Working Online: Supporting Clients Leaving Violent Extremism

Many of the models used in exit and prevention work were designed for face-to-face contact, yet online engagement changes the dynamics — for clients, for practitioners, and for how we evaluate what “works.” This piece sketches a few ideas and recurring questions as online engagement becomes the new normal for intervention and support work.

1. From Design to Implementation: Practical Lessons for Online Work

Designing and delivering online interventions for people leaving violent extremism requires more than moving in-person practices onto a screen. It calls for deliberate design, structured implementation, and ongoing reflection. The same principles that make interventions effective offline — clarity, consistency, and compassion — must be intentionally recreated in digital environments.

1. Start with design, not delivery. Before launching an online service, clarify why it exists and for whom. Build a logic model that connects the target population, intervention type, and measurable outcomes. Define success early and keep it realistic — social stability, trust-building, or consistent engagement may be the most meaningful early goals.

2. Keep interventions person-centred and context-aware. Clients’ online environments differ dramatically. Some remain embedded in extremist networks; others are rebuilding anonymous lives. Tailor your approach and outcomes to their readiness, risk level, and on- and offline realities rather than applying a single model.

3. Prioritize psychological safety and ethical transparency. Online practice reduces control and visibility. Explain how confidentiality, data storage, and crisis procedures work, and revisit these topics regularly. When clients are too wary to share personal information, negotiate safety plans that still identify trusted contacts or local crisis resources.

4. Build multidisciplinary partnerships. No single service can meet all post-exit needs. Collaborate across social services, peer networks, mental health providers, legal aid, and employment programs. A secure referral and feedback system keeps support continuous and prevents clients from falling through gaps.

5. Supervise and support the helpers. Whether peer mentors, coaches, or clinicians, practitioners working online face fatigue, exposure to distressing content, and blurred boundaries. Structured supervision, clear role definitions, and peer consultation protect both staff and participants.

6. Evaluate as you go. Use short feedback loops and simple monitoring tools to track what’s working. Combine quantitative data (session counts, engagement rates) with qualitative reflections from clients and practitioners. Evaluation should be iterative — guiding adaptation, not just reporting results.

Applying these principles online raises practical and ethical challenges. Learning from other programs and collaborating across disciplines is essential. In the end, quality depends on intention and structure: programs that are clear about their purpose, grounded in logic models, and professionally supervised can turn online engagement from a potential risk into a pathway to recovery and reintegration.

2. Adapting to the “Always-Online” Client

For individuals leaving violent extremism, the digital world can feel like both refuge and risk. It often preserves traces of their former lives — old contacts, archived posts, or algorithmic reminders of past networks. Yet it can also provide safety, anonymity, and new communities for rebuilding purpose and belonging. Many clients navigate between these realities: an offline world shaped by family, probation, or reintegration, and an online world where familiar narratives and peers still circulate.

Psychologists have long noted that people behave differently online than in person. Suler’s (2004) Online Disinhibition Effect remains relevant today: anonymity, invisibility, and perceived distance can lower inhibitions and intensify expression. For people in transition, this can encourage honest reflection — but also impulsive conflict, hostility, or relapse into extremist spaces. Recognizing this dual role of online life is key to tailoring support and anticipating triggers. Practitioners need to treat the internet not as background context but as an active environment that can either sustain or undermine disengagement.

3. The Spectrum of Online Support Services

Online intervention is not a single model but an expanding network of supports that meet clients at different stages of disengagement and recovery. These digital pathways often facilitate or complement the work of rebuilding safety, trust, and belonging.

Care coordination. Many clients face practical instability before emotional recovery can begin. Online platforms make it easier for practitioners to connect them with local resources for housing, employment, legal aid, or counseling. For those wary of institutions, digital contact can be a safer first step toward formal services.

Peer support. Former members of extremist groups, when trained as peer supporters, offer credibility and understanding that professionals alone sometimes cannot. Online peer support — through chat, calls, or moderated platforms — reduces stigma and isolation and builds hope early in the process. Yet boundaries can blur quickly; supervision and structured protocols are essential to prevent over-identification or burnout.

Coaching and mentoring by non-peers. Many programs use trained coaches who are not formers but specialize in motivation, goal-setting, and reintegration. Delivered online, coaching helps clients set goals, build skills, and maintain progress during vulnerable periods. Positioned outside both clinical and peer roles, coaches offer structured accountability and practical support — especially for clients who are stable but still rebuilding routines, confidence, and social ties.

Professional therapy. Licensed psychologists and psychotherapists now provide telehealth options for clients dealing with trauma, guilt, or anxiety after leaving extremist groups. Remote therapy expands access for clients in rural areas or those fearful of stigma. However, confidentiality, risk assessment, and crisis response require clear protocols when distance limits control.

