ABSTRACT

This chapter examines email as a tool to deliver therapy and to provide psychological support. There is an intense debate among mental health professionals to determine whether the advantages and benefits of text-based online interventions outweigh their limitations. The online environment has grown to become a much more important component of human communication in the last twenty years. Due to the advances and improvements in new technologies, computer mediated communication is here to stay. E-therapy has special characteristics and differences with traditional interventions and this fact has raised several concerns among professionals. The role of non-verbal behaviour in the conveyance of the above elements has consistently been highlighted in the academic literature and research. When it comes to text-based interventions online, the question is whether it is possible to build a positive and strong therapeutic relationship in the absence of the non-verbal cues and the subtleties that characterise face-to-face communication.