Friday (25/6) the Psychology Consultation Unit (UKP) of the Faculty of Psychology UGM held a series of UKP webinar events in synergy with UKP Sharing. On this occasion, UKP took the theme of the event with the title “Trails of Stories Behind the Consultation Room: Written Telecounseling”.
The event took place from 13.00 WIB to 15.00 WIB. The event was attended by 50 participants who came from master’s degree students in professional psychology and psychologists.
The two speakers at this event were Idei Khurnia Swasti, M.Psi., a psychologist, a lecturer in Psychology at UGM and Valeria Satwika Anindita, a psychologist partner of UKP UGM. In the first session, Idei gave a presentation entitled “Further Introduction to Text-based Counseling”. Meanwhile, in the second session Valeria gave a presentation entitled “Written Telecommunications as Psychological First Aid”. These two themes are very in line with the current conditions where face-to-face restrictions are still ongoing as part of a health protocol to suppress the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The emergence of Text-based Counseling in the realm of mental health emerged from the context of digital culture. Along with the development of computer technology, also created a variety of new communication tools. The emergence of the latest technology and new habits of society in communicating encourage the development of methods in psychological counseling activities.
“During the last two decades, it was the late ’90s, until now technology has been rapidly developed to support Text-based Counseling,” said Idei, explaining that the two decades were a long period of time for the development of a new method in psychological counseling.
The context of counseling using communication technology is very different from face-to-face which must be understood by the counselor or client. Idei emphasized that counselors need to equip themselves with extra skills to maximize the use of online communication application features.
“…the various media options used (for counseling), yes, whether to use chat rooms, email, then use official accounts on social media. Now that is a contemporary development that we must pursue,” explained Idei.
Idei explained that there are two kinds of Text-based Counseling methods. The first is the synchronous method, namely direct communication, for example by telephone, video conferencing, video calls and chat. The second is the asynchronous method, namely indirect communication, for example using email, fax, discussion forums, websites, blogs, and social media.
In the second session, Aninditia delivered more specific material on one method, namely written telecounseling. Anin, as she is usually called, explained that this written telecounseling has actually been used internationally for a long time, but in Indonesia it is still not widely used. So naturally there are still a lot of doubts and resistance that should be eroded so that this method can run optimally.
“I invite all of you participants to see, measure within yourself, is there resistance? Because if you don’t like it, I don’t think this is the right medium when it will be used later,” said Anin.
The Covid-19 pandemic condition also makes written telecounseling one of the most possible counseling methods to do. Limiting direct meetings according to health protocols makes conventional counseling methods difficult and requires alternative methods to continue to provide mental health services.
“If asked, why do we need to do written telecounseling? The short answer may be yes because we need to provide psychological services according to the client’s needs. According to the client’s own condition, “explained Anin.
This written counseling has benefits also for clients who have trauma, shame, and lack of self-confidence to appear physically and communicate verbally in front of the counselor. In this case, according to Anin, the written telecounseling method is very appropriate to be used as a means of communication between the client and the counselor.
According to Anin, in conducting written counseling, counselors need to equip themselves with good writing skills so that the message conveyed is easy to understand and also creativity in conveying ideas or opinions through writing.