Archive for the ‘Research & Publication’ Category

Online Therapy Institute hosted a “Virtual Town Hall Meeting” today at the Online Therapy Institute Conference Centre in Second Life. We decided Monday to go for it- Kate and DeeAnna along with John Wilson from OnlinEvents.co.uk. We wanted to talk about resources for people interested in online therapy and the influence of technology on the mental health field. In just a few days we had 25 people sign up for the free event.

Some people viewed from th OnlinEvents.co.uk website will others came into the conference centre in Second Life.  The three of us took turns talking and then we opened the floor for discussion.

This is a summary of the resources that were discussed in the meeting:

Resources

ACTO – The Association for Counselling and Therapy Online

http://www.acto-uk.org/

ISMHO- International Society for Mental Health Online

https://www.ismho.org/home.asp

Online Therapy Institute

http://www.onlinetherapyinstitute.com/

Online Therapy Institute Blog

http://www.onlinetherapyinstituteblog.com/

Online Therapy Institute Social Network

http://onlinetherapyinstitute.ning.com/

Online Therapy Institute Law and Ethics Wiki

http://www.onlinetherapyinstitute.com/wiki/

Online Therapy Institute Bookstore

http://www.onlinetherapyinstitute.com/bookstore/

Online Therapy Institute Web Directory

http://www.onlinetherapydirectory.net/

Online Therapy Institute’s Get Verified and Promoted Program

http://www.onlinetherapyinstitute.com/get-verified/

Online Therapy Institute training opportunities

http://www.onlinetherapyinstitute.com/workshops-and-training/

Online Therapy Institute Ethical Frameworks

http://www.onlinetherapyinstitute.com/ethical-framework/

Online Therapy Institute’s opportunities for consultancy and supervision

http://www.onlinetherapyinstitute.com/consultancy/

Publications

Online Therapy Institute’s Quick Start Guide

http://www.onlinetherapyinstitute.com/special-report/

TILT Magazine ~ Therapeutic Innovations in Light of Technology

http://www.onlinetherapymagazine.com/

Therapy Online: A Practical Guide by Kate Anthony and Stephen Goss

http://astore.amazon.com/onlitherinst-20/detail/184920473X

The Use of Technology in Mental Health: Applications, Ethics and Practice

http://www.ccthomas.com/details.cfm?P_ISBN13=9780398079536

Telehealth World: Article about Asperger’s and Second Life

http://www.telehealthworld.com/images/Spring09.pdf

It was great meeting and greeting! Stay tuned for more opportunities!

Kate and DeeAnna

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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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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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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.

The Online Counselling and Therapy in Action (OCTIA – see www.octia.org.uk) conference (now in its second year), took place in Manchester, England  and online this March 2010  through chat rooms, live video and my own presentation taking place in Second Life with its own chat.

The photograph below shows me presenting to the room of delegates at the OCTIA conference venue, with my own laptop in front of me.  Behind me on the screen is the view from my laptop perspective into Second Life, where I was joined by colleagues from all over the world represented as avatars, who had their own chat facility with me via my laptop and the delegates in the room who were also in Second Life as avatars (hence the laptops in the audience).  The screen on the wall to my right is where I was shown live from the perspective of one of the other delegates in the room in Second Life, with the official OCTIA chatroom being scrolled to the right of the video, where I was also taking part via audio and my laptop via text.

If that description sounds confusing, the point is that I was present in five different realities simultaneously, presenting worldwide.  This groundbreaking event reached four continents – Europe, the USA/Canada, South America and Australia – bringing them together to discuss the use of virtual and mixed realities in counselling and psychotherapy experientially.  To ensure the delegates watching in the physical room and online were truly able to understand what working in mixed realities is like, I wore the same clothes that my avatar is based upon, clearer in the photograph below (with my virtual self centre-front of the screen (from my perspective, hence the back view)).

You can also view a video by John Wilson of OnlinEvents and pics of the event. Jokay, founder of Jokaydia where our OTI office and conference center is located,  took some great pics while inworld. We are ever so grateful for her design expertise and professional support.

The Islands of jokaydia is a virtual worlds community of practice facilitated by Jo Kay aka jokay Wollongong. We are exploring the use of virtual worlds and games for education, arts and social change. You can find us in Second Life, Reaction Grid and our new virtual worlds presence – the jokaydia Grid!

We hope you will visit us inworld! If you’d like to check out Online Therapy Square, and the OTI Headquarters visit: http://slurl.com/secondlife/jokaydia%20II/110/68/24.

Exciting development from the OCTIA organising team. On the Friday night of the conference (19th March) there will be a “meet the authors” session before dinner.

I will be there to discuss “Therapy Online [a practical guide] (Anthony and Nagel, 2010), and Dr. Stephen Goss will talk about the forthcoming title “The Use of Technology in Mental Health: Applications, Ethics and Practice” (Anthony, Nagel & Goss, 2010). We will also refer back to the original UK text on the topic “Technology in Counselling and Psychotherapy: A Practical Guide” (Goss & Anthony, 2003).

Anne Stokes and Gill Jones will consider their 2009 book “Online Counselling”, and Jane Evans will discuss “Online Counselling and Guidance Skills: A Practical Resource for Trainees and Practitioners” (2009).

Also great to welcome Jethro Adlington to talk about “Online Therapy – Reading Between The Lines – A practical NLP based guide to online counselling and therapy skills” (2009).

All these books and more are available from the OTI bookstore at http://www.onlinetherapyinstitute.com/bookstore/

Looking forward to it!

Kate

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.

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

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