I've been wanting to start a website for a while; I just didn't know what to do with it. I recently thought of a website that could get people live access with other therapists on their computers without dealing with the hassle of setting up a face-to-face meeting. I think this could work if done properly. If you had a problem that required the aid of a therapist, wouldn't it be convenient if you could go to a website and just talk to one via a live chat stream or a video-cam interface?
How would a therapy website with live-stream access do?
That... actually sounds like a pretty good idea!
When you consider that most people with personality disorders also have some form of anxiety, anything that's more convenient and lets them work from a position of comfort would probably convince a lot more of them to seek help.
Of course, it would also be an endless nightmare of goth drama queens, dongs, and 4chan
but that's just the price you gotta pay to help society
my dad witch is a therapist had an website (like 5 years ago) and he could not put ads on his site becuse of some wierd rule
so if your planning having it ad supported make sure its legal in your country
Im a little doubtful here, with a doctor on patient session you need to have the family make that trip so they are out of the place that problems such as theres are going on, also its hard to build a trusting relationship with the doctor when your not even meeting face to face plus the added steps and stress of trying to get a computer capable of webcam and chat. A docters office is also kinda part of the session with the calming and kinda cheap fountain while toys keep the kids busy. All that i just said could maybe be fixed or gotten around, but med checks and insurrance will be a HUGE HUGE pain with such a non standard buisness model. Still wtih the possibly world wide patient community you could still make a profit.
EDIT: Just forgot to bring up the lack of human cantact and how this will just hurt patients who desperatly need it.
By therapist are you talking about a psychologist?
It that's what you mean there are a few problems from an ethical and licensing standpoint. If you get a license to practice psychology you only have that license in one state. A website would service multiple states and countries. Giving anything that resembles therapy, consultation clinical advice to someone outside of the state you're licensed may be grounds for losing your license.
Most psychologists are members of the American Psychiatric Association. With that membership comes an ethical code all members have to abide by in order to stay members. If they are brought up on charges of breaking the ethics code and the charges are found to be true the psychologist in question loses their membership. Ethically, there a few problems with therapy provided over the internet. For one, an informed consent has to be signed by a client as early as possible before therapy can start. A therapist can not provide therapy to a population with which they have no training. I imagine on a website a number of unique problems would be brought to an online therapist from a number of different populations. To account for competency problems the site would have to have a number of specialized psychologists from a number of different fields from every country.
Outside of the ethics code there are some therapy problems from my perspective (I come from a Cognitive-Behavioral viewpoint). The actual act of going to a place for therapy is therapeutic in and of itself. It might be a sign of avoidance to stay at home and try to get advice from one's computer. Actually getting up, driving to the site and introducing yourself to a therapist is an act that shows that the client actually wants to be there, is willing to put in the effort to at least show up and won't find different ways to skirt the issues in question. One can take advice from a computer, store it away and forget about it. It is fast, simple and easy. But it lacks long-lasting benefits. But coming to the office of a therapist and sitting with him/her for an hour makes it very hard to avoid the problems, skip by problems and run away. It is courageous and a really good first step toward long lasting improvements.
Even if the site just gives advice I'm sure there is some way to use the ethics code to bring up charges if that advice is giving by a psychologist with an APA membership. I really like the idea don't get me wrong but it might not work because of these problems. If the therapists would be nothing more than encyclopedias providing information than I think there wouldn't be an issue. I think a site where those who have had or are currently going through therapy offered advice and therapist just acted as encyclopedias would be a great idea.
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