Counseling via Avatar: Professional Practice in Virtual Worlds
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Counseling via Avatar: Professional Practice in Virtual Worlds Karl J. Witt 1 & Marvarene Oliver 2 & Christine McNichols 1
# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016
Abstract Professional counselors (n = 5) from the United States (2), Australia, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands were interviewed about the provision of counseling services in the multi-user virtual environment (MUVE) Second Life (SL). Using Strauss and Corbin’s (1998) method, qualitative data analysis yielded four themes: (i) encapsulating the immersive experience inherent in virtual worlds, (ii) contributions to successful avatar-based counseling, (iii) the practice of MUVE counseling, and (iv) practitioners’ pioneering spirit. This study contributes to distance counseling knowledge and lays the foundation for future avatar-based counseling research and practice. Keywords Second Life . MUVE . Avatar-based . Distance counselling . Virtual world
Introduction There is no doubt that the rapid growth of computer technology has drastically changed life in the past few decades. Education, jobs, and even relationships seem to be at everyone’s fingertips. In such a milieu, it is safe to say that computer technology is also impacting and informing the field of counseling. The concept of traditional face-to-face (f2f) counseling interventions is changing as practitioners increasingly use computer technology to interface with clients (McAdams and Wyatt 2010). The current study examined avatar-based counseling in the multi-user virtual environment (MUVE) Second Life (SL) space. This article is based on the first author’s doctoral dissertation.
* Karl J. Witt [email protected]
1
Department of Psychology and Counseling, The University of Texas at Tyler, 3900 University Blvd, Tyler, TX 75799, USA
2
Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, TX, USA
Int J Adv Counselling
History of Distance Counseling Distance counseling has existed since the inception of modern mental health. Freud and Morita corresponded with patients about symptoms and treatment (France et al. 1995), telephones have been used for crisis lines since the 1950s and are now widely used for adjunct services (Centore and Milacci 2008), and counseling via video has been used since the 1960s (Rohland 2001). For each of these, there is a contemporary computer-mediated counterpart. Modern letter writing often occurs through email and electronic bulletin boards, synchronous interactions (i.e., those taking place at the same time for clinician and client) include voice-over-internet protocol (VOIP), video-conferencing software, instant messaging (IM), and text chat, which differs from short-message service (SMS), its phonebased cousin (Centore and Milacci 2008). Avatar-based counseling incorporates elements of these various forms, but is different because the clinician and client also have physical representations, or avatars, of themselves.
Effectiveness of Distance Counseling Distance counseling can be effective. Mohr et a
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