Offering Online Psychological Services

When sexual abuse occurs, more often than not, the victim does not come forward for many different reasons. In not coming forward, this victim never seeks help to deal with the range of emotions and behaviors that occur after the abuse. As a psychology professional, ones job should not be to only help those who come forward openly and actively seeking help but rather help those who may need help asking for help in the first place. How might providing online psychological services impact sexual abuse victims in our community? Could offering online psychological services help sexual abuse victims have access to the type of help they need to begin the healing process? What type of advantages would there be to offering online psychological services?

Bassam Auoil (2011) suggests in his article “Online Psychological Hel and Psychosupport in Psychological and Pedagogical Practice” that an advantage to offering online psychological services allows the client to seek help while remaining anonymous. Allowing the client to remain anonymous was reported to have increased the likeliness of the client seeking help. From receiving online services, a client would not have to walk into an office building with the fear of being seen by someone they may know and the client would not have to have direct personal contact with the provider. Allowing the client to remain anonymous could have the effect of making the client feel safe and secure which could allow the client to open up about what happened. However, allowing your client to remain completely anonymous would mean that the services provided would have to be pro-bono as there would be no way to keep the clients identity unknown if they were to share insurance or credit card information. Although, pro-bono work has the potential to be liberating to some, there is only so much work that a provider could do at no charge while ensuring that they are able to maintain their practice. It could proposed, however, that a provider offer the initial online appointment at no cost and allows the client to remain anonymous during the initial appointment in hopes that the client will continue services although they will have to share their

Once you begin receiving psychological services, one may begin to see the benefits quickly which encourages them to continue to attend their regularly scheduled visits. Offering online psychological services offers great flexibility in scheduling with clients; however, what happens if the client decides that they no longer want to attend. Dr. Bassam Auoil (2011) discusses a downfall to online psychological services as having the potential to have a lack of commitment. Like many online services such as online degree programs, online classes, and many other online services, one does not always feel obligated to log on and take care of business like they may feel obligated to keep an in person appointment. When one schedules an appointment to meet with someone in person there is usually a sense of obligation as the people involved understand that each party has blocked out time for the other and there is a mutual respect for each other’s time. However, when you are not seeing someone face to face, there is always a chance that there is disconnect and lack of sense of obligation. On the contrary, a client could decide to discontinue psychological services at any time regardless of where the visits take place. In these cases, it is necessary for a professional to put together client expectations where one could include that a reasonable notice of cancellation must be