Encryption safety in online therapy

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There has been a fiery discussion about the need of using encryption by online therapists going on on one of the lists I follow closely. 

Maybe not everyody is completely clear on what encryption is. If I work online with clients I will use a special email adress like hushmail or safe-mail because I know they are encrypted so they are less easy to hack. For chatsessions I will also use a medium that is encrypted so others do not listen in on what we are talking about. In my country there are no laws yet that online counsellors have to do this. But those therapists working f2f are used to having to secure their data safely by law. They have to have a locked cabinet in their rooms where they keep all their sensitive data. Why should online work be any different? For me that means that I keep my client info and emails on a password protected USB stick and that the stick is kept in the locked cabinet.

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Not all therapists think encryption is neccesary, basically because it means we ask clients to do more before therapy can commence. We will ask them to set up for an encrypted email account, or to learn how encrypted word documents work. Some therapists are afraid that this will scare clients off, and who would want to steal emails anyway? On the one hand you may say, they have a point. But who would want to steal your medical data from your doctor's office? Yet would you feel comfortable if they did not take precautions to keep your data safe? I think clients are smart enough to set up an email account. Most people do have gmail or hotmail already and it is not more complicated than that. And we occasionally might have to spend a little extra time explaining something. I for one do not mind that.

What I also urge is that clients take care of where they keep their own emails and chat session transcripts. Almost everything that goes on in therapy is very confidential and not something you might want to share with others. So if you share a computer [at work or at home] investing in a simple password protected USB stick is always a good idea. 

I would welcome one clear rule that covers Europe on online work, some way that clients can see who they can trust. I have insured this as much as possible by getting verified at the online therapy institute. This is an international website that any therapist can join. And some go the extra mile by getting verified. The online therapy institute check your website and make sure that you meet their standards for working ethically online and that includes using encryption.

Please share your views on this post. I would like to hear what others think about this whole debate. 

Related articles

• Is sharing information on the internet safe? - Confidentiality in Online Counseling (breakthrough.com)
• What is the Most Secure Email Service? (brighthub.com)
• What Is Online Therapy? (brainz.org)
• How Secure is Email? (brighthub.com)
• Why would one want to encrypt an message (wiki.answers.com)
• Working with Removable Media (brighthub.com)
• CES: SanDisk adds AES encryption to business USB drives (v3.co.uk)
• Kingston unveils new secure DataTraveler 4000 and DataTraveler Vault Privacy Edition flash drives (slashgear.com)

Working with affirmation cards online

 One of the things I love to work with when focussing on positive affirmations are affirmation cards. These can either be selfmade or bought. I like both and use them in therapy and for myself. My selfmade are on small notecards that I can decorate as I like. On these I will write affirmations that mean something like me and I will put them in places around the house whee I know I will see them often.


The second kind of affirmation cards I like to use are those that you can buy in shops and online. Most bookshops will carry some of them, for me the new age bookshop in town carries several of them. I don't often buy them online as I have found that these kind of cards are very personal. The lay-out and the artwork of the cards has to speak out to you.


There are many kind of cards you can find. I have scanned some of my favorites. They include two series of cards from Louise Hay. "Health and body" cards and "I can do it" cards. From both sets one example of front and back are shown. With these sets I will chose one or more that somehow call out to me that day. Things I feel good about already or aspects of my life that are a little shaky and I need some reenforcement about. As with my selfmade cards I will place them around the house and will look at them several times a day and even repeat the affirmations.


Not strictly affirmation cards but still favorites of mine are the "wolf song cards" These I will draw randomly and then look in the booklet that comes with the cards what this animal has to teach me today. The totem animal I picked today is the brown bear and it stands for: choises, decision & options. And that does make sense to me.


I might hear you ask how I can use all this online? In several ways really. I can look for online sites were I can find cards and work with those. If I want to work with the cards with clients we can do so together using a whiteboard on which we can both enter information. This works really well in a chat session. When working through email, I can scan and add images of cards that I think would have meaning for a client and they can leave them on their computer or make prints and put them on places throughout the house that feel good for them.  Or any other means that they can think of. The possibilities are infinite.


This post has been written with the help of my part-time dog Nina, who when she visits me loves to sit next to me to watch me work and then when it is ready she will look the article over and add her approval. Or not.

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Related articles

• Positive Affirmations, Why Should We Practice Them? (realgoalgetter.com)
• Uses of the Interactive Whiteboard in Distance Education (brighthub.com)

Things to come...

Things to come... 

Last week I asked friends what they would like to find on a website if they were looking for a coach/counsellor. I can keep adding what I like, but I would rather that it gives the reader what they are looking for. So keep an eye on my safe haven website as well as this blog for many new additions. To give you an idea of things to come:

• More factual information on what it means to be Highly Sensitive or to live with Chronic pain.
• When is pain chronic?
• Tips on conserving energy
•  Book tips
• Pain diary [track your pain through the day]
• Mood tracker
• online diary

And much much more. If you have ideas of what you would like to see included here, just tell me. Who knows your idea might very well make it to my websites.

Marketing II

It looks so easy doesn't it? When you see a webpage, blog, etc that looks pretty and is driving a lot of traffic. Until you start your own marketing campaign and you come from a background were you never learnt how to do it and are not a wizard with computers. It is easy to get stuck.
It threatened to happen to me. 

For a year I saved links to websites that were useful, made lists of what I would do in my marketing campaign and when I finally sat down to do something about it, I had so much that I did not know were to start.

In stead of panicking I sat down and asked myself. What would I ask a client to do in this situation? 




Then it became clear to me and soon I had a shortlist.

• Ask for help. Talk to your own coach/experts for pointers
• Make a mindmap to structure.
• Set goals [week, month, half year]
• Don't make the goals so big I can't achieve them
• Go back to the marketing plan and break it down even more so it becomes manegable
• Select a few things to work on and concentrate on them for a while.

Right away the fun in marketing was back for me! I coached myself and am back on track.

More on coaching, counselling and marketing next week.