IT - HCI

eTherapy

Computer technology has increasingly been entering and growing in importance in people 's lives . Spending their time connected to their laptops and mobile phones , computer mediated communication has become society 's interaction norm . Even practitioners of psychology , social work , and psychiatry have joined the movement , with mental health treatment through the Internet or eTherapy becoming available since the end of the 1980 's

eTharapy can be described in layman 's terms as conducting psychological counseling using the Internet 's countless applications as medium . It is also referred to as

online counseling , email counseling , or internet psychotherapy . Many have mixed opinions about eTherapy as its lack of definition can be attributed to either its convenient flexibility or absence of direction

For the American Psychological Association (APA , the biggest concerns about eTherapy are the legal and ethical repercussions caused by uncertainties of whether and how psychologists implement the Ethics Code . Drawbacks of conducting psychotherapy sessions without meeting the patient include questionable recordkeeping and confidentiality and malpractice possibility . A psychologist 's scope of practice is limited to the state where one is licensed . With the internet , there is no boundary which might lead to legal implications for the psychologist Malpractice insurance would not be valid if the psychologist commits it out of his or her state boundaries . Finally , text-based counseling leads to information inaccuracy which is dangerous for patients as they cannot be sure if their psychologist is a trained and educated counselor or just a con man

On the other hand...