I’m a big fan of Eddie Izzard – his acting, comedy and extreme marathon running (43 full marathons in 51 days!). Recently while visiting New York, DeeAnna and I had a chance to see him in the new Mamet play Race at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway.

Izzard plays Jack Lawson, a lawyer at a successful firm who is called upon, alongside his black colleagues, to represent a white client (Richard Thomas) accused of raping a black woman. As Mamet explains, “In my play a firm made up of three lawyers, two black and one white, is offered the chance to defend a white man charged with a crime against a black young woman. It is a play about lies…All drama is about lies. When the lie is exposed, the play is over.”

At first glance this appears to be a mystery play about a simple lie by witnesses around where the sequins are from the red dress worn by the accuser in the hotel room where the alleged attack took place. But as their planned case comes together in light of the accused’s blundering press release, issues of racism and sex come to the fore as internal assumptions around what is right and wrong between races and gender clash both within and outwith the lawyer’s office. Essentially, Mamet illustrates a world where there is nothing a white person can say to a black person without feelings of being patronized, upset or simply wrong being incurred. He also demonstrates how this happens between men and women.

So how can online therapists, in relation to not necessarily knowing the colour of their client’s skin, ensure that their internal assumptions and biases around cultures and races (born of upbringing and social environment) do not infect the therapeutic work, either by self-reflection or in Supervision? The written word with clients can often seem stark without tone-of-voice and gesture, so how easy is it to misunderstand a remark made in innocence that a person of a different culture misunderstands as being racist? If the remark is deemed as racist by the client, is this the case? Or is it the case that the therapist is telling himself or herself lies about their attitude to differences in culture, as is the case in Mamet’s play with Lawson’s self-assurance? How important is it to examine and challenge one’s own internal racism in light of not knowing the clients race?

So, Mamet’s play brings a lot of questions about society’s attitudes to difference of race and gender. As well as being very witty in parts and challenging in others, I recommend it as a thought-provoking piece of theatre, as a therapist, an theatre goer, or even as just an Izzard fan!

Kate

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We are working hard on putting together our new OTI magazine, TILT (Therapeutic Innovations in Light of Technology).

The magazine will be online and free, and launched in September 2010. It will be a blend of news, innovations, member profiles, articles, features, marketing toolboxes, news on textbooks, and advertisements of interest. We will have more news on this very soon as the first issue comes together.

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Each issue will include the following:

· Editors introduction and contents (Kate Anthony & DeeAnna Merz Nagel)
· News from the cyberstreet (tweets members, what is at OTI blog, new research news)
· New Breakthroughs column
· Online Therapist column (A Day In The Life)
· Online Supervisor column
· Ethical Dilemmas column
· Feature article 4000-6000 words
· Other article(s) – about 1500 words
· Marketing toolbox column
· Featured Verified website
· Letters/reader comments
· Book descriptions of 3 books per issue
· Advertising and conferences

If you have an article of up to 1500 words that you are burning to get out of your system on any topic related to innovative delivery of therapeutic services via technology (including coaching), please do submit it no earlier than August 1st and no later than August 20th to editor@onlinetherapymagazine.com

We’re very excited at this new development at the Online Therapy Institute and will let you know even more about the content soon!

We look forward to reading your article!

If you have other inquiries about the magazine including advertising options please email info@onlinetherapyinstitute.com

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Kate will be presenting at a conference in Brussels that begins on June 17th and DeeAnna will present at a conference in Pennsylvania that begins June 28th.  Details of both conferences and sessions about online therapy follow:

Employee Assistance European Forum Brussels Conference 2010  See the link for the full agenda.

Best Practices for Providing EA Services via Email Exchange

Ms. Kate Anthony, Founder “The Online Therapy Institute”, President of the International Society for Mental Health Online, U.K.

 2010 EAP-MAP Conference Villanova Conference Center, PA See the link for the full agenda.

Panel Discussion – “Let your Fingers do the Talking: Adding Online Counseling to your Therapeutic Repertoire”
Jane Weiler, LCSW – Program Coordinator, NY Presbyterian Hospital Workplace Services
Mary Ellen Gornick, MA – Senior Vice President – Global Products, Workplace Options
DeeAnna Nagel, MEd, LPC, DCC – Co-Founder, The Online Therapy Institute
Cedric Speyer, MA, MAEd – Clinical Supervisor of E-Counseling, Shepell

We hope to see you there!

 

On Tuesday, May 11th I had the pleasure of attending the screening of Life 2.0, a documentary about Second Life, at ICF Theatre’s  Stranger Than Fiction. Director Jason Spingarn-Koff follows people for a period of over a year or more as they maneuver life lived in a mixed reality.

