The machine as intermediary: personal communication via a machine

Digby Tantam is Clinical Professor of Psychotherapy at the University of Sheffield (Centre for the Study of Conflict and Reconciliation, University of Sheffield School of Health and Related Research, 30 Regent Street, Sheffield S6 6GJ, UK. Email: d.tantam{at}sheffield.ac.uk). He is Co-Director of the University’s Centre for the Study of Conflict and Reconciliation, Director of the Section of Mental Health within the School of Health and Related Research, and Deputy Director of Teaching for the School. He is also an honorary consultant psychotherapist and psychiatrist in Sheffield Care Trust. His current research interests include the evaluation of internet-based learning and teaching.

The physical co-presence of psychotherapist or counsellor and client has been considered essential to the development of the therapeutic relationship. Psychotherapists have often, therefore, been resolutely opposed to anything other than face-to-face therapy. The richness and ubiquity of internet communication is likely to change that. I consider here the circumstances in which internet psychotherapy is indicated, some of the new problems it poses, including boundary-keeping and ethics, along with some solutions to these problems. The potential of the internet has already been exploited by many clients themselves and I conclude with a consideration of the growth of internet-based peer support groups.

Related articles in APT:

The machine as psychotherapist: impersonal communication with a machine

Digby Tantam
APT 2006 12: 416-426. [Abstract] [Full Text]