It seems strange to think that I am a pioneer of online counselling in the UK but having shared in the growth and development of so many of the now accepted online counselling practices there is no doubt that I am. This year marked the 10th anniversary of my initial online counselling training and I have been reflecting back on some of the changes that I have witnessed over that time.
Before I share a few of my reflections with you though I would like to mention two things that haven’t changed. Firstly, I feel as passionate about online counselling as I did when I first became involved with it. Secondly when I enrolled for the first training course I naively believed that the training would be a doddle. After all I was an experienced counsellor and practised in writing so it was simply a matter of learning a few ‘new’ tricks wasn’t it? What a shock I was in for and from my experience as an online counselling tutor it appears that there many others who shared the same belief.
The biggest change in the last 10 years has been the advances made in the technology. I remember well the struggles we had trying to stay online in small group meetings and the feelings of frustration that were around when one of us was unexpectedly thrown out of those meetings. There was no Skype then so we depended on MSN messenger and OLT’s own chat room. There was a lot of suspicion around when Skype was first introduced and much resistance to it. For a while though Skype became the preferred platform for synchronous communication because it was considered to be the most secure but that has been challenged this year and now the wheel of change is once more in motion.
Another huge change has been the rapid growth of handheld devices. 10 years ago we relied on desktop computers and for the lucky few-laptops. Memory sticks on which to save and to protect our work were not in common usage and we spent a lot of time discussing how we as practitioners could keep the work we did with clients private and confidential and how the clients could keep themselves safe when working online with us. With so many people now relying on ipads, tablets, iphones and smartphones to communicate we as online counsellors have had to adjust our thinking to accommodate the fact that our clients may not be sitting at a desk or be somewhere private when they receive emails from us and that unless we encrypt our attachments the client may be vulnerable. Opening a counselling email on a bus for example has led to embarrassment for some.
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I read this week “if only our eyes saw souls instead of bodies how different our ideas of beauty would be’ and it reminded me of another discussion we had in the early days which was whether or not to include a photo of ourselves on our respective websites. I remember feeling very resistant to the idea and I still prefer the idea of total anonymity and perhaps some of our clients prefer that too, but I have succumbed because websites have become so much more interactive and working synchronously with video is now one of the services clients may opt for. It is also so much easier to share images and so using them to enhance client work is something I look forward to making much greater use of in the future. You may like to spend a few moments reflecting on the photo I have included with this blog. On one level it is telling you about me-the part of the world I live in and the fact I enjoy using a digital camera but there are so many more ways to interpret this picture that could be explored with a client.
Another change is the amount of literature on the subject of online counselling that has been published in the in the UK over the last five years. 10 years ago we relied very heavily on American research and writing. When I read the OLT course text book I know that the contents are a distillation of the many discussions and the hands on practice that the authors have experienced and feel privileged that I may have made a small contribution in some way.
Finally, with the advent of web 2 we have seen social media sites mushroom and there is no doubt that this has had a profound impact on the thinking around the delivery of online counselling. I remember long discussions about how we deal with any postings about our work on social media sites and the importance of building into our contracts a clear message about keeping the work we do private and confidential.
I don’t doubt that you have memories too. I have touched on a few of the changes that have impacted on me but I am wondering what changes stick out in your mind. Perhaps you would like to share them with us.
It may only be 10 years since I became involved with online counselling but the changes that have occurred are light years ahead of the thinking we shared then.
Gill Webb
onlinetrainingforcounsellors 