Characteristics of Telephone Therapy
Unique qualities of telephone therapy are:
1. Client in control.
2. Anonymity of client.
3. Geographic and personal barriers between client and therapist.
4. Anonymity of the therapist.
The above variables can create in you considerable anxiety, anger, and a sense of helplessness. The caller can hang up at any point when he feels too threatened. You are without your institutional supports and cannot physically do anything to control an impulsive or hysterical client. You are operating on reduced cues-only those that you can hear. Ironically, these feelings and factors are a basis for identification with the caller`s needs. The caller too may well feel anxious, angry, and helpless. He has to depend on you not to terminate the call without having been helpful. His usual support systems are lacking. He needs to trust you in spite of having reduced cues as to whether or not you are trustworthy.
The therapist`s anonymity in most crisis phone calls can enhance crisis work. The caller may decide that you are older and parental or that you are young and romantic. This projection of traits may enable him to confide in you. The caller`s illusions need not be shattered unless they lead to unrealistic expectations, which you gently but honestly will clarify.
References :
Williams, Tim, and John Douds, Crisis Intervention and Counseling by Telephone, eds. David Lester and Gene Brockopp. Springfield, III.: Charles C. Thomas, 1973.
Murray, RB and Zentner JP., Nursing Concepts for Health Promotion, Second Edtion, Prentice-Hall, Inc, Englewood Cliffs, N.J, 1979.
