I have been thinking recently about how online group treatment works. Or in particular the type of treatment that I am involved in.
I'm lucky enough to be using video conferencing software which means that I can communicate with participants in real-time. This moderates for some of the effects of the online dishibition effect http://www-usr.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/disinhibit.html
The disinhibtion effect refers to the tendency for some people to present differently to how they would in a face to face situation, due to the absence of obvious consequences and reactions.
Using video conferencing means that participants can see a visual response to the words that they say as well as hearing different intonation and rate of speech. This encourages people to me more authentic, or at least as authentic as they would be in a face to face group.