I am a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW) in the state of Minnesota, USA. I am licensed to provide social work services, counseling and psychotherapy. All clients will automatically be given my license number and the address of the Minnesota Board of Social Work. Other persons may also request this information.
The services offered on this website are not the same as psychotherapy. They are limited in scope and method, for the reasons stated. In the future, when real-time audio and video can be employed, it may be possible to provide on the Internet something more like in-person psychotherapy. I do use cognitive techniques as well as problem-solving models for helping people.
Clearly the service I am offering is a type of counseling. Some states do regulate the use of that term (and more particularly the title counselor), although in most cases a licensed clinical social worker would be able to use it in describing his services. There is a very broad generic meaning to the word, in common usage. Not only are there many types of professional counseling (pastoral, career, school, etc.) but it is often used by the general public, as in "I sat up all night, counseling my friend about his situation." In order to avoid direct conflict over semantics, but also to point out that this is a new type of service online, some people describe themselves as providing advice, coaching, e-counseling, or the term that I sometimes use: webcounseling.
The "World Wide Web" cannot be regulated effectively by a state. Even at the level of nation, it is difficult and often counter-productive to regulate what can be said or done via this global medium. Even assuming that regulation and/or licensing would be a good thing for counseling services provided online, there would have to be a great deal more cooperation and reciprocity among current state-based regulatory agencies than there is now.
This brings up the question of WHERE such a service is being offered. If the professional service provider is in one jurisdiction and the client is in another, one or both of them must be tele-commuting to the virtual office where the interaction takes place. Although licensure and credentialing procedures are intended primarily for the client's benefit, the fact remains that the client is not licensed, but the professional is. It would be impossible for a counseling provider to fulfill all of the credentialing requirements of all jurisdictions worldwide.
To avoid as much of this mess as possible, I am defining the place where my services are provided to be the state of Minnesota, USA. This will be clearly stated to, and agreed upon by, each client, prior to beginning our work together.
If any of my mental health colleagues are still concerned about this, might I respectfully suggest that the world has far greater need of us than to be consumed by this?