“Are We Logged in?” – Undergraduate Student Experiences with Cyber-Counseling

Background:

Cyber-counseling offers improved service access and reduces the social stigma associated with help seeking (Grubaugh et al., 2008). Studies have demonstrated the therapeutic gains of cyber-counseling (Barak et al., 2008; Murphy et al., 2011), but research is scant on the cyber-counseling processes and user experiences. Similarly, research rarely examines the entire trajectory of cyber-counseling relationships, from the first interview to termination. Using data collected from a cyber-counseling program provided by a social work department at a university, this study poses the following questions: (1) What are the benefits and challenges of cyber-counseling emerging from the counseling processes? (2) What are the client experiences with cyber-counseling?     

Methods:

MSW student counselors (n=22) and undergraduate clients (n=33) participated in the study. Qualitative Content Analysis (Elo & Kyngäs, 2008) methodology was used to analyze a total of 385 anonymized email exchanges and 265 chat messages. Two trained doctoral students independently coded the transcripts, and the research team met regularly to review emerging themes and codes, explore any discrepancies, and resolve differences by in-depth discussion. All quotes were extracted from the transcripts without alteration, increasing the study’s trustworthiness (Patton, 1990).

Results:

Three overarching themes emerged from the analysis:

(1) Advantages of cyber-counseling. Advantages including accessibility, flexibility, and immediacy for clients who were busy with school, work, and personal commitments were identified. A client wrote: “I liked being able to fit it around my schedule (I don't think I'd have been able to make it to meetings during test days and essay deadlines!)”. Another wrote: “I actually decided to write you right now because I'm sitting in the library having a mini-freak out because of all the work I have, feeling overwhelmed and some stuff with my Mum.”

(2) Challenges of cyber-counseling. One of the most prevalent challenges was technical difficulties. A client stated: “I hit the wrong button and saved a draft instead of sending out the email! It seems like technical difficulties keep happening to me when I try to write to you :).” General resistance, frustration, or discomfort towards cyber-counseling also emerged. Another client noted: “I don’t want to write to [the] Counselor... I am annoyed and resistant toward completing this ‘assignment’.”  

(3) Cyber sessions also offer insights and opportunities different from in-person sessions. These included a sense of safety, and a journal-like quality. A client wrote: “I signed up for the cyber-counseling because I was feeling very low for a long time and I wanted to talk about it with someone without feeling guilty that I was wasting their time.” The journal-like quality of the online format was also noted. A client wrote: “I'm writing in the state of mind as if this were a journal, one of my entries or night session of thoughts flowing through my subconscious.”                                           

Conclusion:

Advancements in technology have augmented the development of cyber-counseling by diversifying therapeutic modalities. This study provides evidence on the unique benefits and challenges of cyber-counseling with undergraduate clients and illuminates user experiences that illustrates the uniqueness of cyber-counseling practice.