Read full article here at 2022 Journal of Counseling Research and Practice.
ABSTRACT COVID-19 has ushered in a new chapter of counseling in the United States and throughout the world. Counselors’ responses to the pandemic have been fundamentally reshaped by universal elements ofthe information age, including high-speed internet, smartphones, and computer based technologies such as synchronous meeting software and collaboration tools. Now, clinicians can use technology to ally with clients, deliver psychoeducational media, and open new categories ofintervention and engagement that alter the size, shape, and availability of the
“counseling room” by extending it into a virtual space. The immediate investment in information technology demanded by the pandemic highlights an increasing need to deepen clinicians’ awareness ofthe psychology of cyberspace, the clinical applications of technological capabilities, and the use ofsynchronous online video counseling, all of which can directly increase quality of care, strengthen the therapeutic bond, and improve clinical outcomes. This manuscript explores the pairing oftechnology and counseling, outlining an open, integrative approach to counseling with updated practice and ethical competence. Properly conceived and combined, technical innovation and advanced counseling strategies developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic will lead to updated practices of technology-assisted counseling that offer a new modality of care as fundamental and as potentially impactful as talk therapy was over a century ago.