Empathy displays in Dutch chat counselling: Showcasing a microanalysis of online data

Wyke Stommel Joyce Lamerichs With the advent of the internet and computer-mediated communication in the early 1990s people have turned to digital environments for health-related issues. Online communities and support groups for a plethora of conditions and diseases were launched in the early days and professional-led platforms joined later. These online forums were considered low-threshold services, believed to attract people who were not ready to seek help from a professional. Online professional services are also easily accessible, especially when they are anonymous. Online counselling has been a growing branch of the healthcare tree for roughly two decades (Norcross, Hedges and Prochaska, 2002) . Professionals are increasingly open to offering online therapy, even though reservations persist (Cipolletta and Mocellin, 2017) . Online counselling has been found to be beneficial for various target groups varying from children (Fukkink and Hermanns, 2009) to partners of alcoholics (Wilson et al. , 2017) . With..