Códigos de Ética originados do Exterior

Códigos de Ética do Exterior

ABC's Internet Therapy

Add your site to the E-Therapy Directory

Do you offer counseling via the Internet? If so, I’d be happy to list your site in the E-Therapy Directory. I will review your website, and if it is appropriate for the Directory, I will add a listing. There is no charge to be listed. Please note:

I do not hire therapists. I only track them.
This is not an advertising service.
Read below to find out whether your site qualifies.
How to get started offering e-therapy
Metanoia guidelines for e-therapy websites

Coming soon: a page of timely information especially for e-therapists, including information about research, insurance coverage, legal updates, and profiles of successful e-therapy sites. Watch for it!

(1) Does your site qualify?

To apply, you must be able to answer “YES” to all three questions:

* Are you a credentialed professional psychotherapist?
i.e.: you have a Masters or Doctorate in mental health or closely related field, and certification, license or registration attesting to appropriate training and experience in psychotherapy, and continuing accountability to the credentialing organization. Examples: marriage-family therapist, licensed professional counselor, clinical social worker, pastoral psychotherapist, psychologist, psychiatrist, psychoanalyst.

* Do you interact personally with people via the Internet to provide mental health help?
i.e. you personally communicate with people via the internet to deliver some level of mental health services - emotional support, guidance, counseling, psychoeducation, etc.

* Do you have an active website describing your services?
If your website is not launched yet, don’t apply until it is.

If you answered yes to all three criteria, I will review your site.
Click here to go to the application form>>.

Please do not complete the application if you did not answer yes to all three questions above. It is possible to read the application form without filling it out.

If you want to know how I evaluate sites, keep reading.

Please understand that the E-Therapy Directory is not an advertising service. It is a consumer report. I am not here to promote or advertise your site. I am here to provide information to consumers.

Please also understand that the E-Therapy Directory is for a very specific purpose -- I only list sites where therapists interact with people via the Internet, i.e. you communicate personally with individuals, using the Internet as the vehicle for your interaction, to provide them with personalized mental health help.

I DO NOT list:

therapists who don’t interact personally online with clients
therapists who only offer counseling by telephone (not Internet)
sites which only advertise off-line psychotherapy practices
therapists who do not have a website
sites where services are offered by someone who is not a credentialed professional psychotherapist

If you do not meet my criteria for inclusion in the E-Therapy Directory, you can still list your practice in one of several other online directories:

Who's Who in Mental Health on the Web
Clinician's Yellow Pages
@Health
Mental Health Net to list a self-help or information site

(2) How do I get started offering e-therapy?

I cannot consult with you personally about your e-therapy website.
But I can recommend these sources of help:

Peer support from other e-therapists is your best source of help.
You can join an e-therapy clinic for an easy way to get started, if you don’t want to create your own website.
My list of guidelines will tell you what you should have on your site.

Peer Support

If you are considering offering counseling online, please understand: everyone in this field is (a) a pioneer, and (b) an entrepreneur. Everyone is feeling their way as they go, so no one can tell you “how to do it.” You’ll essentially be on your own, figuring it out for yourself, along with everyone else. The best sources of help are your peers, other therapists who are offering online counseling. Here’s how to get their support:

Browse sites in this directory to look at what other therapists are doing.
Join the International Society for Mental Health Online, the primary professional organization for e-therapists. Participate in their e-mail discussion group where professionals are considering all the challenges and opportunities of “online therapy”.
Review existing sets of ethical guidelines: ISMHO, the ACA, the NBCC, the HON code, and my own Metanoia guidelines.

Joining an online group practice

One very quick way to get started in online therapy is to join one of the new virtual "clinics." These e-therapy megasites have been created to offer you an excellent technological environment for e-therapy, with security and billing features that would be too expensive for most therapists to implement on their own. Using their templates, you can set up shop very quickly. You can't be as creative as you could if you were building your own site, but it's easier and less expensive to start. They will thoroughly check your credentials for consumer protection. Here are four to check out:

Metanoia Guidelines for E-therapy websites

Of course you will want to design your website so that it reflects your personality, orientation and style, giving a prospective client a “feel” for what it would be like to work with you. You must also give them enough information so that they will be secure about your professional competence and compassion.

For the protection of consumers, there is certain information I look for on an e-therapy site. Please be sure all of the following information is available on your site, where prospective clients can access it before deciding whether to pay for your services.

1. Information about you - the therapist:

Unfortunately, internet users have learned all too well that there are some frauds out there in cyberspace. Understand that they have no way of knowing whether you really are who you say you are, and whether you really are a qualified therapist, except by what you tell them. It is essential that you put their minds at ease by providing them with real-world information that they can verify independently.

You must give prospective clients enough information to
• independently verify your credentials, and
• contact you offline if necessary.

At minimum, you must provide:

your real name
your physical location: at minimum, the state and country where you practice, preferably also the city (not necessarily your street address)
your professional office telephone number
your discipline (i.e. psychologist, marriage-family therapist, social worker, pastoral counselor etc.)
your credentials (official certification, license and/or other credentials) with enough details so that the client can contact the credentialing organization or licensing board to independently verify this information
An excellent way to provide this information, already independently verified by a neutral third party, is to register for our Credential Check service. Further information about Metanoia credential verification services is available as part of the application.

2. Information about your services:

The only complaints I’ve ever received from online therapy clients were about money. It would have been easy to avoid misunderstanding if the therapist had been upfront about the cost.

Prospective clients need to know
• how much money they are about to spend, and
• what they can expect to receive for their payment.

You need to tell them:

Fee amount (for instance, “US$20.00 per e-mail exchange”)
If you plan to charge “per minute” for answering e-mail, state up front what the total initial cost is likely to be, and set a "cap" or maximum amount you will charge per e-mail. The most frequent complaint I hear from consumers is unexpectedly large bills. Be clear about the cost.
Payment arrangements - check or MO, credit card, electronic check, charge to phone bill, PayPal etc.

If you accept credit cards, you must allow payment through a secure server (such as SSL), or (less good) provide a telephone or fax number for the client to call with credit card data. There is NO EXCUSE for asking clients to send credit card information by e-mail, or in a nonsecure web form. There are low-cost methods of accepting credit card payments.
- PayPal is a low-cost method of offering secure credit card payments. It's very popular with eBay.
- IBill offers a variety of secure payment options at a reasonable price, including telephone billing (which allows clients to charge the fee to their phone bill), online electronic checks, and secure credit card payment services.
Whether the inquirer will receive a personal private response from you, and if so, when they can expect your response (i.e. 24 hours, 48 hours, 3 weeks, etc.).
Explain how you will communicate: e-mail, live chat, video, web-based messaging, or other
State whether you offer security encryption for e-mail, chat and/or web messaging. Here are some options:
- Zip-Lip - free secure web messaging
- HushMail - free secure web messaging
- PGP - software you install with your e-mail
- S/MIME - software you install with your e-mail
Inform prospective e-patients about the limitations of e-therapy (such as what problems require face-to-face treatment), and the limitations of confidentiality, both generally and with regard to Internet privacy.