and the total is....???

[Trinka Polite]

Hi fellow OTI members!
I've been attempting to do some research on any stats that estimate how manypeople are actually engaging in online counseling. I was prompted by someone asking me, and I thought like hmmmm I DO NOT know.. So I've been trying to find some numbers...Any suggestions?

Thanks

[John Norris]

Good Luck!

I've been looking into these sort of numbers in virtual worlds and have a few things based on what the application reports. However, going this way is really tricky in that one person can have multiple logins/avatars. I'd guess a better way is some general study of what people themselves report.

For what it is worth-

IMVU

Second Life

I will have more numbers from the worlds published soon. But they will not be the over all type of thing you are probably looking for.

Hope it helps in someway!

John

[Trinka Polite]

Thanks John! It's a start. I think as online counseling/therapy becomes more widely accepted that we will see more research that will give us a better picture of usage. I'll review the info that you sent to me.

[Stephen Goss]

So far as I am aware nobody has accurate figures for the numberes of online counsellors. We do know that it is growing - certainly more and more people are taking the wise choice of training for this specialism and the throughput of courses that lead to an adequate standard of competence to practice would be one way of keeping tabs on the growth of the sector.

Otherwise, it might mean undertaking a professon-mapping exercise. I have been invovled in one such mapping exercise (looking at volunteer counsellors in Scotland, rather than online counsellors world-wide) and I can say that it is a pretty resource-intensive process. Impressive results, but definately requiring significant leg-work! It would take an overseeing body or foundation to fund that kind of research properly (I'd love to lead it if anyone wants to help find the funding! ;o))

Short of that sort of formal process, there are the memberships of professional bodies (over 130 here at OTI; about 150 in ISMHO, in the UK ACTO just have around 30 members I think) but those memberships will be overlapping and not really representative of the field in themselves of course - there is a lot more going on than those numbers would suggest I know.

Then of course there's the tricky question of what 'onine counselling' should include - for instance I am about to set up a texting crisi-intervention service for a group called the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) - would that be part of the same pool? Would we include telephone or VoIP? But perhaps those are all questions to wait for the reseasrch funding application!

All other thoughts welcome here of course...
Stephen

[Trinka Polite]

Stephen
You probably bring up what will probably be one of the biggest challenges--defining terms. And for that matter, what terms will be acceptable? I appreciate the perspective you added to the discussion, because I was wondering about how many people are engaging in online counseling as far as clients--not professionals. To add to what you mentioned, I think we will see, with growth, the standards of competence go through many revisions.

Some questions that my friend and I were tossing around were like what demographic is actually using online counseling and since this is a new field, what sources do you include in your marketing plan to reach more of them, etc... I know there is some literature/discussions out there on how online counseling may reach certain populations, but are we seeing them? do they know we're out here? :-)

i know that most of these questions have no answers yet, but just wanted to get some thoughts on the subject.

[Trinka Polite]

Here's an article from Canada on usage of online counseling:
http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.news.utoronto.ca%2Fb...

Trinka
http://www.politecounseling.com

[Dr. Gina M.-S.]

Greetings!

A paper just came out what most people use the web for in health. It was posted in the Twitterverse. My cursory reading stated that most people right now actually read as many side articles on their health, then confer with their PCP on treatment decisions. Something like 60-80%. I found that interesting.

Sincerely,

Dr. G-