Florida Power and Light is paying for employees to log on to the Web site to use its specialized software to cope with bouts of depression, anger and other emotional turmoil. "We're looking at different ways to offer assistance programs to our employees," said Andrew Schibelli, manager of the utility's wellness programs.

[This] company isn't alone in looking for a cost-efficient way to manage its employees' stress.

"I've never been to a real therapist," Cross explained. "A therapist has his own point of view and might presume something about me. I like the computer better. There's no baggage."

When executives at Toronto-based Warren Shepell Consultants - a provider of employee assistance programs to more than 3 million Canadian employees - learned of Gould's research, they were quick to sign on as a pilot project in February.

"We consider ourselves innovators in our field," said Shelly Gorchynski, vice president of operations. "We've been offering counseling services for 20 years and people never like to advertise the fact that they've sought professional help. But for some reason, they have no problem telling co-workers about the computer program. People learn a lot about themselves in their own quiet voice. It has also encouraged more people to seek in-person counseling."

Petouhoff said "The program helped to clarify just what the problem was. 'With the computer I tended to be much more honest with myself. It was less of a threat. It asked me questions that made me look at myself and areas that are tender for me. There was no room for cerebral justification. The issue was there in my face."

"I don't think it's going to get rid of the need for professional therapy," Jacobs added. "But it has a place, as do self-help groups. New technologies are being woven into our culture. They're here to stay."

UCLA's Jacobs and Christiansen studied this program and, surprisingly, found that it helped people nearly as much as sessions with live therapists. 'It takes people systematically through problems and helps them organize their thinking," says Jacobs.

The ultimate time saver, masteringstress.com, doesn't even use a live therapist; it charges $30 for a series of 30-min. online questionnaires aimed at identifying and helping people cope with everything from depression to relationship problems. Nancy, executive producer of a daily cable-TV show in Los Angeles, takes the sessions during long coffee breaks to help her deal with job stress.

But does it work? Maybe. A soon-to-be-released UCLA study finds that patients who logged on for ten weeks were just as satisfied as a separate group that did ten weeks with a real shrink. And the logged-on group didn't even have a real therapist; they were fine with canned responses.

"The interactive computer approach will be more suitable for some people than for others," says Marion K. Jacobs, a clinical psychologist in Laguna Beach, Calif., who participated in the UCLA study. "But these Web sites are like self-help books. Some are very authoritative. Others are just crap."

John Grohol, director of Mentalhelp.net, checks the credentials of on-line counselors and publishes his findings at Metanoia.org. He says cybertherapy can benefit people who can't face the real thing. "You cut through a lot of bull and get right to the point."