Home > Sample essays > Is Online Therapy the Future of Mental Health Treatment?

Essay: Is Online Therapy the Future of Mental Health Treatment?

Essay details and download:

  • Subject area(s): Sample essays
  • Reading time: 8 minutes
  • Price: Free download
  • Published: 1 April 2019*
  • File format: Text
  • Words: 2,258 (approx)
  • Number of pages: 10 (approx)

Text preview of this essay:

This page of the essay has 2,258 words. Download the full version above.



Feeling down and unmotivated? Help is just a click away! Open up your laptop and connect with your online therapist. Is this science fiction or already reality?

Being able to get help right away without having to wait weeks or even months probably sounds like magic for a lot of people who suffer from a mental disorder. A recent study from the “Landelijk Platform GGz” shows that 45% of the respondents had to wait longer than the 6 week rule (as specified by the Specialistische GGz) and 21% had to wait even longer than 4 months. Nowadays the waiting lists are long which is causing a lot of extra stress and uncertainty. So, why wait that long when there is an alternative? Online therapy is currently becoming an industry in bloom. Over a hundred million people worldwide per month access health information via the internet. This is made possible through the rapid changing computer technology and ever evolving internet. Search engines are full with websites that offer “free” online help, such as “7 cups of tea” or “blahtherapy” – just to name a few. The question is, does free equal quality and can this replace traditional therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy?

Remote counselling done differently

Remote counselling itself is not something new, Sigmund Freud already used papers to help patients that were unable to attend meetings. What really has changed since those days is the interactivity, flexibility and speed provided by our current technology. Online therapy is a form of treatment where a therapist or counselor offers psychological advice and support via the internet. This can be utilized through real-time tools such as video conferencing, live chat or internet phone. Another way is a time delayed format which makes use of email. Online communication makes health care possible without actually having to take the effort of driving far away just to get some help. This especially applies to mental issues because it normally doesn’t require any physical check-ups. Since online therapy is a completely new development, there is a heated debate going on whether it is just a nice idea or has real value.

Psychotherapy: an unaffordable luxury?

Online therapy provides several benefits. One, above all is: money. It has been shown that this method is much more bank account friendly for both the patient and the therapist. This means, for one, there would be no costs to go to somewhere specific, since all the counselling can take place via a computer or even a mobile phone which erases any transportation costs. At the same time, it extensively cuts the budget costs for a therapists who cannot afford to rent a physical place. There would also be low, or basically none, administration fees for the patient because signing up electronically to a website is much faster than filling out paperwork. Lastly, people are becoming more and more used to finding information for free and the idea of having to pay a great deal of money for a professional therapy might be stressful and unappealing. In my view, money is a crucial factor when it comes to decision-making. One first wonders whether he or she can afford it. Second, if it is indeed affordable, is it worth it? Psychological treatment is not cheap and not everyone has the insurance to cover the costs. It is laughable that people have to weigh between money and getting the right treatment, considering that we are living in a time where life seems more fair and easier. At least there is hope with online therapy because it offers more possibilities for people on a shoestring budget.

Anonymous but personal

Another beneficial fact is that online therapy reduces social stigma associated with the therapy itself. Nowadays, lots of improvements are being made in the medical field. This can also be seen in mental health care, where it has lead to new types of therapy. We are living in the 21st century and yet there is still a negative image surrounding the word “mental illness”. There are lot’s of movies that still make use of these images by portraying the mentally ill as “homicidal maniacs” or “weak characters”. Some people do not even seek any psychological help because they are afraid how that might come across in their social environment. But not only that, some are even afraid of being seen entering a psychological health care facility. Online communication provides the opportunity to receive help privately without having to go to an actual place full of strangers that might be uncomfortable to the patient. Accordingly, it allows the patients to feel free and not judged by others in the waiting room, the administrative staff or just anyone who passes in the hallway. On top of that, it gives the client some sense of anonymity. This opens more possibilities to talk openly without being scared to say something bad. Thus, the inexistence of face to face communication can lead to much more honesty and in turn much higher validity of self disclosure. Anonymity is one of the highly valued advantages when it comes to internet usage. This allows people to feel invisible and protected which promises a much better treatment environment than traditional therapy.

Hang on, I still need to text my online therapist…

We live in a period of time where it is impossible to imagine life without instant messengers. Almost everyone has a phone and uses one of those apps to text a friend to talk about everything and nothing. Let us just look around; sitting in the subway, lecture, work or restaurant and already surrounded by people staring at their devices. So, since people enjoy texting and spending a lot of time doing that, an online therapy might just fit into that kind of a lifestyle. This form of therapy is especially helpful when having difficulties to express feelings or thoughts verbally. Through writing the patient can take more time to think, self reflect and reach insight about emotional topics without having to fear for any negative nonverbal cues. Moreover,  research has found evidence that writing is useful when experiencing distress because it can lead to emotional healing. Using words in order to express one’s feelings can improve the mood and reduce levels of stress hormones which can not only lead to a quicker recovery mentally but also physically! These stress hormones interfere with chemicals that are needed in order for a physical wound to heal. Another advantage is that, there is no need to take notes of the session because written words do not go away. Also,written records allow the patient and therapist to go back and look at the progress. This shows that writing is not only useful when chatting with friends and family. It can also nicely integrate into our lives.

