Two years ago I might have asked myself the same question! Since then, I have had (and lost) a deeply significant and supportive interpersonal relationship via the net with a particular person and had relationships of varying degrees of complexity and type with many others online. I have sought and gained the support of strangers online and found it enriching and some of my online buddies have made varying degrees of use of my counselling skills and health care background to assist them with their own lives.
It would be easy to think that the anonymity of the internet and loss of face to face interaction would mean, at best, a shallow interaction. This may sometimes be the case but it is also true that for many people that very "disconnectedness" and guarantee of anonimity is , in itself, very liberating. It can foster greater self disclosure and the time spent composing text for another can often assist people in fully exploring their thoughts and feelings in a quite fundamental way.
If possible I would reccomend a few session of meetings via ICQ to form a rapport prior to the use of email, but, there are many new and enriching ways of meeting online that people are only beginning to recognise the value of.
This new service is provided by me free or very cheap for a number of reasons. The major one though is that I am keen to explore the power of this medium for counselling purposes myself and I believe that whilst helping you, I will continue to further understand the strengths and weaknesses of this medium for myself.
