SelfhelpMagazine

Further Help

If you have a personal problem or psychotherapeutic issue, you are advised to seek a professional in your local community and steer clear of anyone who professes to be an expert at doing any type of psychotherapy through email or chat rooms. Email and chat rooms are notoriously insecure, and hacked all the time. That means people can intercept and misuse what you say. Email can be made secure using very collocated encryption software but both sides of the discussion must engage that encryption technology. If you are not asked to encrypt your side of email communication, that email is not secure. There are no exceptions. As with many other deceptive tricks to confuse consumers, if there is no indication that encryption exists, you can safely assume that it has been omitted.

All licensed professionals are under legal and ethical obligations to give you:

• a fully detailed consent discussion as well as consent form to sign

• make sure you have proper community back up in case there's an emergency

• make sure you are over the age of 18 or have proper legal authority by means of an emancipated legal document or parental signature

• and that they are fully licensed to practice either counseling or psychotherapy in YOUR state of residence.

If they do not mention these four requirements to you, be very careful. if you see a mental health website that encourages you to contact professionals that don't require these four things of you, be very careful. Also if someone wants to work with you by telephone, they should be meeting with you first in person to do a full assessment and diagnosis. If they are not doing that, be very careful. Only you can take care of you when you are on the open Internet. Be smart and stay safe. Seek out a local professional and get the care you deserve until such a day arrives that the Internet is safe and secure, and that professionals have been properly trained to work with you online.

Dr. Maheu is working very hard to make sure that security is developed and that mental health professionals are learning research-based protocols to deliver the kinds of services worthy of public consumption. Until then she will not advocate any such email, chat room or telephone-based services. No matter how much money you or anybody else has to offer her, she will not compromise the integrity of this magazine by accepting it.

All licensed professionals are under a mandate to "do no harm" to consumers. As a licensed professional, she's doing her part to respect that mandate.