There is a growing number of services offering counseling or therapy
via the internet (E-Therapy). Several risks and deficits have been reported
concerning the practice of E-therapy, and there is no instrument to evaluate
a given ressource efficiently. Therefore the purpose of this study was
to develop a rating scale to measure and compare the quality of websites
offering E-therapy services to clients. Suggestions or rules related to
the quality of health websites or online mental health services launched
by pertinent initiatives, professional organizatons or regulatory authorities
served as basis for the construction of the rating scale. Five exemplary
E-therapy websites have been evaluated by 40 participants by using a web-based
online survey tool. Factor Analysis revealed five scales, representing
quality categories of the informaton and conditions given to clients on
the websites. Statistical Analysis showed that the rating scale was suitable
to identify significant differences between the websites. Two of the evaluated
websites achieved fair to good scores, on three of the five websites, substantial
deficits have been identified. Finally, the study revealed that subject’s
age, gender, psychological education and encryption know how and the website
design and clarity affect the judgement about the E-therapy websites.