Online counselling
Every year the popularity of online counselling among Russian speakers around the world grows exponentially. The field itself is developing fast and is reaching a new level of practical application.
Today’s technology lets you see a counsellor without leaving home. You can work online with a specialist from another city, or even from another country.
Online counselling means:
- Saving time and energy
- Surroundings that are always comfortable
- Freedom of choice, wherever you are
The ‘Freud’s Legacy’ centre and club is
practising counsellors and consultants. All of them:
- hold one-to-one and group sessions online;
- run the meetings of the Club;
- regularly take further training;
- write academic and popular articles.
Choose your counsellor online
Dimitri Korenev
- Founder of ‘Freud’s Legacy’, of the Club, of the M.O.S.T. project and more
- Author of many educational courses in practical psychology
- Practising counsellor
Alisa Permyakova
Consultant in personality typology within the S-Theory
- Writer
- Production consultant
- Body-based practices
Marina Ananko
Consultant in personality typology within the S-Theory
- Counsellor; works with the personality portrait based on the S-Theory
‘A counsellor over Skype’, or ‘What a session looks like’
Most specialists today work online very successfully via Skype, Viber, WhatsApp and Zoom. Which messenger you use depends first and foremost on the format:
- a one-to-one session (just you and your counsellor);
- a group meeting (a counsellor and a group of 5 to 10 people).
Any of them will do for a one-to-one session, while groups more often use Skype and Zoom. For a private appointment an online counsellor will normally suggest whichever messenger suits you best.
Group online sessions in the counsellor-plus-group format (on topics from six different areas of life) and support events take place on our site every day. You can become a member of our Club and attend any of these events as often as you like.
A month of membership in the Club as a gift
Take an online session with any counsellor at ‘Freud’s Legacy’ and get a month of membership in the Club as a GIFT!
How do you choose an online counsellor?
How well the work goes depends directly on how open and trusting a relationship you build with your counsellor. When choosing an online counsellor, people look at:
1) Objective criteria:
- training;
- hours of practice;
- specialisation;
- personal projects, published articles, their own methods...
2) Subjective criteria:
- sex and age;
- appearance;
- client reviews...
If you need an online counsellor for a one-off issue (coming out of a depression, finding a compatible partner, sorting out your relationship with your mother...), you can go to someone who specialises in that particular topic. If you can see that everyone needs professional support from time to time, in different areas of life and different situations, then choose a counsellor with a broad specialisation who works with a range of techniques, methods and approaches. Someone like that is more likely to find the key to you.
Which is better — an online session or meeting in person?
An online counsellor has a number of undeniable advantages over meeting in person:
Your choice of counsellor is not limited by where you live
That means you:
- can choose a counsellor living in another city, another country, another continent;
- can lead an active life and travel without a break in your sessions;
- can keep the same counsellor even if your work or your family life means moving regularly;
- do not lose touch with your ‘favourite doctor’ if he or she moves away;
- can meet your counsellor even if you have difficulty getting about or cannot leave the house.
Round-the-clock access to urgent support
Of course, you have to agree this at the very start. But for many people it matters enormously to know that a shoulder to lean on is always there.
Sensible use of your time and your money
Let us be honest: it is better to spend an extra hour with your counsellor than to spend it travelling. The same goes for the cost. Many people stop seeing a counsellor before the work is finished precisely because they spend too much time and money on ‘nothing’, just getting there.
Surroundings that are comfortable for you in particular
Specialists always make their consulting room welcoming for the ‘average client’: they think about the layout and the lighting and put in the proverbial armchair and couch. But however good a counsellor is and however hard they try, they cannot suit everybody’s needs. Some people simply do not feel comfortable lying down on a couch that a hundred others have lain on before them. Or you smoke, and it is easier for you to concentrate with a cigarette than to think only about how soon you can step out for one. In an online session you can lie in your own bed, sit in your favourite café or sunbathe on the beach!
Safety and confidentiality
You can choose the messenger that meets all your requirements for confidentiality. Your counsellor need not know your real name, where you live, or even your face. You will certainly not run into them at a friend’s wedding. Your counsellor is hardly likely to turn out to be your new girlfriend’s father or your boss’s wife. All in all, when it comes to confidentiality and safety, an online counsellor wins hands down.
When is an online counsellor more effective?
Most specialists who look into how effective online sessions are come to one clear answer — yes, they work! Sometimes even better than meeting in person. Why? Here are the most common reasons:
1) ‘I cannot relax in a consulting room.’
When you are at home, in familiar surroundings, in your favourite chair... it is often easier to trust your counsellor than in a room you do not know. Counsellors put a great deal of effort into creating the right atmosphere. Working online, you are already in ideal conditions for it.
2) ‘What if I run into them in town?’
Sometimes consciously, sometimes not, people are wary of meeting someone who knows all their secrets in everyday life. What if the counsellor turns out to be a friend’s father or an acquaintance of your mother’s? Online you can find a specialist not only in another city but even on another continent. That automatically brings the ‘risk’ down to practically zero.
3) ‘In weather like this I would rather stay at home.’
That sounds odd, does it not? In fact the weather has nothing to do with it. The point is that many people subconsciously do not want to part with their ‘demons’ and look for a reason to put the work off.
There is another side to it too. Older people trust today’s technology less and prefer the classic way of meeting a counsellor face to face. They cannot always manage online payments, and in such a delicate matter they are simply too shy to ask for help.
