I am a senior professionmember of ACTO. This is a professional body for online counsellors. You can be sure I have the necessary training to carry out this work.
Visit www.acto-uk.org to check my credentials.
Counselling, in any form, is a way of helping you understand and think about yourself and your interactions with others in different ways. This may lead to changes in your behaviour.
We can use video counselling and meet on a secure platform. This is great for avoiding transport or other issues you may have with coming to my consulting room.
On line counselling by email or text has some advantages over other forms of counselling. You have more time to reflect on your responses and have a written record of our communication to keep.
Disadvantages include the lack of visual cues to understand each other that you might have in face to face communication and the lack of immediate response. I would ask anyone considering online counselling whether they feel they are able to express themselves through the written word and if they feel comfortable using the technology required.
After an initial exchange of emails which includes an application form and a joint decision on whether this form of counselling suits you, we would agree a contract for counselling.
For email counselling, this includes an appointment date by which I would receive your email and a date by which I would return a full exploration of your email. I would respond to your thoughts and feelings and also ask questions that might help you explore your experiences more fully.
For synchronous text exchange, such as skype, our contract would include an appointment schedule when we could meet online to talk.
