Ethics and Online Coaching

Organizational development organizations, such as Phronesis Inc has an ethical obligation to evaluate and disclose to clients the possible risks associated with the therapeutic interventions it employs, including those risks associated with the medium of communication. This ethical obligation compels us to understand the potential risks associated with the delivery of psychological interventions using the Internet so that the risks assumed by clients engaging in this type of psychological service may be appropriately evaluated and disclosed. By understanding the risks associated with email, video and interactive text-based interventions appropriate steps may also be taken to eliminate or minimize the risks assumed by our clients.

While an appropriate regard for, and disclosure of, the potential risks of providing our services is ethically mandated, these potential risks need to be evaluated within the context of the potential benefits to be derived from online interventions. A presentation of either the potential risks alone or the benefits alone is inherently biased and misleading.

Only through a balanced evaluation of the potential risks and the potential benefits can a true business model be ethically support an appropriate course of action for an authentic leader. In addition, we must dare because of our faith from projecting onto this new communication and distribution medium fears regarding change and the unknown which might cause others to withhold appropriate interventions.

The challenge is to neither undervalue, nor to inflate either the potential risks or the potential benefits available from our menu of therapeutic interventions.

Toward this end, it is Phronesis Inc’s intention that the following discussion will stimulate reflection regarding the potential challenges and opportunities offered by the Internet for the delivery of Coaching/Organizational interventions:

Potential Risks for email and texting modes of coaching

1. The loss of visual and auditory cues:

The loss of visual and auditory cues creates several challenges for addiction counseling professionals seeking to use the Internet to deliver psychological interventions.

1A. Theoretical Basis of Interventions:

Theories of therapeutic change derived from face-to-face (in-person) therapeutic relationships may not be applicable to text-based communication. Therefore Phronesis Inc is adapting old methods and totally new models for producing therapeutic change which are appropriate to the medium of the Internet may need to be developed prior to providing online text-based interventions. Thus stated, there is some learning while doing taking place.

1B. Diagnosis:

Text-based communication restricts the ability of coaching professionals to make adequate diagnoses. Without the ability to adequately diagnose a client, the ability to develop an appropriate strategic plan may likewise be restricted. Thus stated, we have insisted that several assessments accompany any plan suggested to our clients.

1C. Identity:

Text-based communication restricts the coach's ability to verify the client's identity. This difficulty in verifying identity on the Internet becomes a significant issue regarding the treatment of minors without parental consent. Thus stated, Phronesis has developed a “walled garden” approach for some of menu of services we provide. In other cases, we have restricted our coaches to a very small role.

1D. Miscommunication:

The potential for destructive miscommunication may be increased by the loss of visual and auditory cues in text-based communication which normally serve to provide context to the spoken word. In addition, online coaches lose the visual and auditory feedback from their clients which might otherwise cue the coach regarding a potential miscommunication. Thus stated, this one of the primary reason we have develop and insist on suggesting a number of elements from our menu of coaching services.

2. Confidentiality:

Ensuring confidentiality is more problematic on the Internet than with in- person (face-to-face) relationships. Online risks to confidentiality occur in four ways: transmission, coach-end, client-end, and legal subpoena.

1. Transmission: The Internet relies on electronic copying of information for transmission, creating the possibility of interception at many points. While encryption offers greater security, it should not be assumed that encryption codes cannot be broken by knowledgeable computer hackers.
2. Coach-end: Phronesis Inc. recognizes the prudent necessity not to store client communication on our coach’s hard drive, given that access to such information can be accessed by computer hackers. In addition, steps have been taken to secure client communication from being read by unauthorized persons at our coach's office or home (e.g., password protecting files). Files containing client communication should also be regularly and frequently backed-up to protect against the possible loss of clinical records resulting from hardware failures.
3. Client-end: The possibility that others at the client's home or office have access to records of client/coach's communication needs to be evaluated. If the client is communicating using an office computer, the employer has a legal right (in the United States) to read such communication. In addition, the possibility of family members of the client having access to the client's online communication conducted from the home also needs to be evaluated. The client is made aware that deleting files from the hard disk means that the space previously occupied by the file is made available to be written over but that until such time as this disk space is used the deleted file may still be recovered, possibly compromising confidentiality.
4. Legal Subpoena: For several legal reasons, it is currently unclear if communication using the Internet is covered by coach/client privilege (in the United States). Client communication to the coach may therefore be subject to the legal process of discovery. This may be especially relevant for clients involved in divorce and child custody matters and clients should be made aware of this possibility. However, legal issues (discussed in our privacy statement related to the Internet become more complex and obscure when clients and coaches of differing nationalities are involved. Thus stated, Phronesis is and will continue to stay in dialogue with these important matters as news or other events take shape.

3. Competence:

The absence of officially certified training in any of the areas of online coaching may affect the competence of coaches attempting to deliver text-based interventions. The competence of coaches in this new medium may affect both the quality of care provided as well as the coach's potential liability should ethical or legal proceedings develop from the coach's online work. Thus stated, Phronesis demands that each of our coaches commit to 30 hours of professional in service education on all related subject matters, including web 2 applications in social networking and the tools the promote better service.