Face to face

Yes, there are good reasons to use online counselling but it comes with some challenges that have not been improved yet. This becomes apparent due to the absence of face to face communication. When using text messaging it is difficult for the therapist to assess the reactions of the body in a session. Verbal and nonverbal cues are essential for any successful therapy because it helps identify any discrepancies or inconsistencies in the response. Traditional counselling such as cognitive therapy uses techniques to interpret verbal and nonverbal behavior in order to better understand the thoughts and feelings of the client. Therapist study tone of voice, facial expression, body language and eye contact. This doesn’t get much attention in an online therapy and can therefore negatively influence the outcome of the treatment because the therapist cannot observe these cues. Also, one should not forget the therapist- client relationship, which is crucial in a therapy. This relationship is not as visible with counselling offered online. A study showed that patients who had to talk about negative emotions such as depression or anxiety were more willing to open up to a therapist in a face to face setting. This shows that the human factor plays an important role in psychotherapy.

Technologies are not perfect

We live in an era where everything seems to get better. Everyday there is news about a faster or  smaller/bigger device and yet there is more to it. Technologies fail – it is as simple as that. Not everything is perfect because it is made by us humans and we are per definition imperfect. It is actually quite normal that a computer or phone has hardware/software issues or that all of a sudden the internet connection is gone. The last part is especially true for people who live in rural places where the internet connection is not that stable and where the next computer shop might be a couple miles away. Online counseling requires internet connection, a device to use it and someone skilled enough to use it. Some websites ask their clients to install additional software which makes it tricky for someone who is not that familiar with computers and its technologies. However, it gets even more interesting when one is in the middle of a session and all of a sudden the internet connection is gone. This might leave the patient in a possible distressed state without having the possibility to do something about it. Even if the internet connection is not completely gone, with some cheap audio or video calls there can be intermittent problems, such as loss of signal or stuttering, which can be quite aggravating for the patient. This shows that internet is not always as good and cheap as it promises because it requires understanding and patience.

So, now what?

Several research has proven that internet therapy works. However, just talking and listening without having a clear structured treatment is not enough. That is why there have been efforts to combine both traditional therapy and online counselling. This new form of treatment is called internet cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT). So far, this new form of therapy shows promising results. iCBT takes the best of both worlds; low costs, small waiting lists and using (usually) written communication. The idea behind iCBT is that the patient gets the same content as with conventional CBT, but psychoeducational material and instructions about the treatment itself are given on an online platform. The aim is to reduce symptoms in depression or other mental disorders. Nonetheless, certain other steps must be taken in order for it to work. Controlled trials show that there should be a legitimate diagnose before the therapy starts, a well thought out treatment presented, not too technical for the average patient and clear support/deadline of the therapy provided. The normal cognitive behavioral (CBT) therapy focuses on reducing negative thoughts and relativising situations which leads to changing the behavior itself. CBT is one of the most effective and well researched therapies, especially when it comes to depression, anxiety and eating disorders. Thus, it has been shown that when CBT works, iCBT is usually effective as well. Unfortunately not everyone gets the chance to use conventional means either by own choice or due to logistical or financial problems. My impression is that, iCBT gives exactly those people the chance to still get good treatment and to be hopeful for a better life.

Conclusion: Building the new

Online therapy is the future of psychology. Why? The number of people having a depression are rising, it is a worldwide health problem and that means there needs to be a cost effective intervention. One such intervention will be internet based psychological treatment because they are much more cost effective than traditional therapies such as CBT. There are already health care institutions that implement guided iCBT, since it requires less continuous therapist support and it works against the long waiting lists. On top of that, nowadays, people have less time to go to a place “just” to talk for 45 minutes. It takes effort, time and costs money. It gives people comfort to be able to talk about their problems right from the couch where they feel safe.

However, one should not overestimate what programs and machines can achieve. Not everyone is familiar with technology and does not necessarily trust what a program tells them to do. A famous study in the thirteenth century, ordered by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, showed that newborn babies die if they do not get any physical and psychological contact from another human being. This cruel research, now known as “The Forbidden Experiment”,  proved that human interaction is vital and lack of it may lead to negative outcomes. Despite the improvements in the digital world, it is important that we do not forget that we need human touch in order to survive.

I think that free can equal quality, especially in this case. Studies have proven that online therapy has the potential to be just as good as conventional therapy. So why not use it? Not everything that comes for free, or almost for free, is doomed to be bad. This new phenomenon of online health care did not evolve just like that. It happened because demand is high and it is a logical development in an age of technological and human growth. Instead of seeing it as something odd, we should embrace it and be grateful that there is an alternative for people who otherwise have no other option. Socrates once said that the secret of change, is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new. So, let us build on the new possibilities that the online world offers us.

...(download the rest of the essay above)

About this essay:

If you use part of this page in your own work, you need to provide a citation, as follows:

Essay Sauce, Is Online Therapy the Future of Mental Health Treatment?. Available from:<https://www.essaysauce.com/sample-essays/2017-1-20-1484945412/> [Accessed 29-03-24].

These Sample essays have been submitted to us by students in order to help you with your studies.

* This essay may have been previously published on Essay.uk.com at an earlier date.