The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the public and society as a whole and has triggered a transformation of mental health services. Tele-counseling has become a feasible alternative to face-to-face counseling for maintaining safe social distancing practices while addressing the public’s mental health issues. The term ""telecounseling"" refers to methods of counseling through video, telephone, Internet calls, and other types of telecommunication that can be conducted over long distances. Features of tele-counseling include confidentiality and flexibility, which could help the public access mental health services by overcoming obstacles such as geographical and time constraints. Notably, Taiwan legalized tele-counseling in 2019, and it developed rapidly during the pandemic, especially video call tele-counseling; however, few studies thus far have explored this. To make Taiwan a tele-counseling-friendly environment, the present study, grounded in a constructivist perspective, employed a qualitative approach to deeply explore psychologists’ views on tele-counseling, thereby elucidating their preparation for tele-counseling and relevant practical experience. Through purposive and snowball sampling, licensed psychologists participated in semi-structured individual interviews via online video conferencing (5 males, 13 females; aged between 30 and 55 years, with a range of 6 to 380 hours of experience in tele-counseling). Data were analyzed using the ladder of analytical abstraction. As a result, two factors were highlighted. First, in terms of preparation for tele-counseling, the results revealed the following. (1) When it comes to policy and regulation, some problems still exist, including a cumbersome application process, unclear enforcement rules for tele-counseling applications and implementation, and differences between regulation and practice. These issues make preparation for tele-counseling more difficult; therefore, a way to facilitate alignment between regulations and practice (as well as investment in tele-counseling) is important for optimizing the preparation and implementation of tele-counseling. (2) Due to a lack of experience, institutions’ and psychologists’ preparation for tele-counseling still depends on how it progresses. They primarily emphasized that preparation should focus more on pre-developing the tele-counseling procedure based on clients’ well-being and professional ethics, as well as setting up tele-counseling equipment and becoming familiar with its operation. Moreover, psychologists should regularly engage in professional training for tele-counseling. This is a useful means of preparing for telecounseling. (3) It is necessary to facilitate clients’ attention and investment in tele-counseling sessions, thereby developing a therapeutic alliance and maintaining the framework of counseling together. This is important for the implementation of tele-counseling. Second, in terms of the practical experience of tele-counseling, the results revealed the following: (1) Some commonalities between tele-counseling and face-to-face counseling help maintain the efficiency of tele-counseling. (2) Tele-counseling can overcome the limitation of distance and space, thereby serving needs of specific clients. (3) The features of tele-counseling result in some potential restrictions. For example, psychologists often find it difficult to assess clients’ situations and grasp the entire counseling process, which drives them to put in more effort. Some forms and methods of counseling are restricted in telecounseling, so psychologists need to put more effort into preparing for counseling, or even adjusting the ways they counsel. In addition, potential candidates suitable for tele-counseling are limited; therefore, psychologists need to provide more follow-up services based on clients’ situations and needs. To summarize, the present study not only broadens the horizon of psychologists’ experiences of tele-counseling, but also proposes some useful practical suggestions for preparing for and implementing tele-counseling. This has important implications for the development of tele-counseling in Taiwan. However, this research is still limited, and further investigation is necessary to boost this development.
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