Online advice

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The term online counseling (also: Internet consulting or online - consulting ) refers to a computer-based consultancy that over the Internet gives media and interactive occurs.

General

Very different interaction processes are summarized under the collective term online advice . Specific forms of communication are: e-mail advice, chat advice, advice in forums. In terms of content, online advice differs in terms of target group orientation, subject area (legal, psychological, educational) and advice concepts (specialist advice or process advice). Advice presupposes a reciprocal reference between the adviser and the person seeking advice (clients, customers, clients, patients, etc.). One can only speak of online counseling if the counseling also takes place interactively on the Internet itself . This can take place as an independent counseling process, but it can also happen temporarily before the start of an immediate counseling "face to face" (initiation of contact) or between the regular counseling sessions. As an interactive communication platform, the Internet also opens up new opportunities for advice . Commercial and private advisory institutions and, above all, from the church and social sectors as well as freelancers offer online advice. The consumer center also offers online advice on consumer law and energy saving . In isolated cases, this option is already being used by authorities in the context of developing e-government .

A market analysis has shown that for the apps currently on offer in the "Medicine" and "Health and Wellness" categories, products with diagnostic or therapeutic requirements have so far been rather rare. In March 2017, a seal of approval for health apps was discussed in the BMG's live stream under the motto #gesundheitdigital. Here the question arises whether a scientifically proven effectiveness, as for example with the study-supported online therapy program deprexis24, is sufficient

Psychosocial and church services

For many years, on the initiative of the Federal Conference on Educational Advice, there has also been online advice for parents and young people - virtual educational advice . Churches' psychosocial life counseling initiatives and institutions have been offering online counseling since the mid-1990s. Thus the Telefonseelsorge Germany , which is already familiar from the 1950s with media consulting work done pioneering work in this area. Regional churches , dioceses , ecclesiastical advice centers as well as the central associations of independent welfare , AWO , Der Paritätische Wohlfahrtsverband , Diakonie and Caritas have also developed interactive communication on the Internet in recent years . Examples are: The Kinderschutzbund , Pro Familia (Germany) , the Internet pastoral care , the pregnancy counseling of the skf , the advice portal of the Caritas on the topics of pregnancy advice, psychosocial advice for children and adolescents through Jugendnotmail.de, parent and youth advice , Addiction counseling, spa counseling for mothers, counseling for disabilities and mental illness as well as cross- generational volunteer services , the online counseling service of the youth migration services (JMD) for young people with a migration background, and the virtual counseling center of the Catholic Federal Conference for Marriage, Family and Life Counseling (KBKEFL) . Recent developments combine the advantages of online and face-to-face counseling as blended counceling (e.g. drug counseling with the support of an app in Frankfurt).

Practical experience: closeness through distance

Studies and practical experience of online counseling show that contrary to what was initially assumed, counseling contacts on the Internet are emotionally intense. People seeking advice often describe communicating about problem areas that they would not tell anyone over the phone. It is precisely this form of a low-threshold offer and the possibility of anonymity on the Internet that online advice can take place intensively. This creates the paradoxical situation of closeness through distance , which is also described, for example, in telephone counseling. This distance causes socially taboo topics to be addressed: sexuality, dealing with violence, dying, death and self-harming behavior. Those seeking advice from online counseling providers experience chat and mail communication even more easily than telephone calls, as they do not even have to reveal their voice on the Internet.

Differences in the psychosocial area

There are significant conceptual differences in this form of advice: Many online advisors identify themselves as a person by posting a brief profile of themselves - sometimes with a photo - on their website. In contrast, there is also the concept that advisors and those seeking advice remain anonymous. This online counseling concept practices telephone counseling with z. Some lay people and organizations working on a voluntary basis from self-help, analogous to their principles on the phone. The anonymity of the counselors partly means that people with severe trauma report who, according to their own statements, would not be able to stand to reveal themselves to a counterpart with the mostly shameful topic. On the other hand, there are also those seeking advice who specifically select consultants using a photo and short profile. Online counseling therefore also differs in many ways in the psychosocial area: conceptually, with regard to presentation, with regard to the medium, with regard to the target group and with regard to the provider.

