PSICOLOGIA & INFORMÁTICA - BVS Psicologia ULAPSI Brasil

TECHNOLOGY IN THERAPY: DEVELOPING A GLOBALAPPROACH AND CREATING STANDARDSKate AnthonyInternational Society for Mental Health Online - ISMHOThe new and developing field of online therapeutic work presentsexciting new possibilities and challenges to practitioners. Yet,given the ever-changing nature of communication technology, it seemslikely that definitive descriptions of the method will elude us.Hardware and software continues to become ever more sophisticatedand new information technology solutions to communication barrierscontinually emerge. Along with exciting challenge and possibilitycomes the potential for new and increased risk for clients, not tomention pitfalls for practitioners. It is a seriously under researchedfield and, at the time of writing, small-scale studies are only just startingto emerge. Yet it seems that, despite the appropriate cautionshown by the counselling and psychotherapy profession, increasingnumbers of clients are willing to embrace this new method of communicationfor gaining psychological assistance, a phenomenon whichseems likely to increase as future generations become more atease with technology being part of their everyday lives.Online counselling and therapy services already exist; it istherefore incumbent on the profession to keep up with the phenomenaand examine this emerging field with a view to establishing itseffectiveness and, if effective, how it can best be done. To this end,the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)published an initial discussion document (Lago et al, 1999) and moreformal guidelines (Goss sem it., 2001). The latter document set out toprovide the most thorough and precise guidance that could be offeredto practitioners and users of online services that could be producedat the time, and was written in consultation with internationalexperts in the field, including representatives of a number of professionalbodies around the world. This chapter is partly based on theseBACP documents and highlights a number of ethical and practicalaspects of therapeutic communication via the exchange of emailsbetween practitioner and client (asynchronous therapy), and the usePSICOLOGIA & INFORMÁTICA | 235