Lack of control when the client is not in the room with you. Concern about the ability to establish a therapeutic relationship without seeing the client. Concern about the client s identity. The therapist s ability to communicate and get around online. Lack of nonverbal cues.
Text based psychotherapy involves seeing only the written word.
Humans will communicate effectively no matter what the medium. A client can greet you in various ways, each of which can tip you off to how they are feeling. Look at these two sentences at the start of a session. If you can get a sense of the feeling tone in the sentence as you are starting the session, imagine how much more information you can get in a chat room with a person over a 45 minute period. The use of smilies goes a long way to reducing the harshness and starkness of the written word and to communicate feelings.