Online Mental Health Counseling in Post COVID India: Ethical Challenges

India is witnessing a rapid expansion of online mental health services, largely driven by the growing reliance on digital mental health platforms. However, this growth highlights two significant contradictions. First, there is a stark shortage of mental health professionals compared to the increasing prevalence of mental health disorders. At the same time, the online mental health service industry is booming, connecting individuals to a variety of professionals, including psychologists, yoga experts, life coaches, and indigenous therapists. In the absence of proper government regulations, many services are vulnerable to unqualified practitioners, compromising the quality of care. Additional challenges include inadequate government funding, societal stigma toward 'Western' counseling methods, and the proliferation of institutions offering insufficiently rigorous certifications. Moreover, psychology is often treated as a mass-centric subject in India's educational policy, rather than an individual-focused discipline, contributing to ethical concerns. Issues such as data confidentiality and the ethical handling of documentation remain largely unaddressed. Thus, the purpose of this article is to critically investigate the ethical dynamics of providing therapy through online platforms in India, critique modalities that have remained unquestioned as of the present and provide potential recommendations and solutions.