Advice from other freelancers

For several years now, freelancers have also been offering advice on the Internet. This represents an extension of the company's own offer, because individual advice is a core task in many liberal professions . This affects lawyers , doctors , notaries , tax advisors and auditors , among others . The insecurity of the network poses a considerable problem for the liberal professions in relation to the relationship of trust with their clientele. These professional groups are usually criminally obliged not to disclose private secrets . Publication of online communication through unencrypted Internet communication , however, is a contradiction to confidential conversation, which can only be resolved through secure framework conditions such as mandatory encryption. More and more frequently, sequences conveyed by the media are being incorporated into a conventional consultation process. In this way, a client does not have to come to the law firm for every development of an ongoing process. Letter templates are exchanged and discussed on the Internet before further steps are taken.

Dangers of online advice

Advice on the Internet brings with it new problems. The apparent anonymity of the internet seduces people into revealing things that they would otherwise never name in public. The following can be problematic:

  • The Internet is not secure, so third parties may read along. An unencrypted e-mail is not suitable for communicating confidential or personal data. An encryption technique, e.g. B. PGP or its free variant GnuPG can be used.
  • Since the user names used are often identical and are used in different web contexts, there is a risk that extensive personality profiles will be created by unauthorized parties.
  • Third parties can also gain access to advice data via pharming . Especially in the case of targeted attacks on individual people, this form may be used. a. used by illegally working credit agencies. These create complex profiles about the respective target person. Clients use the information obtained e.g. B. for staffing, lending, insurance and the like. a.
  • The institutions that offer online advice should therefore educate users about the remaining dangers and show how those seeking advice can actively counteract the dangers through self- data protection.

A comprehensive security concept can help if it is up to date and actively counteracts a wide variety of threats and also educates those seeking advice. In addition to the security issues, however, it is also important to clarify how the organization itself deals with the content of the advice. In this case, data protection , especially in such sensitive areas increasingly important as the organization it is responsible, what exactly happens with the data of the clients.

In online counseling, new forms of communication disorders can occur that the counselors are not aware of because familiar communication situations are shaped by corrective factors such as posture, facial expressions and the sound of voices. Taking up and further developing the experiences of the first studies on online counseling and the evaluations of the pioneering institutions is therefore a central challenge in the field of online counseling. In addition to the important, above all technically-related dangers of data security, the dangers of online psychological counseling are also clear To those seeking advice and to the counselor to bear in mind. One example each should illustrate the topic:

Thanks to the low-threshold access to online counseling, those seeking advice can miss the way to face-to-face counseling if they are not made aware of the limits of online counseling through the website or the advisor. However, we know from the research results that many people seeking advice come to ftf advice via online advice. Others, with serious disorders, on the other hand, could lose valuable time or even be misdirected. Whoever knows about this danger will also know how to face it.

Consultants can be at risk of succumbing to the acceleration that technology will bring. In itself, at least email counseling offers the opportunity to take enough time to read a text carefully and to think about an answer again before sending it. However, the circumstances can tempt you to react quickly and slip into a hectic response that can trigger or accelerate the consultant's burnout. This is all the more likely if an institution does not have enough time to answer an e-mail, if resources are scarce, if the consultant works alone or if online counseling takes up too much of the total consultancy workload.

Traumatized consultants in non-professional online counseling can expose themselves to a very high level of self-endangerment. Because those seeking advice write more openly about their experiences in online counseling, traumatized counselors are inevitably exposed to their own trauma. Parallels to the self-help groups of the 1980s can be seen here. In these cases, a volunteer online consultant will only be able to get a user seeking advice as far as he himself has come with his trauma processing. Online counseling centers must be aware of these dangers and take them into account when training online counselors and in their training concepts (similar to telephone counseling).

Professionalization of online advice

Online advice enters the professionalization phase in terms of the technical and infrastructural framework as well as the professional qualifications of the online consultants. Professional associations, umbrella, professional, welfare associations and chambers, but also cost units, are now developing minimum standards for technically justifiable and professionally qualified online advice. Only a few professional chambers and associations have already introduced binding quality standards for online advice. Examples are: Telephone counseling in Germany , the Professional Association of German Psychologists (BDP), the Federation of Swiss Psychologists (FSP) and Pro Familia (Germany) . The Professional Association of Austrian Psychologists (BÖP) has set up a working group on this topic. In NRW, the public and independent welfare organizations have agreed on joint recommendations for online advice.

