Einstellung gegenüber Online-Beratung: Eine Umfrage unter Berater:innen, Coaches und Therapeut:innen

Since the Corona pandemic the topic of “digitization” has also arrived in the world of consulting and counselling. However, online counselling is met with great scepticism by many practitioners. What exactly causes this negative attitude has been little studied. Previous studies have focused on either video therapy or the adoption of evidence-based practices. Therefore, the aim of the present cross-sectional study was to identify possible characteristics that positively or negatively influence attitudes toward online counselling compared with face-to-face counselling. To assess attitudes, a new instrument describing various characteristics of counselling was developed and administered via online questionnaire to 66 individuals from the fields of counselling, therapy, and coaching. A factor analysis yielded two different attitude dimensions for the instrument, each of which was predicted by different person characteristics in subsequent regression analyses. With respect to the dimension “core characteristics of consulting”, a more negative attitude is predicted only by higher professional experience. Regarding the dimension “general conditions of consultations”, a more positive attitude toward the online setting is revealed when the consultants identify themselves as women, have lower levels of professional experience, work in the field of coaching, or practice in urban locations. Interestingly, neither technical affinity nor subjective importance of privacy had an impact on attitudes. The study thus provides important insights for further research and also practice of online counselling and is able to explain previously contradictory findings in the field.