Internet based-treatment is just treatment through internet instead of face-to-face.

• Imagine you’ re feeling anxious, you’re worrying about exams and for several other small or large things, you can’t relax and concentrate in your studies and you are unable to take even small decisions. You think that this situation can’t keep going. So, you go to your GP and you ask for an advice. In most of the cases, the GP will either prescribe pills or refer you to a psychiatrist or a psychologist.
• Imagine now that you get the last option and you start psychotherapy. You set appointments with the therapist and you meet him/her once or twice every week for a couple of months.  So far so good? Lets now answer some frequently asked questions…

Will these meetings be structured?

• Every therapist believes in one or more psychotherapeutic theories. These theories are nothing else but explanations of why you’re feeling, for example anxious. These explanations have helped psychologists to build treatments that are very structured. So, if you guessed that your meetings would be structured as well, that’s correct!  You will describe your problem, you will set goals and you will work out solutions.
• The same exactly things you do in Internet-based treatments. The only difference is that you do not have to go to your therapist. Instead, you can sit on your coach or be wherever else you like and you can follow the psychotherapy sessions online in your own time.

Sometimes yes but sometimes no. In an Internet based intervention you mainly work on your own. A clinician or master level psychologist is guiding you through the content and gives you online feedback on your progress.

Think about your own life or the lives of your peers. You have classes, exams, assignments and maybe many other obligations. Do you have enough time to go to the therapist or enough money? Wouldn’t be easier if you could do the sessions for free whenever you want? Internet can overcome several barriers of face-to-face treatment, such as the high cost and the accessibility.

Yes, they are effective, especially when they are delivered with some form of guidance.  Research findings have shown that the mode of delivery (Internet vs. face-to-face) doesn’t influence the outcomes of psychotherapy in common mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety.

There are several published papers discussing the effectiveness of these web-based interventions. Some of these papers are: Andersson, G., & Cuijpers, P. (2009), Buntroc et al. (2016), Klein, et al. (2016), Spek, V., et al. (2007), Titov, et al. (2008).