Online (email) Counselling
What is online counselling?
Online counselling is counselling by exchange of emails
between yourself and a counsellor. You will be given an ‘e-appointment’ each week when your counsellor reads and responds to email/s sent by you during the previous week. You send your email/s before the appointment time, at a time convenient to you. The e-appointment is the same length as a face-to-face appointment and so the length of the counsellor’s reply partly depends on the amount you send. Your counsellor will discuss and agree a set number of sessions. The email counsellors work to the same Code of Ethics and the same confidentiality guidelines (as far as can be expected with a computer-based system of communication) as in face-to-face counselling.
What are the advantages of online counselling?
There are practical and other reasons for choosing online counselling:
- If you’re unable to come for face-to-face appointments, e.g. if you’re on placement or away from campus due to long-term illness. Choosing online means you still can have counselling.
- You can write and read your email at a time that suits you.
- It can be difficult to talk about sensitive issues face-to-face.
- Writing about your worries can be helpful in itself. With online counselling, you have a record of the sessions to refer back to.
Sometimes it’s helpful to have a few sessions online and the remainder face-to-face, and if this feels right for you, we try and make it possible.
What are the disadvantages?
Again there are both practical and other disadvantages. We try and minimise the practical issues but they cannot be completely eliminated.
- Technology can fail and emails that are sent don’t get received. We ask you to send your email early on the morning of your e-appointment so that there’s time for you to resend it if something has gone wrong.
- It can be more difficult to express yourself in an email as there are no visual cues to follow. You might like to use emoticons to indicate how you’re feeling – e.g. L for sad and J if you’re feeling happier. Some people also like to use colour, bold and CAPITALS to indicate how strongly they feel certain things.
- Online counselling isn’t suitable if there are any concerns about your safety. For this reason, we ask you to fill in a detailed registration form online so that we can assess which type of counselling will be best for you.
- You will need to take steps to safeguard the security of your computer and the emails you send and receive. We explain how to do this and, before offering you regular sessions, ask you to sign a consent form accepting responsibility for your computer’s security.
What about confidentiality and security?
- The University takes confidentiality extremely seriously but no system is 100% safe. If you are concerned about your computer’s security, or worried that someone might intercept your emails, then online counselling isn’t the best medium for you.
- Before starting online counselling, we ask you to agree to certain conditions that help protect your confidentiality, like only using Webmail to send emails to us (this means the email is encrypted through cyberspace). If you cannot agree to these conditions, then we won’t be able to offer you online counselling.
Request for an Online (email) Counselling appointment?
To request online counselling please complete the online counselling registration form. This is more detailed than the face-to-face registration form because probably we won’t be seeing you in person to clarify anything you’ve said.
We’ll usually offer you an e-appointment with the next available specially trained counsellor but sometimes we’ll want you to have a face-to-face session first, mainly so we can better assess the amount of support you’re getting and any risks you may face.
Please note that if you disclose any risk on the registration form, we have a duty of care to contact you so that we can help you to get the support you need. You will need to confirm that you have read, understood and agree to the Student Health and Well-being Code of Professional Practice and Confidentiality and Data Protection statement/Terms and Conditions for On-line Counselling by ticking the consent box before submitting your form.
Waiting times for all types of counselling vary through the year, with peak demand just before exams and the start of the new academic year. We aim to keep waiting times to a minimum but we will prioritise people whose needs are urgent.
If you need urgent help please go to Get Help Now.