Skip to content

Digital Consultation Experiences and Safety Survey

Virtual consultations have become increasingly common across therapy, counselling, coaching, consulting, and related helping professions. While these technologies have expanded access to services, they have also created new opportunities for sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, indecent exposure, non-consensual recording, and other inappropriate behaviours.

This survey seeks to better understand the experiences of helping professionals during virtual consultations, including the frequency of these incidents, their impacts, reporting experiences, and potential strategies for prevention and response. Your responses will help inform future education, policy, and safety recommendations.
1.Which field do you primarily work in?
2.How many years have you been providing services virtually?
3.Prior to this survey, were you aware of helping professionals experiencing sexual misconduct, indecent exposure, or other sexually inappropriate behaviour during virtual consultations?
4.If yes, how did you become aware of these experiences? (Select all that apply.)
5.Have you ever experienced any of the following during a virtual consultation? (Select all that apply.)
6.Did you report the incident to anyone? (select all that apply)
7.If you did not report the incident, why not? (Select all that apply.)
8.If you reported the incident, what transpired after reporting?
9.Following my report, I felt supported, informed, and that my concerns were taken seriously.
10.Has your organization or professional training provided guidance on responding to sexually inappropriate behaviour during virtual consultations?
11.How prepared do you feel to respond if such an incident occurs?
12.What resources or supports would be most helpful? (Select all that apply.)
13.Is there anything else you would like us to know about safety, sexual harassment, or sexual misconduct during virtual consultations?
Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey.

Your insights and experiences are invaluable in helping us better understand sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, indecent exposure, and other inappropriate behaviours that may occur during virtual consultations. While virtual service delivery has expanded access to care and support, it has also introduced new safety concerns that remain largely understudied and underreported.

The information you have shared will help inform future research, education, policy, and safety recommendations aimed at creating safer virtual environments for helping professionals and strengthening responses when incidents occur.

We recognize that reflecting on these experiences may have been difficult. We sincerely appreciate your willingness to contribute your time, knowledge, and perspective to this important work.

Thank you for helping us better understand this issue and work toward safer professional practice environments.