E-counselling ... The Counselling Service offers an e-counselling service to School of Education students.

Transcription

1 E-counselling... E-counselling The Counselling Service offers an e-counselling service to School of Education students. Contents What is e-counselling?... 2 How does it work?... 2 Who is it for?... 2 What are the advantages of e-counselling?... 3 Are there any disadvantages?... 3 How do I communicate online?... 3 How secure is e-counselling?... 4 What if I can t send or receive s?... 4 Who are the e-counselling counsellors?... 4 How do I register?

2 What is e-counselling? E-counselling, like face-to-face counselling, provides clients with a private space in which to explore personal issues or difficulties they are facing. These issues might be: depression anxiety panic stress bereavement relationship difficulties academic worries; or other concerns. Unlike face-to-face counselling, the process takes place online, via a fortnightly exchange of s. Like face-to-face counselling, your e-counsellor will work with you to help you to explore and understand your concerns and to help you consider any changes you might wish to make. How does it work? Ongoing e-counselling will operate as follows: with a fortnightly exchange of s. Your counsellor will specify the day by which he or she will respond to your and request that your message is received 48 hours prior to this day. For example, if your counsellor will respond on a Wednesday, you will be asked to send your message by the Monday of the same week, or earlier we request that your message does not exceed 2 pages in total, or approximately 1000 words maximum. There may be times that you would prefer to send more than one during the 2 week period. This is acceptable as long as the combined messages do not exceed the maximum length and provided that all messages are received by the specified date. Your counsellor will only send one reply each fortnight e-counselling contracts will consist of an exchange of 4 s at which point we will review how the counselling is proceeding. The contract can be extended up to a further 4 exchanges, if it is felt this would be helpful. E-counselling is not suitable for everyone and some problems can be addressed more effectively face-to-face. For example, if you feel there is a serious risk to yourself or others or if you have a history of serious mental health difficulties such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, we would advise you to contact us in person or, alternatively, to contact your GP, local Accident and Emergency service or The Samaritans. Who is it for? Students unable to access face to face counselling because you may work during the week or be on placement and unable to come in to the service during the times it is open. You will need a degree of proficiency with the written word and with using a computer if you find it difficult to express yourself in writing and/or are unfamiliar with ing, e-counselling via is unlikely to be for you. If you are unsure but have questions, please contact us. E-counselling is not an emergency service and e-counselling counsellors cannot respond to an emergency outside a scheduled appointment time. If a crisis occurs when you are having e-counselling, your counsellor will discuss with you options for accessing additional support, for example, via your GP. If you are in crisis or danger now, please contact your GP, your nearest Accident and Emergency service or the Samaritans. You can contact The Samaritans on (national helpline) or jo@samaritans.org. You may also like to contact Nightline, a service provided by students to offer confidential listening and practical information to other students from 6pm to 8am every night during term-time: tel , listening@nightline.org.uk or free calls on Skype via 2