further education

Online counseling has hardly found its way into the consultant training courses of the various professional groups and consultancy associations. This is due on the one hand to the pioneering situation that is coming to an end, but on the other hand also to the fact that up to now mostly only individual consultants are familiar with this form of advice. In addition, many consultants assume that you can decide whether to practice online counseling or only face-to-face counseling. Practice shows, however, that online counseling often takes place where it was not initially offered or intended: Counseling centers and freelancers receive inquiries via the Internet and at this point cannot return: They cannot communicate ( Paul Watzlawick ). In addition, more and more people looking for advice inquire via the Internet and "feel" whether they want to get advice in a special facility. Contact initiation is increasingly taking place via the Internet (homepage / e-mail) without this being conceptually recorded. For these and other reasons, it is becoming apparent that the basic competency of "online counseling" belongs in the consultant training in general and that corresponding training and further training modules are necessary for this. However, there are first university courses on the subject of online counseling, for example in the psychological field, as the importance of this form of counseling has become significantly more relevant due to the Corona crisis , among other things .

See also

literature

  • Christian Hinrichs: Online advice - introduction to a newly developed field of social work. Chemnitz 2003. Rabenstück-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-935607-14-8 .
  • Karlheinz Benke: Online advice and the self. Image, images and images in virtual space. Duisburg 2007. Wiku publishing house for science and culture. ISBN 3-865-53188-1
  • Federal Conference for Educational Advice : Online Advice. Help on the Internet for young people and parents. Fürth 2003. ISBN 3-9805923-5-9
  • Nicola Döring: Social Psychology of the Internet. The importance of the Internet for communication processes, identities, social relationships and groups (2nd) book series "Internet and Psychology: New Media in Psychology". Göttingen 2003. Hogrefe. ISBN 3-8017-1466-7
  • Waldemar Dzeyk: Trust in Internet offers . An empirical study on the influence of credibility indicators in the use of online therapy and online counseling services. Dissertation Cologne 2005 Internet resource .pdf
  • Norbert Götz: caught in the net. Psychosocial counseling on the Internet. A qualitative study with young people in an online interview . Munich 2003. KoPaed. ISBN 3-935686-46-3
  • A. Klein: Participation structures and quality of advice in the online area. 2003. URL: .pdf
  • Birgit Knatz and Bernard Dodier: Help from the net. Theory and practice of advice via email. Stuttgart 2003. Klett-Cotta-Verlag. ISBN 3-608-89720-8
  • Stefan Kühne and Gerhard Hintenberger (eds.): Handbook online advice. Göttingen 2009. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. Contents ISBN 978-3-525-40154-5
  • N. Kutscher: Quality of online advice. An initial analysis of various providers. 2003. .pdf
  • Bernd Reiners: E-Mail advice in youth welfare. A handbook for training. Based on the model of child protection centers . Self-published by the Federal Association of Child Protection Centers (Hrsg.) Cologne 2005. Contents ISBN 3-9809332-0-2
  • Frank van Well: Psychological counseling on the Internet. Bergisch Gladbach 2000: E. Ferger-Verlag.
  • Joachim Wenzel: Change in consulting through new media. Study at the University of Mainz. Göttingen 2013. V&R Unipress. Contents ISBN 978-3-8471-0169-7
  • Angela Zeugner and Jan Göritz: The Golden Boy - An email consultation, as it is in the book. Erlangen 2008. Wunderwaldverlag. ISBN 978-3-940582-06-5

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Energy advice online
  2. ↑ deprexis 24 - Online therapy program for depression , at www.deprexis24.de, accessed on September 28, 2018
  3. ↑ Study "Opportunities and Risks of Health Apps" published , PM Federal Ministry of Health from April 25, 2016, accessed on June 10, 2017
  4. ↑ CHARISMHA - Opportunities and Risks of Health Apps
  5. ↑ Rauchmelder BAC - drug advice with an app in Frankfurt. Retrieved January 14, 2019 .
  6. ↑ University course online counseling. Retrieved May 7, 2020 .
  7. ↑ By Markus Zottler | 05:30 am, 07 May 2020: Graz start-up Instahelp: Currently "30 percent" more consultations in digital psychologist practice. May 7, 2020, accessed May 7, 2020 .