Archive for the ‘Mobile SMS’ Category

OTI has been remiss in offering regular blog posts these past couple of months but with good cause and great outcomes!

So what’s in store for 2010? Our authored book, Therapy Online: A Practical Guide was just released and we have another edited book, The Use of Technology in Mental Health: Applications, Ethics and Practice due out this summer. This book has 30 chapters with a total of 47 contributing authors from across the globe.

As promised, we are offering online training about online therapy. We have launched the first 6 workshops with more to come. Each workshop is the equivalent of 5 clock hours of instruction. The workshops are online and self-paced.  The cost per workshop is $119.00/70.00 £.

• Introduction to Cyberspace: A Primer for Helping Professionals
• Relationships in Cyberspace: An Introduction for Helping Professionals
• The Online Therapeutic Relationship: Theoretical Considerations
• Ethical Considerations of Online Therapy
• Working Therapeutically Using Asynchronous Email
• Working Therapeutically Using Synchronous Chat

The workshop details can be accessed at our training portal. We have partnered with DigitalChalk to bring you a user-friendly yet state-of-the-art experience. Continuing Education credits for U.S. psychologists, social workers and counselors will be available very soon.

www.onlinetherapyinstitute.digitalchalk.com.

Just create an account and peruse our catalog! Your account will remain active should you decide to return to take a course.

We are giving our website a facelift so resources are easier to navigate.

We will soon offer an Online Therapy Institute ~verified~ seal that will provide a way for online helping professionals to indicate to the public that their site meets standards of best practice.

We will be facilitating groups and workshops as well as co-sponsoring conferences online and at our Second Life location.

We are collaborating with others to add to our Ethical Framework resources.

We have created:

• Ethical Framework for the Use of Technology in Mental Health
• Ethical Framework for the Use of Technology for Career and School Guidance

Coming Soon:

• Ethical Framework for the Use of Technology in Professional Coaching
• Ethical Framework for the Use of Technology in Crisis, Disaster and Critical Incident Interventions
  

We are offering a directory listing to everyone who joins our social network at www.onlinetherapysocialnetwork.com and your listing will be posted at www.onlinetherapydirectory.net.

For OTI members who practice online, a website listing in the OTI Web Directory (online counseling category) will be added provided the following standards are met:

1. Offer encrypted services for email, chat and web conferencing.
2. List level of education, schools attended and dates graduated.
3. List certifications and licenses if applicable with verification web links.
4. List crisis information or a link on the website’s home page.
5. List therapist’s alternate contact information in addition to email.

Mostly, we will continue to encourage dialogue among our members and friends at Online Therapy Institute so that we can all learn and grow together!

Kate and DeeAnna

Kate and DeeAnna have both contributed separately to a project called The Future of Innovation – where “over 350 leading thinkers from business, government, consulting and academia from around the globe share their thoughts, experiences, dreams, visions, hopes, concerns, and passions around The Future of Innovation, providing you with insights into tomorrow’s innovation agenda…”

Kate’s contribution is “The Future of Innovation in Training Innovative Therapists” and discusses training therapists to use technologies such as SMS texting, VR, Social Networking sites, and finally Hologrammatic Therapy (you heard it here first!).

DeeAnna’s contribution is “The Future of Innovation: The Use of Avatars in Psychotherapy” introduces Innovative Avatar Therapy Simulation and discusses what Avatar Therapy looks like, how it can enhance the therapeutic process, and the importance of training in using this new method when combining AI with elements of traditional psychotherapeutic techniques.

See more on the project at : http://thefutureofinnovation.org/

Working in partnership with some of the biggest names in music, sport and clubbing, CALM encourages young men to ‘open up’ and sort out their problems. CALM has built a strong presence through the internet, club flyers, posters, beer mats, gigs, comedy nights and in the media.

We have had several inquiries lately about membership at the Online Therapy Institute; particularly- what are the benefits of joining?

