Posts Tagged ‘avatar’

Thursday, September 9th!

Join Kate Anthony, DeeAnna Merz Nagel and John Wilson as they host a VIRTUAL TOWN HALL MEETING ABOUT THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY AND MENTAL HEALTH AND ALL THAT IS ONLINE THERAPY!

We will discuss efforts of three of the leading organizations representing online mental health and we will offer information about upcoming conferences, continuing education opportunities and publications. This is a great opportunity for a brief introduction followed by a Q&A session.

You can join us in Second Life at the Online Therapy Institute Conference Centre, alternatively you can view this event from the OnlinEvents website and you will be able to communicate with us using the chat room on our Live Video page.

There is no charge for this event!

Check out the time of the event in your time zone:

San Francisco: 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
New York: 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
London: 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Sydney: 5:00 AM – 6:00 AM

For more information visit www.onlinevents.co.uk

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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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/

I’ve just been made aware of a project going on in Dundee by someone at the University of Abertay, it’s launching today and I’m a bit gutted I can’t make it with such short notice.

However, it’s all about “developing emotionally engaging procedural character animations. The research will be underpinned by a comparative study of psychologically derived data relating to the expression and interpretation of emotion, with film based acted and animated performances.”

All sounds very exciting!  Check it out at http://emotionalavatars.vox.com/library/post/emotional-avatars-an-art-led-research-project.html

Kate 

Interesting article in The Guardian’s education supplement this week on SL – a conference was set up called Education Without Boundaries.  The journalist states that the informal networking sessions were the most useful part of it – which kinda mirrors RL conferences!  Something else that made me smile was the fact that the virtual conference centre decor was the “naff, over-elaborate kind you get in conference hotels” (see pic below)- and was bizarrely familiar apart from turning around to see another delegate with a snake around his neck…

Read the full story at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/mortarboard/2008/nov/11/highereducation-secondlife

While the debate rages on about whether or not internet addiction really exists or is an actual diagnosis, some people use the internet to the point that real world relationships become difficult to establish or maintain, tasks of daily living are effected and work is compromised.

More and more people are seeking psychotherapy and support for mental health issues online. Comfort with technology is closing the divide as access to quality services and navigation on the web becomes easier.

It might not be so unusual for someone who is struggling with an internet addiction to reach out for help on the internet. Determining whether or not this is a suitable approach should be on a case by case basis but let’s consider the following as a point for further thought:

A person who has a history of building unstable and untrustworthy virtual relationships may have the opportunity for a positive experience through therapeutic dialogue with a therapist via the internet.

This intervention may be as adjunct to an existing face-to-face relationship and the experience may be modulated as part of an overall plan. Or a person who may not consider face-to-face therapy may reach out on the internet when his or her life has become unmanageable. Interventions may be text-based via chat and/or email, videoconferencing/webcams or by using avatars in a virtual world such as Second Life.

What do you think?

DeeAnna

The woman, who has been jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, used his ID and password to log onto the popular interactive game Maple Story to carry out the virtual murder in May, a police official in the northern city of Sapporo said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of department policy.

“I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry,” the official quoted her as telling investigators and admitting the allegations.

The woman, a piano teacher, had not plotted any revenge in the real world, the official said.

She has not yet been formally charged. If convicted, she could face up to five years in prison or a fine up to $5,000.

More at:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081023/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_avatar_murder

The construction is complete!! We thank Jo kay for all of her work, vision and motivation with this project! She created a wonderful space that captures the essence of Online Therapy Institute and we now have a place to grow, think and educate! Please visit Online Therapy Institute on the Islands of Jokaydia. The direct link is http://slurl.com/secondlife/jokaydia%20II/147/45/24. If you are not a member of Second Life you can join for free.

If you want to know more about Jo Kay aka jokay Wollongong in Second Life, specializing in Virtual Worlds Design and Facilitation, visit her website at http://jokaydia.com/.

A little more about Jo:

Jo has interests in online culture and social networking and the impacts both are having in the education sector, but also on society in general. Her current research is around virtual worlds, with a particular focus on Second Life and the possibilities that it offers for education, communication and collaboration. Jo is owner and manager of the Islands of jokaydia and supports a vibrant community of educators and Institutions on the Island. For more information visit: http://jokay.com.au/ or http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/.

She does fabulous work as you will see.

So, now that Kate and DeeAnna have a place to perch inworld, we will be creating new ways to reach out to clients/consumers and professionals about online counseling! We plan to provide discussions and workshops to members on a regular basis after the completion of our book projects. So when you visit us, please join the Online Therapy Institute group!!

See you inworld!