A friend wrote (July 2007):

Hi Rowland, we met briefly at Christian Counsellors _ _ _ _ State Conference a couple of years back. I remember at that meeting you mentioned that you did some counseling on line. I have recently been made a Clinical Member of [a Christian Counsellors’ Association] and am interested in your approach to this practice. Is there anything you can direct me to?

regards

Response:

Hi

I answer a lot of emails (up to 50 a day) but have found that very few people are willing to covenant for a disciplined on-line counseling regimen. My face-to-face counselling case-load is full, and people obviously prefer that.

So when an invitation to make a donation-for-time (which goes to the mission UNOH and is tax deductible: I donate my time free) folks prefer to meet personally…

So apart from a huge volume of one- or two-off email encounters, I’ve only had a handful of longer-term email clients: and, as I recall, all of these have met me personally before our e-exchanges anyway…

Email also doesn’t convey facial and tonal expressions, so to make the responses from a keyboard ‘warm’ is quite a challenge eh?

All the best with your vocation…

Shalom/Salaam! Rowland Croucher

http://jmm.org.au/