Rapport may be the single most important aspect of a counseling relationship. It has been found to increase client interest, motivation, and comfort, all which contribute to clinical efficacy. But can rapport exist in an eCounseling relationship?

Theorists Debate

Early theorists held that online text communication (OTC) was insufficient for rapport development due to its lack of non-verbal cues and its impersonal “lexical” aspects. This was called the “cues filtered-out” theory.

In contrast, competing theorists have proposed OTC is sufficient for building rapport because (more important than non-verbal cues) persons build rapport by considering themselves socially “in-group” with others, something OTC does well. Others suggest OTC allows for a greater experience of rapport than in-person communication because (1) online text communicators often designate positive characteristics to the persons they dialogue with, using idealized attributions to supplement missing information, and (2) persons can provide ideal self-presentation by optimally editing their disclosures.

So what do the studies show?

Rapport Research: Online Text

One study found that in-person communication and OTC are equal in regards to the quality of dialogue, and only different in regards to dialogue speed. Hence, while online text chat users have less rapport than in-person groups after a first 30-minute meeting, by a third meeting rapport is equivalent. A repeat study found greater relational intimacy with text chat after the first meeting! And a third study found that those using text chat possessed significantly higher rapport than an in-person group, consistent in male-male, male-female, and female-female pairs.

Rapport Research: Videoconference and Telephone

In another study, videoconference counseling sessions were conducted with delays varying from none to severe—the hypothesis being that as delay worsened rapport would decrease (in-person counseling subjects were a control). The findings: While no significant difference in rapport existed between the no delay, severe delay, and in-person sessions with males, with female participants rapport was highest when using no delay, and second highest with some delay. In-person sessions produced the lowest rapport. Regarding telephone counseling, decades of studies have found that persons who receive counseling by telephone rate rapport the same as in-person control groups.

Counselor Techniques for Building Rapport

Again, the absence of non-verbal communication has been the leading critique of why eCounselors cannot build rapport with clients. However, when looking at what facilitates rapport in counseling, of significance are verbal behaviors. Greater amounts of silence (4% to 20%) are found in relationships perceived by clients as having high rapport. Rapport is found to correlate with therapist clinical experience. Rapport is highest when therapists use few encouraging statements (e.g., “uh huh,” “hmm,” etc.) and many empathetic responses. Rapport is associated with counselor verbosity and with counselors who verbally engage clients. Restating the client’s words, with attention to feelings, increases rapport. And highest rapport exists when minimal talk is about the counselors’ own interpretations. All this, of course, is possible with eCounseling.

What would Freud Say?

Sigmund Freud took measures against the face-to-face nature of counseling by placing the therapist behind the client, out of the client’s view (and providing the therapist only a partial view of the client). Freud was also a proponent of text communication; he wrote letters to his patients for therapeutic purposes.

Anthony J. Centore, Ph.D. serves as the Special Assistant to the President for the 50,000-member American Association of Christian Counselors, and is an Adjunct Graduate Professor for the Center for Counseling and Family Studies at Liberty University. He has authored numerous book chapters, articles, and is a columnist for Christian Counseling Today magazine. Anthony is author of The Clinical Training Guide for Online Counseling and Telephone Counseling. Anthony practices counseling in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts. See www.ThriveBoston.com

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