E-therapy: Ethical Considerations

The cyber domain is penetrating deeply into both personal and professional realms. But with the exponential increase in users demanding ever more varied online services - and providers of services on the internet attempting to meet that demand - comes the concomitant question of how to ensure that those providers are competent and ethical. The purpose of this course is to acquaint you with the chief ethical issues which should be considered by both the mental health professionals who would provide online counselling services and the potential clients who would use the services. Even if you do not believe that you will ever offer e-therapy yourself, being knowledgeable about the issues will enable you to be far better able to recognise ethical transgressions when you see them and participate as an informed member of the counselling community in upholding high ethical standards: even with respect to emerging technologies. Upon successful completion of the course, you will be able to: Define e-therapy and explain which distance technologies are included in it; List the benefits that e-therapy can uniquely provide; Delineate the challenges in doing e-therapy from the perspectives of the provider, the industry, and the client; Describe the chief ethical concerns with online counselling in terms of issues of jurisdiction, competence, informed consent, confidentiality, record-keeping, and supervision and detail what steps an e-therapist needs to take to ensure ethical work in terms of these issues; Explain what sorts of additional technical, language, and relational skills are needed for competent online counselling.