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Psychotherapy and the Internet are inherently mismatched, because the practice of psychotherapy is only partially about the communication of ideas and concepts. It relies mostly on communication that begins non-verbally in the context of an embodied relationship. Different therapists will agree more or less with this point of view, but most agree that psychotherapy cannot be conducted by e-mail, for the same reasons that the loss of proximity, tone, facial expression, and other non-verbal aspects of communication often lead to misunderstandings on the telephone and particularly in emails and discussion lists. Information about psychotherapy, however, can be as easily and successfully communicated online as in any book and there are some excellent online resources for learning about therapy and therapists on the Internet. This is the aspect that we focus on here, although we hope to include discussion of the practice of 'online therapy.'
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