4. Legal and Jurisdictional Issues:

Legal and jurisdictional issues are currently in the early formative stages and are complicated by the trans-boundary nature of the Internet. While legal issues remain unclear, online coaches practicing in the United States need to consider legal issues related to licensure in the client's home state. While the courts have yet to rule on interactions conducted entirely through the Internet, it remains a distinct possibility that the courts (in the U.S.) may determine that a coach's web page constitutes advertising (i.e., conducting business) in a different state from the therapist's state of residence (and licensure) and therefore subjects the coach to the legal authority, including the licensing laws, related to the practice of therapy in that other state.

Some online coaches may try to limit legal and ethical constraints on the services they provide by offering a disclaimer in which the services they provide are called "psycho educational" or "psycho organizational" in nature. Such a disclaimer should not be viewed as offering blanket protection in the United States, however, since courts and state regulators do not use the words of the coaches as a criteria for determining whether a therapeutic relationship has been created, but instead look to the reasonable expectations of the client: this one of the primary reasons that Phronesis is so forthcoming with its statement of services and philosophy to support its offering of intervention services.

There remains, however, considerable controversy regarding the jurisdictional authority of geographically determined governing bodies over the activities occurring in the trans-boundary domain of cyberspace. The geographically determined governing bodies may nevertheless try to assert jurisdictional authority over cyberspace and online therapists may be subject to legal proceedings if they transgress against this asserted authority.

Potential Benefits of Online Therapeutic Interventions

1. Screening:

An online coaching presence may provide beneficial wide-scale screening for persons and organizations with issues amenable to therapeutic intervention. Contact with online professionals may provide an effective introduction to the system for persons who may benefit from therapeutic intervention, but who may not otherwise present to the system.

2. Treatment of Non-Clinical Problems:

The Internet may be an appropriate medium for treating persons with non- clinical problems who may nevertheless benefit from psychological consultation. Many persons with "normal-range" issues might benefit from psychological consultation but may never present to the traditional coaching system due to the social stigma, cost, and inconvenience of seeking professional consultation. The Internet might provide such persons with a convenient and private way to seek psychological, career planning, organizational consultation related to their issues.

3. Unique Advantages Available to Online Communication:

The Phronesis Inc's menu of internet services provides unique advantages unavailable to in-person therapy.

3A. Asynchronous Communication:

The asynchronous quality of e-mail, podcasts and forms of communication not yet invented provides both client and therapist with the opportunity to devote greater thoughtfulness to their communication which may encourage greater clarity in their communication and more precisely targeted interventions.

3B. Convenience:

The asynchronous quality of Phronesis Inc's menu is more convenient for both client and therapist than in-person therapy.

3C. Depth of Disclosure:

People tend to disclose more personal information to a computer than they do with an in-person interviewer. This greater depth of self-disclosure may lead to greater depth in the therapeutic work.

3D. Transference:

Transference issues on the Internet may be significantly different than in face-to-face relationships and may involve transference to technology and to computers as well as interpersonal transference issues. With the development of appropriate theoretical models, this change in the transference relationship might be usefully exploited in treating clients over the Internet.

4. Support Groups:

The Phronesis Inc has developed and facilitates the provision of peer support groups at our Phronesis Coaching Network Peer support is more convenient and accessible through the Internet than through traditional in-person groups and the Internet may be useful in providing support groups for persons with illnesses or disabilities which prevent them from accessing in-person groups. Peer support groups can also be formed to address disorders for which in-person groups may not be applicable because the infrequency of the disorder prohibits the gathering of sufficient members to form an in-person support group.

5. Adjunctive Internet Use:

The use of the Internet may be useful as an adjunct to ongoing in-person therapy.

5A. Avoids Problems of Internet-Only Interventions:

Using the Internet to augment an ongoing in-person relationship avoids many of the problems associated with Internet-only interventions, such as client anonymity, diagnostic issues, legal licensing issues, and crisis intervention responsiveness.

5B. Experience and Increased Therapist Competence:

The adjunctive use of the Internet within the framework of an ongoing in- person relationship provides the therapist with valuable experience in using full scope communications techniques to deliver therapeutic interventions, thereby increasing therapist competence.

5C. Monitoring Homework:

The adjunctive use of the Internet can be used to monitor therapeutic homework assignments given to the client, such as daily (blogging available in the Phronesis Coaching Networkbehavioral monitoring or written explorations of the client's relationships to specific incidents or people.

5D. Increased Depth of In-person Sessions:

By extending the therapeutic hour, the adjunctive use of the Internet can improve the depth of the material covered in person-in presence-person sessions. The client can continue to explore issues outside of the in-person therapy session and the results of these explorations can be communicated to the therapist using the Internet prior to the beginning of the therapeutic session, allowing the therapist time to reflect upon the client's material and to develop more thoughtfully targeted treatment plans for the session.

5E. Termination:

The adjunctive use of the Internet can be used to ease client termination by gradually reducing in-person contact while substituting contact through the Internet. The client's reliance on the therapeutic relationship can be shifted gradually to either client self-support or a reliance on the client's natural support systems.