ABSTRACT
I’ve been thinking, but…even though I open my arms regularly with razor blades I hate pain. Thank God I can’t feel it. I’ve really tried too.
A message like this is stark and shocking, but is not atypical of the 64,000 email contacts received by the Samaritans in 2001 (Samaritans 2002). With a rapidly expanding email befriending service that has been up and running since 1994, the Samaritans have perhaps the greatest body of experience and expertise in offering therapeutic email work of any organisation in the UK. While they are clear that what they offer, as in their longer-established telephone and face-to-face work, is befriending and not therapy, it is certainly therapeutic, and they have a solid body of experience that can prove very valuable for others entering the field of online therapy.