The scenarios include two people, each married to someone else,  involved in a cyberaffair, complete with hook-ups in Second Life to using webcam technology for face-to-face encounters. Their love affair takes them out of cyberspace for several in-person encounters. Emotions are high and limerence, that state of intense romantic desire for another person, is clearly evident. This is an affair of great proportions~ emotional, cerebral and physical~ filled with the excitement and consequences of infidelity.

An intimate look  into the lives of several people who are brave enough to share their stories continues. Another young adult who is engaged to be married logs into Second Life and soon he has created an alter~ an 11 year-old girl who he describes is a part of himself. This story line is rich and psychodynamic offering a glimpse into the impact of virtual worlds on the lives of people who have experienced childhood trauma. The vulnerabilities of the adult male, his alter child female, his “real life” fiance and other avatars the child befriends in Second Life are all laid out across the screen in a disturbing yet expected fashion.

A woman searching for meaning in her vocation  discovers that she can merge her love of gaming with her talent for design. She also explains that she has been dealing with several health issues so working from home is a plus for her. She starts a business creating a line of clothing and accessories as well as designer homes and landscapes. She manages to turn her hobby into a profitable enterprise. As with any entrepreneur, she applies focused concentration and long hours.

It is the stuff of life that therapists have been dealing with for years, or is it?

Enter the ability to create an alternate digital reality and these life struggles become magnified. Online disinhibition means that people do and say things in cyberspace they might not be able or willing to do or say in their “real life.”  Quotations are purposeful here because the underlying message is that these cyber experiences ARE real- as real as what I had for breakfast this morning.

So what does this documentary offer those of us in the helping professions? How about a new chapter in multiculturalism? Cyberculture is rich, full, real and impactful. Our clients don’t just go to soccer games, or movies or to Paris or Walt Disney. They don’t just have clandestine affairs at work or deal with historical issues of abuse in the therapist’s consultation room. They go to Second Life, another destination rendering the thrill of decadent and clandestine meetings, corporate enterprise, vocational fulfillment and the ability to create a new beginning, reconstruct a past event or extend parts of oneself into another reality.

If you have the opportunity to view Life 2.0, don’t miss it.  Your understanding of cyberspace will grow beyond measure.

Stay tuned for more about Life 2.0. We will regularly post notes of interest to our readers.

DeeAnna

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Our colleague, David P. Diana has authored a new book just out!  Marketing for the Mental Health Professional: An Innovative Guide for Practitioners is a book about success within all areas of the profession, offering practical and powerful strategies that lead to growth and opportunity you may never have imagined possible.

Diana has teamed up with Online Therapy Institute and several others to offer unique resources and discounts for people who purchase his book.  OTI is offering a 50% discount on our Get Verified program.

For more information on the book and corresponding offers, check out Diana’s recent blog post announcing the book launch and partners!

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The Online Therapy Institute is proud to display the HRCI seal for re-certification credit.

What is HR Certification Institute?

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The HR Certification Institute is the credentialing affiliate of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM),  the world’s largest association devoted to professional human resource management. HR Certification Institute works to define and maintain the HR body of knowledge, and offers assessments and certification of this knowledge. Human Resource certification demonstrates mastery of the HR body of knowledge and is widely accepted as a symbol of professional achievement.

Introduction to Cyberspace: A Primer for the Helping Professions

Kate Anthony & DeeAnna Merz Nagel

5 clock hours of instruction.
Online and self-paced.
$69.99/£45.00

During this course, you will learn about “what is out there”, from tweeting to blogs to chatrooms to gaming to Virtual Reality environments. This course covers definitions and illustrations of the aspects of Cyberspace that you need to know about, for offering therapy services in these platforms and understanding your clients’ experience of them. The course offers examples and illustrations of the platform being talked about, and shows you how to take part in them. We will also offer a basic understanding of Internet safety. This is so that you keep your communications and behaviors safe on the Internet but also so that you have a better understanding of what your clients may experience online if they do not practice Internet safety.

• Basic Internet Functions for Therapy and Counseling

• Enhanced Internet Functions for Therapy and Counseling

• Further Enhanced Internet Functions for Therapy and Counseling

• Visual and Aural Internet Functions for Therapy and Counseling

• Web 2.0 and Implications for Therapy and Counseling

Participants will be able to browse the internet accessing email and chat applications that may enhance client and/or student relationships.

Participants will be able to browse the net accessing podcast, wiki and virtual world applications that may enhance client and/or student relationships.

Participants will be able to browse the net and apply the use of blogs, microblogs and other social networking applications to their mental health practice or counselor education setting.

Participants will be able to practice basic internet safety and understand how to educate clients and/or students about internet safety.

