Counsellor students’ conceptions of online counselling in Scotland and Finland

Abstract

Online counselling literature indicates that the quality of effective online counselling is intrinsically linked to methods used and experiences gained in counselling training courses and suggests that online counselling is a very real alternative to meeting face-to-face. In Europe, online counselling is becoming a widespread idea. However, counsellors may understand and use it in different ways. Therefore, it is important to study how counsellor students who will work in different contexts construct their personal views of online counselling. This study examined the conceptions of online counselling held by early career counsellors undertaking additional training, hereafter referred to counsellor students. Findings from responses suggest four different orientations toward online counselling: technical, organisation-centred, counselling-ethical and developing orientations.