Possibilities and limits of online psychological counselling

The diploma thesis tries to do a critical evaluation of potential benefits and risks and limits of Internet psychological counseling. The theoretical part of the thesis describes the the issue of online help from general definition of counselling, through various approaches to definitions of Internet counselling. This part also deals with the history of the online form of help, including the context of development abroad and any differences or specifics in the Czech Republic. Attention is also given to various forms of online psychological help with emphasis on application in our environment. Finally the text introduces potential opportunities and risks of this form of counselling. Empirical part of the diploma thesis focuses on issues of online psychological counseling by a combined research design. The research part of the thesis tries to map the possibilities and limits of web psychological counselling from the perspective of the client. The focus of qualitative research is the analysis of interviews with online counseling clients, supplemented with analysis of chat conversations and case studies. Qualitative results are enriched by quantitatively conceived research. Keywords: counselling, intervention, phone intervention, face to face counselling, online counselling, communication in the cyber..