While my academic and therapeutic interests have evolved over the years, from 2000 to 2020 I was deeply immersed in the development, teaching, and writing of best practices for online therapy. As co-founder of the Online Therapy Institute, I helped shape early global conversations around the ethics, techniques, and psychodynamics of digital delivery. So this is a topic that remains very close to my heart. And now, I view this seminal work from a Neo-Jungian perspective.
Nonlocal Presence and the Imaginal Field
I can’t speak specifically to online Neo-Jungian analysis, but I can speak to the concept of nonlocal presence within the therapeutic relationship—a phenomenon that challenges traditional notions of proximity, embodiment, and psychic attunement. In digital space, presence is less about physical co-location and more about attunement to the imaginal field, the symbolic, and the energetic—a concept well-suited to a Neo-Jungian orientation.
The Flattening of Power Structures Online
One important shift that emerges in online work is the subtle reshaping of the power dynamic. The digital medium can “level the playing field” in ways that may be disconcerting to traditional psychoanalytic frameworks. When a client enters the analyst’s brick-and-mortar office, there’s an embodied ritual: waiting one’s turn, stepping into a carefully curated space, and being held within the frame of the analyst’s physical presence. Online, that spatial hierarchy becomes flattened. The consultation may now occur in the client’s kitchen, car, or garden—introducing a new layer of contextual richness and democratic intimacy. In a way, it invites the archetype of the Trickster—the boundary-crosser—into the consulting room.
The Online Disinhibition Effect: Speed and Vulnerability
Another essential concept is what John Suler termed the online disinhibition effect (2004). Without the usual social and sensory cues, clients may disclose traumatic material with a swiftness that can feel destabilizing, even dissociative. For this reason, clinicians must attune not only to what is said but to the pacing and energetic signature of the session. This is where the Jungian principle of titration—respecting the psyche’s own tempo of revelation—becomes crucial. It reminds us that numinous material, when revealed too quickly, can overwhelm the ego and undermine integration.
Would Jung Have Logged On? Numinous Moments in Digital Space
And yet, I often wonder if Jung—who was so attuned to the psychospiritual and metaphysical realms—would have embraced the notion that numinous encounters are not confined to physical space. There are sacred, synchronicity-laden moments that happen online. The digital medium becomes, in effect, an imaginal container—what I have come to call a “virtual temenos.” Energy does travel across the digital divide. I’ve experienced it. I’ve taught it. And I’ve helped others come to trust it.
“The psyche is real, not in the sense that it is a physical body, but as a thing of actual power. You can turn it into a ‘ghost’ if you like, but it still works.”
— C.G. Jung, Letters Vol. 1 (1906–1950)
The Third Ear and the Symbolic Field
In fact, working online sharpened my perceptive and intuitive faculties. When deprived of visual and paralinguistic cues (as in text-based sessions), I found that my third ear came alive. It was as if I had to listen to the field behind the words—to the symbols, metaphors, and energies embedded in the client’s narrative. In hindsight, I believe this work further activated my own archetypal awareness and spiritual sensibility.
Reimagining the Analytic Frame: Both/And, Not Either/Or
I no longer believe that in-person therapy is the gold standard. Both online and in-person modalities offer distinct symbolic landscapes for healing. The archetypal encounter can occur in either realm, as long as the container is held with intention.
I used to say, “Not everyone is suited for online therapy.” Now I find myself saying, “Not everyone is suited for in-person therapy.” The paradigm has shifted—and the psyche, in its wisdom, will find the medium through which it longs to be seen.
“The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.”
— C.G. Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul
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Psychospiritual Intensive for Therapists, Coaches and Healers
