title: [Virtual counselling: online help for adolescents].
abstract: The internet provides a new platform for communication especially used by teenagers and young adults. Professional counselling in this medium offers the chance to reach especially those individuals perhaps not reachable through existing counselling services. With this in mind, the internet portal bke (youth counselling of the Federal conference for Educational Counselling) was inaugurated in October 2000. It offers the following services: Group Chat, Discussion Forum and E-Mail Counselling. The experience made in this project phase indicates that professional counselling in this medium can reach individuals directly, who would otherwise not or only with difficulty be reached by the ordinary counselling services on offer. This is due to the fact that the internet is easily accessible, offers anonymity and therefore presents no noteworthy access barrier to overcome. This seems to apply especially to traumatised teenagers and young adults. Online counselling offers great opportunities exactly in these cases. The special task of a counsellor is to grasp this opportunity whilst at the same time having an awareness of the mediums limitations.
authors.affiliation: Psychologische Beratungsstelle des Landkreises Konstanz für Kinder, Jugendliche und Eltern, Konstanz.
authors.forename: Ulrike
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Weisshaupt
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003376:Counseling / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D009862:Online Systems; D012944:Social Support; D014584:User-Computer Interface