At 8 years old Andre Judice, upset with her mom, wrote her a note. She told her mother if she wanted little Andre to pick up her room she should say it nicely.

It didn’t go over well Judice said laughing.

Even now as she looks back at her childhood days, it was evident: Judice was trying to counsel people, to find out what made them tick and try to change behaviors.

ANDRE JUDICE

Now, she plans to do it nationwide.

Judice, who earned a doctorate degree in therapy from University of New Orleans in 2001, is owner of Northshore Counseling and Wellness where two weeks ago she launched a Web site for online counseling.

The first of its kind in the state and one of a handful that focuses on clients nationwide, the Web site boasts live message chats and e-mails and soon will implement live video chats with clients, Judice said.

Four licensed therapists are available to offer feedback on life scenarios at any time and any place.

While blasted by some as an incapable way of counseling someone without face-to-face contact, Judice said the new Web site at www.northshorecounsellingandwellness.com could provide a way for elderly homebound residents, doctor-shy clients and politicians or business men afraid to attend therapy in public, to receive counseling from their home.

“I admit it’s very different from traditional therapy,” Judice said. “It’s hard to convey body language or feeling sometimes without face-to-face interaction, but this offers modalities that others don’t.”

It wipes away the stigma of therapy, allowing others to quietly interact with therapist from their laptop while in bed, on the patio or couch. It also gives clients a way to warm up to therapy before attending face-to-face sessions Judice said.

There’s even an advocacy group, the International Society for Mental Health Online, that is supports the growing trend of online counseling. The group has denounced the notion that online help is ineffective.

“In fact, Sigmund Freud himself treated some patients exclusively through written text, from a distance rather than in person, and he “saw” others on the couch rather than face-to-face.

Freud’s psychoanalytic technique was designed to foster a decrease in inhibitions which naturally occurs so easily on the Internet,” according to the group.

Why, then, is it so hard to believe that a client cannot be emotionally authentic and a therapist empathic and insightful in text?

It’s not, said Judice whose offering the service as a more “life counseling” aid than a means of curing deep depression and other ailments such as bipolar disorder.

“If someone is suicidal or in a major crisis this isn’t for them,” Judice said. “But this can help anyone if the try. I believe in it.”