Writing Therapy - Writing Therapy Via The Internet

Writing Therapy Via The Internet

Currently the most widely used mode of Internet writing therapy is via e-mail (see analytic psychotherapist Nathan Field's paper The Therapeutic Action of Writing in Self-Disclosure and Self-Expression). It is asynchronous; i.e. messages are passed between therapist and client within an agreed time frame (for instance, one week), but at any time within that week. Where both parties remain anonymous the client benefits from the "disinhibition" effect; that is to say, feels freer to disclose memories, thoughts and feelings that they might withhold in a face-to-face situation. Both client and therapist have time for reflecting on the past and recapturing forgotten memories, time for privately processing their reactions and giving thought to their own responses. With e-therapy, space is eliminated and time expanded. Overall it considerably reduces the amount of therapeutic input, as well as the speed and pressure that therapists habitually have to work under.

Ironically, the anonymity and invisibility provides a therapeutic environment that comes much closer than classical analysis to Freud's ideal of the "analytic blank screen". Sitting behind the patient on the couch still leaves room for a multitude of clues to the analyst"s individuality; e-therapy provides almost none. Whether distance and reciprocal anonymity reduces or increases the level of transference has yet to be investigated.