We have partnered with DigitalChalk to provide a user-friendly yet state-of-the art training experience.

To purchase this course, create a profile at the OTI Training Portal and visit the catalog page.

Add the course to your shopping cart and pay with a credit card.

Continuing Education for U.S. psychologists, social workers and counselors, addiction counselors and marriage and family therapists is available for an additional $25.00. Click here for details.

Are you a Human Resources Professional?

This program has been approved for 5.0 (General ) recertification credit hours toward PHR, SPHR and GPHR recertification through the HR Certification Institute. Please be sure to note the program ID number on your recertification application form. For more information about certification or recertification, please visit the HR Certification Institute website at www.hrci.org.

This course will give the HR professional knowledge about how to maneuver cyberspace from the perspective of wellness. Understanding where employees are spending time online is valuable and understanding the possibility that employees are spending time online engaged in gambling, cybersex, social networking or other activities that take away from work productivity is essential. Knowledge about cyberspace will aid in interventions with employees who may need additional assistance, In addition, HR professionals often make decisions about and collaborate with EAP programs for health and wellness benefits. More and more EAPs are now offering EAP services via technology, Understanding what technology platforms are available for practitioners to utilize with employee/clients is essential when determining which EAP programs would best suit the employer.

The use of this seal is not an endorsement by the HR Certification Institute of the quality of the program. It means that this program has met the HR Certification Institute’s criteria to be pre-approved for recertification credit.

If you are interested in a group training rate please email info@onlinetherapyinstitute.com.

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Marina London recently wrote an article for the Employee Assistance Report and kindly mentioned Online Therapy Institute’s Ethical Framework for the use of Technology in Mental Health. Marina, we do appreciate the mention! The pdf download is avalable to read:

Ethical & Legal Considerations of Online Counseling are Ongoing

Read more about the Employee Assitance Report publication here: http://www.impact-publications.com/category/general_info_earn

For more from Marina London, follow her on twitter @IWebU and read her blog at http://www.iwebu.blogspot.com/

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A new article was just published in the Student Assistance Journal! The article is entitled Using Technology to Deliver Career and School Guidance Services: Establishing a Global and Inclusive Ethical Framework  and is co-authored by Harvey Schmelter-Davis, Kate Anthony and DeeAnna Merz Nagel. The article features a full reprint of the Online Therapy Institute’s Ethical Framework for the Use of Technology in Career and School Guidance.  As the abstract states, the article features a framework that strives “to offer a best standard of practice that all career and school guidance practitioners can easily adhere to regardless of particular professional identity, region and/or organization affiliation.”

PDF download:

Using Technology to Deliver Career and School Guidance Services

 

Schmelter-Davis, H., Anthony, K. & Nagel, D. (2009). Using technology to deliver career and school guidance services: establishing a global and inclusive ethical framework. Student Assistance Journal. 21(3), 26-34. 

The Student Assistance Journal Magazine is published by PRP Media, Inc.

Get Verified!

Do you have a website that offers information, services or products related to mental health?

Online Therapy Institute verifies websites so that individuals and businesses can demonstrate to their audience that their website is in compliance with what OTI considers to be “best practice” and in accordance with OTI’s Ethical Frameworks.

Getting OTI Verified means whether you offer website development and marketing services, you are an individual practitioner in private practice or you own an e-clinic or you represent a charity or educational organization you can indicate to the public that you understand the ethical implications of delivering mental health information and services online.

Website Categories

• Client Services (therapy, counselling. counseling, coaching)
• Therapist/Coach Directory
• Social Network
• Blog
• Peer Support
• Self Help
• Practice Building/Marketing
• Supervision/Consultation
• Education/Professional Development
• Crisis Intervention

You may have a website that fits into more than one category. Or you may have two websites under the same business name. For instance, some people have a private practice website and a separate blog site. We will offer an OTI Verified Seal that you can use on all of your sites. By implementing the items on our checklist that apply to your website categories, you can Get Verified .

• Your seal will be a choice of two styles.
• Each seal carries your company name and the current date.
• The seal cannot be replicated onto another site.
• The cost is $99.99 for the first year and $49.99 renewal each year following.

Instructions

You must have Adobe Reader to Download the following files

OTI Get Verified Checklist ….. OTI Get Verified Notes

• Compare your website to our checklist to be sure your website is ready for verification.
• Read through the notes that offer clarification for items on the checklist.
• Once you are sure you meet the criteria, click Google Buy Now button below.
• Following the completion of the payment process, you will be directed to the application.
• You will be contacted within 10 business days with your OTI Verified Seal.
• Should your website not meet the OTI Verified criteria, we will make recommendations.

Get Verified!

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