I have enjoyed reading everyone's thoughts on On-line therapy!
For me personally, I guess it depends on what the client is requiring. I do feel on-line therapy has a valuable place, for many reasons, such as those already mentioned. I feel on-line therapy requires alot of intuition from the provider as you will need to read in between the lines, as you are missing valuable aspects such as eye contact, body language, behaviour and much more. Where as I do not necessarily believe that on-line therapy is as good as face to face therapy, I would not like to omit it as I feel it is a valuable starting point for many. I guess that's exactly what it is for me, a starting point, I do feel going too deep into someone's inner self on-line could put them at considerable risk, what about suicidal ideation? Not everyone will admit to this, it is alright opening a can of worms but we as counsellors etc need to be able to contain the worms so they don't all surface at the same time and choke the client! As with all things I feel there is a balance to be sought.

Jacqueline