Adlerian Counseling in a Virtual World: Some Implications of Internet Practice for the Development of Gemeinschaftsgefühl

Technology-based distance counseling is rapidly becoming an integral part of how counselors deliver services. While the ethical challenges of defining and regulating this new form of practice are already under rapid consideration, for Adlerians an additional fundamental question arises: Can all the dimensions of Gemeinschaftsgefühl be developed in our clients in the virtual world of the Internet? To engage this critical question this article briefly identifies some of the major ethical challenges of Internet counseling and proposes a third new dimension of Gemeinschaftsgefühl and its significance for Internet counseling in order to raise fundamental questions to frame future discussions among Adlerian clinicians.