Psychology, Healing, and the Internet: Finding Therapy Online

One of the more interesting developments on the Web is the growing number of people who use the Internet to help in their stress and coping. From cancer patients sharing experiences to people learning to deal with hair loss, the Internet's fundamental psychology revolves around removing degrees of separation between people and information sources, helping them to connect.

Coping with Illness Online: Do It Yourself Psychology and Therapy

There have been comments in the online world that online journals, or blogs, in particular have become a form of virtual group therapy. In an ABC report, a New York psychologist, Bonnie Jacobsen, is quoted as giving credence to the power of blogging as group therapy. The Internet's ability to connect people across any distance assists people in finding other people in similar situations and who can provide emotional support. Essentially, the Internet helps people come to the realization that they are not alone.

Health & Blogging

The Internet has become a major outlet for dealing with illness along with a major source of information for understanding sickness. The Pew Internet & American Life Project Report says that 54% of adults said that the Internet played a major role for another person that they helped to cope with a major illness. In an MSNBC report, cancer patients used blogging to help cope with the disease. Patient Perry Kairis had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and his doctors encouraged him to blog about it on the hospital's Web site as part of his therapy.

Online College Psychology Degree

Psychology, like many other disciplines, is evolving with the new technological advances of the Internet. If you find psychology and the Internet fascinating, you may enjoy pursing a psychology degree from an online college. The degree can give you the psychological background you need to counsel and advise people, and the online college degree program helps you further immerse yourself in the opportunities and technologies of the World Wide Web.

With an online college psychology degree, you could help patients surf the Web to better psychological and physical health.

Sources

• Blogging for health: Doctors encouraging sick patients to write online
• The Internet's Growing Role in Life's Major Moments
• Blogging: Group Therapy of the 21st Century?

About the Author
James Tolles is a freelance writer and holds two B.A. degrees, one in Creative Writing and the other in History.