Why Email Therapy?

Not as common as other types of therapy, but email therapy can be useful for individuals who don't want an instant therapeutic experience.

When you traditionally think of therapy, most people will visualise the standard therapeutic experience. Two people sat opposite each other in a room trying to deal with the issues and problems the client has brought into the room that day.

That stereotype was very much the case until the pandemic hit and the way society and as a result, the way therapists worked had to change. At that point, online therapy grew massively and whilst people are perhaps moving back towards face to face interactions, the online therapy community remains strong.

But as a therapist who works entirely online, I wanted to talk about email therapy, its advantages and the type of clients who might benefit from having their therapy in this way.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept of email therapy, you and your therapist agree a day in which you will share your thoughts and feelings, by way of an email and an agreed word count. In return, your therapist will email you a response within an agreed timescale and this will continue at intervals which you are comfortable with.

Whilst that structure might seem daunting, by having an agreed word count and an agreed schedule for you and your therapist to share thoughts and feelings, you are entering into a safe, boundaried therapy relationship. Your therapist will still provide an empathetic and understanding response with some insights as to your patterns of behaviour, anxiety as well as some thoughts as how you can work through them. The main differences being that you aren't sharing the thoughts in the same space at the same time and communication is written as opposed to being verbal.

However in reading the above, you might have many questions. I will try to answer some of the most common ones:

• Why does the email have to be sent by an agreed day and time? Why can't I send it when I feel like it?

By having a set structure as to when you will send your email and the therapist replies, the therapeutic relationship has boundaries which will help keep therapy safe.

• Why does there have to be a word count?

  All therapists who offer email therapy decide on what they think is an appropriate word count. At What's Next Counselling it is 800 words per email. Whilst to some that might seem too small, it encourages the client to think about what they want to address in their therapy email. There is an argument that if the word count is too high, or there isn't even one at all, the therapeutic value might be lost as the both the client and therapist could end up focusing too much on small talk!

• If all the therapist is doing is replying to my email, why does it cost the same as a face to face therapy session?

  Because the therapist will sit down and allocate the length of a therapy session to reading, thinking about and carefully wording their response.

• Who would benefit from email therapy?

If you are the kind of person who gets anxious in social situations, doesn't like being put on the spot, prefers time to consider their responses and doesn't mind not getting instant comments on the stuff they want to bring to therapy then this process could work really well for you. Perhaps you are the kind of person who prefers the written word. Maybe you are really busy or have a job which has alot of travel or unsociable hours and being able to compose your thoughts at different times of the day might really appeal.

• Who shouldn't consider email therapy?

  If you are struggling with a difficult mental health condition or are at risk of hurting yourself or ending your life, email therapy might not be for you. As a potential client, you have to be comfortable with the delay between your thoughts and the response of the therapist.

In addition to the above there are other benefits to email therapy. Maybe as a client you would like the hybrid approach incorporating email therapy could have should you not be able to put an hour aside for your therapy session some weeks. Also some people find it easier to acknowledge their progress or remember something the therapist told them when it is all written down.

I hope this post has helped provide a little more clarity on email therapy and why for some clients it could be worth considering.