Newly completed by SeeIT, in conjunction with Ideas Garden, an Intranet application for Leeds University Student Counselling Centre.
I am surprised that more traditional face to face services do not go online. Online counselling is something that I see as easily adapted to the Internet.
As long as you get the basics right (like security, audit trails, client functionality) there are plenty of advantages to this.
The Internet generation is completely comfortable at a keyboard and monitor. Apart from both counsellor and client saving on travel time, it is said that it easier to bare yourself online than it is in person – the . I know I would have a much easier time baring my soul to a PC in the knowledge that there is either complete or partial anonymity for me.
In this case counselling takes place using a secure chat facility, in a very similar way to how Google Chat or Skype Chat works. Appointments and chat sessions are managed by a local administrator, and counsellors are free to counsel rather than manage.
This also has applications in areas such as tech support, pre-sales queries and education & training. The main advantage to using this type of system over something like Skype is that clients interact with your web presence, and you manage users, appointments, counsellors all from a central location, rather than diluting your online presence by using third party tools.
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