Online psychological counseling is the online meeting of individuals who need psychological support via the internet.
When Can I Get Online Psychological Counseling Service?
- Those who cannot leave the house due to physical or mental health problems
- Living in an area that cannot receive face-to-face counseling
- Those who have to travel frequently
- People who do not have the opportunity to reach the specialist they want to reach, want to receive online consultation service with their own preferences.
Online Psychological Counseling has become a more preferred method with the implementation of social distance rules and curfews due to the Covid-19 virus epidemic, which has taken the whole world under its influence.
Online Psychological Counseling provides many conveniences as well as an alternative as effective as face-to-face meetings. Before online psychological counseling, how the process will be carried out is discussed between the client and the counselor. It is applied in the same way as face-to-face counseling sessions. The interview takes approximately 45-50 minutes. Interviews are held between the client and the counselor at intervals determined according to the client's needs and conditions. In order not to interrupt the talks, some precautions should be taken. It is important that the technological devices that will disrupt the session process are not turned on in the room where the interview will be held, that there are no people entering the interview room, that the client and the counselor are not distracted and that the person can focus on himself better. It is necessary to create and maintain a quiet environment during the interview.
Positive Sides of Online Counseling
- With the Online Psychological Counseling option, people can get support for their psychological problems and reach the specialist they want.
- They can get psychological counseling from wherever they are, from any specialist they want, without any place restrictions.
- Due to reasons such as business conditions, working hours, education-school hours, people may have difficulty in arranging a suitable meeting time for face-to-face meeting. Because of this difficulty, they may prefer to receive online psychological counseling from home.
- It provides services to everyone who needs psychological support in social events that prevent leaving the house, such as the Covid-19 epidemic, which has recently affected the whole world.
- There is no restriction for people who need psychological counseling support. Regardless of where they are and when they are, they can receive visual and audio psychological support through technological devices such as computers, mobile phones and tablets connected to the internet.
- Usually Skype, Whatsapp, Zoom etc. Video conferencing is provided by the programs.
Ethical Rules in Online Counseling
- Before the online counseling session, the client and the counselor discuss how the process will be carried out. Among the determined, issues such as which application will be discussed, the fee, the duration of the session, how often it will be discussed, how and when the fee will be paid, whether the applied subject is suitable for online psychological counseling, what the responsibilities of the client and the counselor are, are discussed and mutually agreed upon.
- The counselor, who provides Online Psychological Counseling services, verifies the identity of the client before each session in order to build trust.
- Confidentiality is one of the most important and sensitive principles in psychological counseling. The client and the consultant cannot record the sessions or take images without permission. All written, visual and audio information shared by the client must be protected.
- When it is necessary to guide the client during the sessions, the client is informed about this issue and professional organizations can be directed towards their needs. The client is also informed about this orientation.
- In case of serious problems during online psychological counseling, the counselor collects information about the client's identity information, full address, and relatives who can be contacted in case of emergency, at the beginning of the sessions.
- All of the ethical rules in face-to-face counseling also apply to online counseling. These can be summarized as follows:
- Counselor-client relationship
- Informing clients before the session
- Respect for the Client
- Protecting clients
- Confidentiality and privacy
- Using and controlling appropriate hardware and software
- No unauthorized registration
- Concealing and protecting the client's information
