Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

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

Ada Lovelace Day March 24th: An international day of blogging to raise awareness of the achievements of women in technology and science- I found this out today! So I thought I would add the OTI blog to the celebration!  As women co-founders of the Online Therapy Institute we are all about technology and how technology has impacted the field of mental health.

So who is Ada Lovelace? Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace, was born August Ada Byron on December 10, 1815  and is the daughter of the illustrious poet, Lord Byron.

When inspired Ada could be very focused and a mathematical taskmaster. Ada suggested writing a plan for how the engine might calculate Bernoulli numbers. This plan, is now regarded as the first “computer program.” A software language developed by the U.S. Department of Defense was named “Ada” in her honor in 1979.  Read more…

Let’s celebrate women who embrace science and technology!

Thanks for your contribution, Ada! ~ perfect timing too since it is Women’s History Month! Check out more blog posts about Ada’s influence at BlogHer.

The Online Therapy Institute is delighted to offer our new course on Online Supervision – text-based strategies. Please check . http://www.onlinetherapyinstitute.com/introduction-to-supervision/ to register for this 5 hour course.

During this course, you will learn about how the supervisory relationship works online, and the importance of secure communication between supervisor and supervisee. We will cover the use of technology historically in supervision to give you grounding in what is available to you for use in practice and to illustrate the usefulness of verbatim transcripts in particular. We will consider the ethical nuances of online supervision, the importance of contract formation, and also some of the boundary issues when being an available online supervisor in practice, particularly with regard to social networking functions of the Internet. Lessons include:

Traditional Uses of Technology
Suitability of the Supervisor
Written Communication Skills for Supervision
Ethical Considerations for the Use of Technology in Supervision
Individual and Group Case Examples
Learning Outcomes:
Participants will be knowledgeable about traditional uses of technology in supervision.

Participants will be able to apply written skills to text-based supervision via chat and email.

Participants will be informed about the ethical considerations for the use of technology in supervision .

The BACP Guidelines for Online Counselling and Psychotherapy are now in their 3rd Edition (Anthony & Goss, 2009 – see also Goss et al., 2001; Anthony & Jamieson, 2005) and now the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy have revised and amended the main Ethical Framework to reflect this (the full link is below, with references).

This embraces the importance of recognising online therapy – and indeed the function of technology in general –  as a vital component of the profession.

The new Ethical Framework states:

Variations in client needs and the diversity of settings within which counselling and psychotherapyservices are delivered have also been carefully considered. Clients vary in their requirements in order tocommunicate effectively and to gain access to services. Ethically aware services strive to meet theseneeds and to avoid excluding someone from receiving a service or lowering the quality of that servicesolely on the grounds of a client’s learning difficulty or physical disability. Services may be provided bythe independent practitioner working alone, one or more practitioners working to provide a service withinan agency or large organisation, specialists working in multidisciplinary teams, and by specialist teamsof counsellors and psychotherapists. Most work is undertaken face to face but there are also a growingnumber of telephone and online services. Some practitioners are moving between these different settingsand modes of delivery during the course of their work and are therefore required to consider whatconstitutes good practice in different settings. All practitioners encounter the challenge of responding tothe diversity of their clients and finding ways of working effectively with them. This statement thereforeresponds to the complexity of delivering counselling and psychotherapy services in contemporary societyby directing attention to significant issues that practitioners ought to consider and resolve in the specificcircumstances of their work.

The Online Therapy Institute embraces this amendment, as the work of BACP remains the basis of part of our own Ethical Framework for the Use of Technology in Mental Health (http://www.onlinetherapyinstitute.com/ethical-training/).

Kate

http://www.bacp.co.uk/ethical_framework/

Goss, S., Anthony, K., Jamieson, A. and Palmer, S. (2001) Guidelines for Online Counselling and Psychotherapy. Rugby: BACP.

Anthony, K. &  Jamieson, A. (2005) Guidelines for Online Counselling and Psychotherapy 2^nd Edition, including Guidelines for Online Supervision. Rugby: BACP.

Anthony, K. &  Goss, S. (2009) Guidelines for Online Counselling and Psychotherapy ^3rd Edition, including Guidelines for Online Supervision. Rugby: BACP.

Kate writes on the benefits and pitfalls of working and socialising in Cyberspace for the International Employee Assistance Professionals Association (EAPA).

Download the December 09 newsletter here!

Kate

The use of technology in several aspects of service provision – and particularly that of using the Internet to communicate with clients directly for the purpose of therapy – is an established and growing method of delivery. This workshop offers an introduction to online therapy, suitable for all theoretical orientations and levels of service provision, showing how online work can be integrated effectively into existing practice.
Kate Anthony will invite participants to explore their attitudes to working online and look at the differences and similarities to more traditional ways of working. She will take participants through the different types of technology being used in therapy, explain the theoretical model, demonstrate how online therapy works for both email and Internet Relay Chat with experiential exercises, and discuss the ethical implications inherent in working online with particular regard to social networking for professionals. Part of the day will be dedicated to couple counseling online.
Aims of the day:
• to give us confidence in relation to the use of technology
• to raise awareness of the ethics of online work
• to consider the particular issues related to counselling couples online.

