Introduction to the Major Contribution

This article introduces the Major Contribution, which focuses on online counseling. Several acronyms and terms are presented to familiarize the reader with distance-communication technology, including a definition of online counseling. The authors show how counseling psychology provides a framework for specific questions related to the theory, research, and practice of online counseling. In addition, they discuss counseling psychology’s emphasis on the scientist-practitioner model, history of process and outcome research, and unifying themes to provide a context for the succeeding articles on the research and practice of online counseling.