withdraw from various treatment strategies. Professionals on these sites, on the other hand, have the compulsion to maintain professionalism and integrity, and protect information of clients. Online therapy is cost efficient, convenient, and easily accessible although it faces challenges such as risk of leaking personal information to unauthorized individuals. References Amichai-Hamburger, Y., Klomek, A. B., Friedman, D., Zuckerman, O., & Shani-Sherman, T. (2014). The future of online therapy. Computers In Human Behavior, 4(1), 288-294. Corey, G. (2014). Issues and ethics in the helping professions. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Evans, C., Yeung, E., Markoulakis., & Guilcher. (2014). An online community of practice to support evidence-based physiotherapy practice in manual therapy. Journal Of Continuing Education In The Health Professions, 34(4), 215-223. Hadjistavropoulos, H. D., Alberts, N. M., Nugent, M., & Marchildon, G. (2014). Improving access to psychological services through therapist-assisted, Internet-delivered cognitive behaviour therapy. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, 55(4), 303-311. Hertlein, K., Blumer, M., & Mihaloliakos, J. (2015). Marriage and Family Counselors’ Perceived Ethical Issues Related to Online Therapy. Family Journal, 23(1), 5-12. Read More