Therapeutic Encounters
In traditional psychotherapy, client and therapist typically agree to meet once or more a week at a specified time and place, usually the therapist's office. Benefits from this arrangement include a predictable weekly event the client can look forward to for emotional support, a renewal of their commitment to improve their life, and regular progress in resolving their issues. On the other hand, fixing a meeting time can also create one more stressor for the client: one more place they need to be at a certain time, one more place they must perform. Adding to the stress, clients are typically asked to pay for "unexcused" missed sessions.
If it is anything, online therapy is convenient and empowering. Clients enjoy considerable control of the when, where, what, how, and how much they devote to the process. They can engage virtually any time, and to any degree, they choose. A client may send email twice a day or once a month. He or she may compose or read email at lunch... or at 3 a.m., hanging from the ceiling, wearing an all-cool space ranger helmet.
Unlike face-to-face psychotherapy in which clients typically remember only a fraction of what has been said, email therapy users have 100% recall... because everything is written. They can choose to re-read an email as often as they like, or set aside a newly composed email for later editing. Clients have the option of taking all the time they need to think things through so they can write exactly what they mean, or to spontaneously write whatever pops into their head, just as they might chat in an ongoing face-to-face conversation.
Because they have so much control of their therapeutic encounters, online therapy clients are truly co-captains of their therapeutic experience.