Undergraduate Student Experiences with Text-Based Online Counselling

Online counselling is gaining momentum in the field of social work. The aim of this study was to understand the benefits, challenges and user experiences of a text-based online counselling programme for undergraduate students. Hosted by a social work school in a large, urban university in Canada, the counselling programme trains Master of Social Work (MSW) student counsellors to provide service online as well as offline. Qualitative content analysis was employed to analyse transcripts of 385 e-mail sessions and eighty-five chat exchanges between twenty-two MSW student counsellors and thirty-three undergraduate clients. Analysis identified advantages (increased accessibility, flexibility and immediacy; allowing room for reflections; increased sense of safety) and disadvantages (technical difficulties and increasing 'work-load'). This study provides evidence of the unique benefits and challenges of online counselling with undergraduate clients and illuminates user experiences that illustrate the uniqueness of online counselling practice.