Lets Talk Interactive, Inc. Announces Partnership with Miami University to Study Online Counseling

Lets Talk Interactive is partnering with D'Arcy Reynolds, M.A. and William Stiles, Ph.D., investigators from Miami University, to conduct a university and Ohio mental health department supported study on e-mail and chat online herapy.

Huntersville, NC (PRWEB) October 4, 2005 -- Arthur Cooksey, Chairman and CEO of Lets Talk Interactive, Inc. (LTI), announced today that Lets Talk Interactive is partnering with D'Arcy Reynolds, M.A. and William Stiles, Ph.D., investigators from Miami University, to conduct a university and Ohio mental health department supported study on e-mail and chat online therapy.

"There has been a quiet revolution in mental health care that has been taking place in the form of online therapy," said Mr. Reynolds. "After an initial 'boom and bust' phase of online therapy, the industry is starting to stabilize and only a few companies remain. One of these companies is Let's Talk Interactive, Inc., which oversees LetsTalkCounseling.com. LetsTalkCounseling.com provides an affordable, secure, and comfortable counseling site that allows licensed counselors and clients to meet in total confidentiality via the Internet. We are very pleased to be partnering with Lets Talk Interactive in this important study."

Arthur Cooksey, CEO of Lets Talk Interactive commented, "For the online therapy industry to continue maturing, the current absence of empirical psychotherapy research has to be addressed. A natural first step is to evaluate practitioner's and consumer's process evaluations of the efficacy of online therapy. For example, one fundamental unanswered question is whether a helping relationship can develop over time in the absence of visual and auditory information. Ultimately, this kind of research will help to inform the passing of ethical and legal guidelines for online work, online therapists in securing third party health insurance coverage, and clients without other mental health options in getting the assistance that they need."

Participants in the study will complete two brief five-minute forms each week on the therapeutic relationship and on their perceptions of the sessions and their mood after the sessions. Licensed therapists will be paid $100, and adult clients $50, for taking ten minutes to initially register and then report on a minimum of six weeks of therapeutic exchanges. Participants will not reveal the confidential nature of their interactions. Anyone who would like to take advantage of the therapeutic services of LetsTalkCounseling.com and would like to participate in this ground breaking investigation of online text-based therapy, should go to www.LetsTalkCounseling.com.

LetsTalkCounseling.com offers secure e-mail counseling, secure chat-room counseling, and secure audio/visual cyber-counseling (where the therapist and client can view and hear one another via their computers and the Internet).

Lets Talk Interactive is a privately held company located in Huntersville, NC. To learn more about its online counseling services, please visit: www.letstalkcounseling.com.

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