Support groups. Group formats are less common in exit work due to safety concerns among former members. Still, small, carefully moderated online or hybrid groups can be effective when focused on shared goals — such as parenting, reintegration, or identity rebuilding — rather than ideological histories. When trust is established, group settings can help normalize experiences and reduce isolation.

Psychoeducation and digital workshops. At the prevention and aftercare levels, psychoeducational initiatives — webinars, podcasts, and short courses — help clients and families understand topics such as radicalization, involvement, and exit, as well as emotional regulation, skill-building, and recovery processes. For practitioners and partners, they also serve as accessible tools for capacity-building and public awareness.

More online and offline services exist, and together these approaches form a continuum: from first outreach and stabilization to long-term therapeutic support. The challenge is ensuring that these diverse formats maintain quality, coherence, and measurable impact.

4. Rethinking Practice in Digital Spaces

Working with clients online doesn’t change the core principles of good practice — empathy, structure, and safety — but it does change how we apply them. The familiar cues that guide in-person sessions don’t always translate through screens or text. Practitioners must build presence and connection in new ways, often with fewer signals to rely on.

Building rapport online requires extra care. Small, deliberate gestures — brief affirmations, summarizing what you’ve heard, acknowledging emotions directly — help maintain connection. The medium itself matters: some clients open up more by voice or text because it feels less exposing, while others need video to build trust. Meeting them where they are can make the difference between guarded silence and meaningful dialogue.

Boundaries and containment are harder to maintain when communication spans multiple channels. Clear expectations about when and how contact happens protect both practitioner and client while preserving trust. This includes transparent risk management: clients should understand when confidentiality might be broken — for example, in cases of risk to self or others.

Safety planning is uniquely challenging online. When clients engage remotely, practitioners may not know their exact location or how to reach emergency services. Ideally, a client’s location and crisis plan are confirmed each session. In reality, some — especially those emerging from extremist or high-control settings — may resist sharing details out of fear or mistrust. Transparent discussions about confidentiality, gradual trust-building, and flexible crisis protocols can balance safety with autonomy.

Online harassment, doxxing, and exposure to extremist content add further risks. Discussing privacy settings, online boundaries, and coping strategies as part of standard safety planning helps clients protect themselves and sustain progress.

5. Evaluation and Tailored Outcomes

Evaluating online interventions in violent extremism work remains complex. Because programs differ so widely — from peer support and care coordination to therapy and psychoeducation — the outcomes they seek must also differ. What “success” means for one client or context may not apply to another.

The key is tailoring interventions to desired outcomes rather than assuming every program should achieve ideological change. For some clients, immediate goals such as emotional stabilization, social reconnection, or job placement may be the most meaningful indicators of progress.

Drawing on their systematic review, Brouillette-Alarie et al. (2025) report that deradicalization-focused programs are generally harder to implement and tend to show weaker outcomes than disengagement or social-reintegration approaches. Interventions emphasizing education, vocational training, and socialization show more consistent positive effects and fewer unintended consequences.

Koehler (2017) emphasizes, evaluation quality depends on clarity of design: without defined objectives, standard procedures, and measurable indicators, programs risk inconsistency or even harm. In their discussion of evaluation frameworks, Brouillette-Alarie et al. (2025) highlight logic models as a best-practice tool for linking a program’s target population, activities, and outcomes (Baxter et al., 2014; Rogers, 2008). By clarifying a theory of change and mapping short-, medium-, and long-term outcomes, logic models help practitioners tailor interventions to client needs and make evaluation findings transparent to decision-makers (Anderson et al., 2011; Wallace et al., 2012).

Ultimately, effective evaluation begins not with data collection but with design — choosing interventions that fit the client’s stage of change and defining outcomes that are realistic, measurable, and meaningful.

6. Looking Ahead: Reach and Responsibility

Online interventions offer a chance to reach far more people than traditional face-to-face programs ever could. The accessibility, anonymity, and flexibility of digital support can lower barriers for those who would never walk into an office — including families, former members of extremist movements, and individuals at risk who are not yet ready to seek formal help. But scale brings responsibility. Expanding reach without clear standards or ethical safeguards risks repeating past mistakes, only faster and on a larger stage.

If done thoughtfully — with transparent logic models, strong supervision, and shared evaluation frameworks — online engagement could become one of the most powerful tools for prevention and rehabilitation in the years ahead. The challenge is not only to do more, but to do it well — and to learn from adjacent fields rather than “exceptionalizing” violent extremism (Bosley, 2020).

For more information or questions, please reach out to contact@exit-nexus.com.