• Advertising
• Networking
• Media Opportunities
• Case Consultation

OTI offers several ways for people to collaborate, network and gain knowledge about mental health and technology.  We have free discussion groups through Linkedin, Facebook, Second Life and our own social network.  We blog and we tweet to keep everyone up-to-date on the latest happenings in the field.  Membership is not necessary through these groups and many are satisfied with the affiliation they currently have with us.  Becoming a member however, brings additional benefits. 

When a person, business, organization, educational institution or charity joins OTI we spread the word about their cause, services, products, or training. Beginning in 2009, all members who join receive a dedicated blog post which is fed to many blog directories and social networks such as Linkedin and Twitter.  We also create a listing in our Web Directory and the new listing is then fed to Twitter and other networks.  We create another way to advertise through social media and we promote our members by assisting with research projects, networking and offering media connections.  We promote member workshops and trainings related to mental health and technology through our blog and events calendar.

For qualified clinical members, we offer a secure and encrypted forum for peer supervision and one-off case consultation regarding online and face-to-face cases.  The forum is facilitated and feedback is offered by Kate Anthony and DeeAnna Merz Nagel.

If you interested in joining, access the membership form here. Come grow with us!! And please do not hesitate to ask any questions of us. 

Annual Membership Fees

$ 50.00 USD  INDIVIDUAL Clinical and Professional

$ 75.00 USD  ORGANISATIONAL Non-profit/Charity/Educational Institution/Association

$100.00 USD ORGANISATIONAL Business/Corporate

The Online Therapy Institute offers an Ethical Framework for the Use of Technology in Mental Health that incorporates the major points of existing codes and guidelines offering practitioners a way to ensure that thier therpeutic work via technology covers best practice. 

The framework’s audience is global and as new technologies and ethical issues arise, the framework will be revised and updated.  Practitioners who practice according to the framework can know that they are implementing the best standard of care available to their clients.

The framework is posted on the OTI website and is also offered as a PDF download.  Members of OTI who offer therapy delivered via technology will be listed in the OTI Web Directory provided their practice follows the framework.  Anyone may join the Institute. but the directory will be reserved for practitioners and organizations who have implemented the framework into their practice.

We are excited about offering this framework to all mental health practitioners!

Best,

DeeAnna and Kate

The Online Therapy Institute offers several venues to engage in vibrant discussion about bringing mental health and technology together. Online therapy, cyberpsychology, the use of the internet to enhance private practice, internet addiction and behavioral telehealth are but a few of the topics that pop up on our discussion boards.  We have groups and discussions located at LinksforShrinks, Facebook, Second Life, Linkedin and the Online Therapy Institute Social Network  Check out OTI on the Web!

For secure and encrypted communication with other Online Therapy Institute Clinical Members, consider joining and gain access to the OTI Member Forum. Clinical Members can staff cases and engage in peer supervision in a confidential environment.

See you online!

DeeAnna

Today’s edition of The Guardian, in the G2 section, discussed My Mobile Guru – a download-to-mobile therapy service that consists of a 42 second script that seems to be a “one-size-fits-all” therapeutic service “littered with platitudes”.

Phillip Hodson of the BACP states that “All you could do on a mobile download is what you can do with a leaflet, or old-fashioned agony aunting.  That could never be called therapy…. You can’t have a relationship with a mobile phone download”.

See more at www.mymobileguru.com and http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/sep/15/healthandwellbeing.psychology – then post to the OTI forums to discuss!

Kate

Kate and DeeAnna take a break from writing to visit NYC.  A trip to the Modern Museum of Art, followed by lunch in the theatre district.  Technology!  It is everywhere- albeit, just a smattering at MoMa in the media exhibit…purposefully distracted from work and yet…as we exit the lunch venue, we are faced with this marquis: LG Texting Championship 2008! We thought of stopping in with an impromptu survey on how likely it might be for the participants to use thier texting skills to engage in therapy, but we thought better of it and continued with our day in the city!