Table 1. Advantages and disadvantages of online counseling mentioned by counselors before and after the online counseling period.

	Before		After
Advantages	For counselor (n=3)a	For patient (n=9)a	For counselor (n=8)a	For patient (n=10)a
Time/cost saving; avoid traveling	2	9		10
Increased flexibility	2	3	4	2
Less stressful in case of illness or disability		2
Better grip on family/multiple family members counseled by same counselor		1	1	1
Counseling in familiar environment		1		2
Possibility of watching counseling session again		1

Disadvantages	For counselor (n=7)a	For patient (n=8)a	For counselor (n=10)a	For patient (n=10)a
Less non-verbal communication	6	5	7	3
Less extensive information/verbal communication				4
Greater role for/attention to technique	3	4	1	2
Less notion of interaction at patients'side	1
Less personal contact	1	3	2	1
More working from behind PC	1
Insufficient verbal communication			7
Less easy discussing psychological aspects			3	1

Numbers in the table reflect the number of times the particular advantages and disadvantages are being mentioned by counselors.

^a(within brackets) the number of counselors included.