3 What are the advantages of e-counselling? E-counselling might appeal for the following reasons: writing down your problems can feel therapeutic in itself, helping you to reflect on what is happening and gain some perspective on your situation. Perhaps you already write in a journal or find it helpful to write to someone about how you are feeling and receive their response. e-counselling offers the opportunity to reflect on your situation with someone who will aim to help you gain understanding and the ability to live a more fulfilling life. counselling via allows you the opportunity to review and reflect on what you have written before you send your message. This can help you to organise your thoughts and allows you to reread your words, or your counsellor s words, at a later date. s can be sent, or read, at any time and you are not restricted to a specified counselling appointment time (although your counsellor s reply will be on a specified day). This can be very convenient if your timetable or commitments would prevent you from attending a regular face-toface appointment. if you feel embarrassed about talking to someone about what you are experiencing, e-counselling may enable you to be more open and say more than you would find possible face-to-face. it may be a way to test out the counselling process before engaging in face-to-face counselling. Are there any disadvantages? Unlike face-to-face counselling, there will be no visual or auditory cues to aid communication. There are ways in which to compensate for this and some suggestions are detailed below: it is important to remember that there is a possibility of misunderstandings occurring more easily without visual or auditory cues. It is therefore important to mention to your counsellor if you feel a misunderstanding may have occurred or if you have any questions regarding your counsellor s meaning. whilst it can feel easier to communicate more freely online than face-to-face, it is important to remember that if you share more than you would feel comfortable with when speaking to someone, you may later feel embarrassed and reluctant to continue with e-counselling. It is therefore important to re-read your message prior to hitting the Send button, to ensure that you are comfortable with the information you are sharing. electronic communication cannot be guaranteed 100% reliable or confidential for either party (for more information, please see the Technological problems and Security and safeguards sections in our E-counselling policy statement available by ing ecounselling@brighton.ac.uk. How do I communicate online? Because we cannot rely on facial expressions, body language, gestures or tone of voice, it is helpful to describe as fully as possible what you may be experiencing, to help the counsellor to understand. Here are some suggestions of ways in which to communicate what you are thinking or feeling: Using emoticons such as :o) :-) or :) to indicate feeling happy, or :o( :-( or :( to indicate feeling sad, e.g. I am going on holiday on Friday and can t wait! :o) or I don t think I will be able to make it on Friday after all :o(. Stating thoughts or emotions directly is also helpful, e.g. I think I m hopeless at this and feel really frustrated, I have to give a presentation next week and am really worried I feel terrified or my boss shouted at me on Friday and I felt furious. State the feeling or expression in brackets after your description of what is happening, e.g. I m starting a new job in a fortnight what if I make a fool of myself? (feeling slightly apprehensive) 3

4 [nervous grin] or my boyfriend dumped me last week (feeling sad) [tearful]. emphasis you can emphasise what you are saying by using italics, bold or even CAPITALS however, please note that typing text in capitals is seen as equivalent to shouting in online communication! Using exclamation marks and question marks can also help to emphasise a point it is also helpful to type a few full stops to indicate that you are pausing for thought or have more to say, e.g. I think I might go to this new class on Thursday. not sure if I ll feel like it as I won t know anyone. (feeling scared). style writing in a way that feels natural to you is important, as your personal style will also help your counsellor build up a picture of you. How secure is e-counselling? Online communication is never 100% secure, however, there are measures you can take to increase security: make sure you use passwords both for opening your operating system and also for your account. keep your anti-virus software and firewalls up-to-date. don t leave your programme open if you are away from your computer. if you prefer, you can send your message as a password-protected Word document, sending the password to your counsellor in a separate . if you print out your s, ensure that you keep paper copies in a safe place. For more information, please see the Technological problems and Security and safeguards sections in our E-counselling policy statement available by ing ecounselling@brighton.ac.uk. What if I can t send or receive s? A technological failure, illness or other difficulty may prevent you from sending or receiving s. As a contingency, an alternative means of contact such as telephone contact will need to have been arranged prior to the commencement of e-counselling and the following procedure followed: if you know of any technical or other problems which will affect your sending or receiving s, please telephone so that your counsellor may be notified if we are aware of any such problems, we will contact you by the means arranged, to discuss alternatives. Who are the e-counselling counsellors? We are professionally trained and qualified counsellors from within the Counselling Service at the University of Brighton, who have undertaken additional, specific training and obtained qualifications in online counselling. How do I register? If you are interested in e-counselling, please ecounselling@brighton.ac.uk You will then be asked to complete the following 3 forms, which we will send to you as Word documents to complete and back: Questionnaire A requesting some information about your difficulties. E-Counselling Registration Form with your personal details. This information is needed to verify your status as a student and is required of all students registering for face-to-face counselling. E-Counselling Policy Statement which sets out the terms and conditions under which we offer 4

5 e-counselling. You will be asked to read and indicate your understanding and acceptance of our Policy Statement. Once you have returned these forms, a counsellor will then send you a more detailed questionnaire to complete this is the information which would be obtained in an initial face-to-face assessment session and is designed to ascertain the best way to help you. You will normally receive a response within 3 working days. If you have not heard from us within 5 working days please telephone If you have any questions, please contact us by ecounselling@brighton.ac.uk 5