Learning outcomes:
By the end of the day participants will:

• be aware of the range of technological interventions available
• understand the online therapeutic relationship
• understand the basics of online etiquette and written communication
• be aware of some of the pitfalls of social networking in the counseling profession
• have considered the ethical considerations of working online
• have had experiential learning of working with online clients
• have considered how couple counselling online could be conducted.

Teaching Format
A combination of presentations, discussion, and experiential smaller group work.

Presenter:
Kate is a Fellow of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, and developed and co-authored three editions of the Guidelines for Online Counselling and Psychotherapy, including Guidelines for Online Supervision. She is co-editor of Technology in Counselling and Psychotherapy – A Practitioners Guide, The Use of Technology in Mental Health: Applications, Ethics and Practice and co-author of Therapy Online [a practical guide]. She is also Past-President and Fellow of the International Society for Mental Health Online. She trains and consults on using technology in Mental Health as CEO of www.onlinetherapyinstitute.com. Free membership of the Institutes social network is at www.onlinetherapysocialnetwork.com, where over 450 professionals meet to discuss online therapy and use the Institute’s free resources.

Please contact Alice Still or Diana Reilly for more information.
Alice.still@relationships-scotland.org.uk
Diana.reilly@relationships-scotland.org.uk
Date:
Tuesday 9th March 2010
Time:
9.45am for 10.00am – 4.00pm
Venue:
Relationships Scotland
18 York Place, Edinburgh
Cost for Members of RS Network:
£75 to include training materials, sandwich lunch and refreshments.
Cost for Non-Members:
£115 as above.
Participants:
For relationship counsellors, sex therapists, and managers of services.

Authored by DeeAnna Nagel, Stephen Goss and Kate Anthony, a new chapter called “The Use of Technology in Supervision” has just been published under the section heading “Emerging and Specialist Issues” in “The Clinical Practice of Supervision”, edited by Pelling, Barletta and Armstrong, published by Australian Academic Press (2009).

You can buy the book here: http://www.australianacademicpress.com.au/Publications/Books/4-921513312.html

In the chapter, we discuss

Technology Assisted Supervision
Enhancing the Use of Video and Audio through Analytical and Research Software
Extending Direct Observation
Delivery via phone, email, listserv, chat, videoconferencing and virtual worlds
Review of the Current Standards for issues such as contracting, informed consent, legalities, confidentiality and encryption, the use (and abuse) of verbatim material
Issues of transference and countertransference
The Suitability of the Supervisor regarding technical competency, training and education

The chapter concludes with questions and activities and has an OTI hand-picked selection of resources and references.

A worthy addition to any online therapy library, and wwe hope you enjoy it!

Kate

Ethical Implications Online: Working and Socializing in Cyberspace

NEW LOW PRICE! $155.00 for the full-day session!

REGISTRATION FORM

Presented by: DeeAnna Nagel, LPC, DCC
Dallas, Texas EAPA Pre-Conference Training
Co-Founder of the Online Therapy Institute

The Employee Assistance Professionals Association (EAPA) invites you to
Register For This Full-Day Ethics Course
Ethical Implications Online: Working and Socializing in Cyberspace
Tuesday, October 20 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM; 7.5 PDH/CE contact hours

This full-day workshop will discuss best practice with regard to communicating online with potential and existing clients, business associates, friends and other therapists. With the advent of Web 2.0 and Social Media, counselors and psychotherapists now must understand the boundaries of working and socializing in cyberspace. Topics to be covered include communicating confidentially with existing clients, how to handle the email inquiry from a potential client, the basics of ethical online counseling and the slippery slope of marketing your practice on the internet via social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Learn more about EAPA’s 2009 Annual World EAP conference or download the conference preview book.
PDH/CE credit hours provided by:
Employee Assistance Certification Commission (EACC)
National Association of Social Workers (NASW)
National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC)
California Board of Behavioral Sciences
National Association of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselors (NAADAC)

This is to announce a conference that will be held in Second Life Sep 16-18.

This conference is free and offers CE through NBCC.

The conference is coordinated by Dr. Marty Jencius, Assistant Professor and Counselor Educator at Kent State as well as founder and list manager for CESNET-L, a professional listserv for counselor educators and co-founding editor of The Journal of Technology in Counseling, a web-based, peer reviewed journal.

Kate Anthony and DeeAnna Merz Nagel will be co-presenting a Keynote entitled: Online Therapy in Second Life and the Online Therapy Institute.

General Information:

http://sl.counseloreducation.org/Conference/conference.html

Conference Schedule:

http://sl.counseloreducation.org/vccschedule/vccschedule.html

Registration:

http://sl.counseloreducation.org/Registration/registration.php

Hope to see you inworld!

DeeAnna