"Therapy online: Good as face to face?"

Landua, Elizabeth. "Therapy online: Good as face to face?" CNN. 31 August 2009. http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/31/online.internet.therapy.cbt/index.html#cnnSTCText

If you needed therapy, would you do it over the internet? Pyschotherapists have created a new sytem of therapy. The patient and therapist text online. Experts say that patients who don't have access to a therapist for in-person treatment could really benefit from this program. "People may be more willing to talk about things that are embarrassing or stigmatizing if they're not interacting face to face" says Dr. Greg Simon. Dr. David Kessler says that writing about traumatic events could contribute to mental health. "We think that writing gives people time to pause and reflect, and that this may help the therapeutic process." But the program still has flaws. Therapists can miss out on visual cues, gestures and speech intonations which help allow them to help the patients. Many programs online have branched out and use video chat, or other different means of helping without a live therapist like graphics and avatar characters.

If I needed therapy, I don't think I would do it online. I think therapy should be personal between two people. You can grow from you therapist by their life stories or experiences that they offer you. You learn how to heal by the therapists reactions and thoughts and ability to connect to you on a personal level. If all transactions took place over text online, you could be losing the capability to explain your thoughts and feelings out loud to a human being that could help you. Communication plays a huge role in therapy. I can see how online can benefit those who are incapable of meeting face to face with a therapist or are out of state, but if you can, go see a therapist. Sit in their office, talk to them out loud, and learn to heal.