E-Psychotherapy: Towards an Internet-based mental health service

The Internet has intrigued new treatment modalities in Psychotherapy. E-Psychotherapy utilized the power and convenience of the internet to allow simultaneous (synchronous) and time-delayed (asynchronous) psychological therapy between individuals and professionals. The term e-psychotherapy defined as professional mental health care service via the Internet technology, such as e-mail, chat technology, multimedia interaction, or any combination of these. It also includes computer-aided self-help treatment, such as CCBT. This article examines the following issues of e-psychotherapy. First, the development of e-psychology and related mental health services are described as a background. Then, an integrated, user-friendly, flexible and adaptive platform of e-psychotherapy is presented as well as the underlying theoretical framework (3I model). Finally, the implementation and future work are discussed.