13.1 Historical Perspectives of Distance Counseling

As the early 2000s began integrating technology into everyday life, using it extensively for business purposes, the counseling field began extensive research to integrate technology into mental health care. An article by Riper (2010) summarized research articles presented at the first international E-mental Health Summit organized in 2009. While the summit emphasized international collaboration, leading researchers presented their findings on the use of technology to provide “screening, health promotion, prevention, early intervention, treatment, or relapse prevention, improving health care delivery (i.e., electronic patient files), professional education (e-learning), and online research in the mental health field. In a broader sense, all Internet interventions are, in one way or another, targeting the “mind” and human behavior (Riper, 2010, p.1).”

Riper (2010) also spoke about articles that started the initial discussions on ethical dilemmas the researchers encountered when using technology, such as security risks when using online platforms and confidentiality issues. While the early 2000s saw a significant shift to digital platforms and counselors began to integrate technology to provide mental health care, it was only during the COVID-19 global pandemic that the counseling field was pushed to rely heavily on digital psychotherapy and mental health care. The impact of the pandemic was sudden, closing any form of in-person interactions to combat the virus. The pandemic also saw a rise in the number of mental health cases, making it imperative to provide care through online platforms (Feijt, 2023).

The shift to digital platforms meant creating guidelines to tackle ethical dilemmas and protect client confidentiality, especially when using virtual interaction. This meant analyzing a counselor’s readiness to use technology to provide mental health services and creating guidelines to address ethical dilemmas.