Counselling at a distance: Challenges and new initiatives

Traditional views of the possibilities of counselling at a distance, mediated by telecommunications technology, are challenged. The current status of telephone counselling is reviewed– it is proposed that the telephone is a vibrant innovative medium for therapeutic work. Computer involvement in therapeutic work is defined, and the issues confronting computer-mediated therapy are contrasted with developments in computer-supported co-operative work. It is concluded that active collaboration between therapists, social scientists and computer scientists is required to develop therapy-specific computer applications to mediate in therapy-at-a-distance.