networking

Omnichannelled Therapy – the Future of the Profession

July 24, 2015 by Kate Anthony

For a while now when describing the rise of using technology to deliver therapeutic services, I’ve found it helpful to include traditional ways of how we work within the definition. This was helped immensely by taking the writing of my hero Douglas Adams into account, and particular his thoughts on technology itself in his seminal 1999 article “How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet”:

“We no longer think of chairs as technology, we just think of them as chairs. But there was a time when we hadn’t worked out how many legs chairs should have, how tall they should be, and they would often ‘crash’ when we tried to use them.“

It could be argued that chairs themselves are a necessity of being a therapist – I’m pretty confident in saying we all use them when communicating with clients. So in considering this traditional way of conducting a therapeutic session, we can include face-to-face work as a technology as well. Adams published that article at around the same time that I joined forces with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy to develop the early Guidelines for Online Counselling and Psychotherapy, the backbone of the ethical advice and competencies for online practitioners we have today, and so I think the time is ripe for us to move on as a profession after over 15 years.

I just did a podcast with the lovely people over at counsellorcpd.com (available early September, check back for the link), and it started me thinking again about how we talk about online therapy as a whole. I described during the podcast how only last year I yet again had the debate about what to call services delivered over the Internet – is it e-therapy, is it teletherapy, is it online therapy…?

Well, how about we take the technology out of the description and just go back to not thinking about that too much? How about we go back to the core of what we do – two or more human beings working together with therapeutic intention to improve someone’s mental health and ability to deal with life’s challenges?

How about we just call it, er, therapy?

So I want us to look at this in a new way, taking into account all the many avenues of communication we have available to us now – be that face-to-face, telephone, email, chat, video, virtual environments or smoke signals. It’s a therapeutic interaction, a relationship, two or more people talking intentionally. It really as simple as it’s always been – we just need to recognise that if we take away the need to think about the screens and keyboards and plugs and chargers and on-buttons and pretty flashing lights, we’re left with the therapeutic relationship itself.

We can offer this relationship in a myriad of ways now, and we can be less restrained by factors such as place or time. The client can choose how and when they want to work, and the practitioner can choose how and when to offer their services. Want to work for 50 minutes in a room with two chairs and a box of tissues? Fine! Want to pick up a telephone and call a helpline spontaneously? Also fine! Want to reach out to your therapist via instant message but not book an entire session? Very fine! Want to journey through a virtual world as an avatar on an epic journey with your counsellor, seeking self-enlightenment? Awesome! That’s just omnichannelling, a word already widely used by marketers looking to improve their customer experience (thanks to ForeSee for the image I borrowed btw).

So I’m going to move further away from the distinction of the offline and the online, take away the need to define therapy by how we deliver it rather than what it is we are actually doing, and if we really need to call it something to remind us we’re not necessarily physically in a room anymore (but it’s OK if we are!), just call it omnichannelled therapy.

I like to think Douglas Adams would be proud of me.

🙂

Our new Resource Guides!

February 24, 2015 by Kate Anthony

DeeAnna and I took a bit of a leap this week after a brainstorming session! As we’ve blogged over at Online Therapy Institute, we get a lot of emails from people worldwide who haven’t got the time right now or the funds to take that all important CPD training, yet do have a burning question they need an answer to as they think about developing their online services. Or perhaps the idea of offering a blended service of using their traditional skills and newer technological tools is just a faint idea, and they need to have the pertinent information within their grasp in order to make an informed decision about going down that road before committing to it. e learning

So we wanted to do something new to meet those needs!

Those of you who are aware of our work at the Institute know that it is our mission to ensure as many practitioners are armed with what we know about working online before embarking upon doing so with those often vulnerable clients. One of my prouder moments was a graduate of mine who was able to say to me after investing in training that it was the best money she ever spent, as it told her that she was totally unsuited to the work and was so glad to have found that out beforehand. This is something we trainers should pay more attention to, I feel – knowing that sometimes when a training doesn’t work out for an individual, it isn’t a failure on our part or theirs – simply that not all tools and methods are suited to everybody. I remember during my core training being told I should sit with my wrist upwards and exposed as this indicated openness to the client. I just felt I was offering up my wrists to be slit, and the congruent me quickly abandoned that nugget of expert advice…

So we asked ourselves “how can we reach more people unprepared for using their skills in a digital environment, but who don’t want a full credential or can’t find the time and money to invest in this field as part of their continuing professional development? We can’t give it away – we’re not a charity, a library or a government entity. But we do have a mission that has been burning within us for well over 15 years now to help counsellors and coaches keep skills up to date in light of technological development and the changes in society that the Internet has brought, and TILT Magazine can only go part of the way in doing that.”

(To be honest, the discussion wasn’t as neatly put as that, and I may be paraphrasing somewhat…)

Anyway, what we have come up with is consolidating the knowledge and expertise we offer through our introductory courses into neat little resource guides! If you choose these, you’ll still be part of our community at our forum and Facebook groups for co-learning with our current and past students – and as an added bonus, if you decide that the time is right for you to take the course itself and be fully mentored by me or DeeAnna as you learn, you can simply upgrade! Woot! All this for under 50 quid!

🙂

Courses offered as both a credential and a resource guide:

Certified Cyber Therapist

Certified Cyber Coach

Certified Aroma Coach

Certified Intuitive Practitioner

Fostering the Spark – How Our Students Become Pioneers

October 9, 2014 by Kate Anthony

One of the most enjoyable aspects of tutoring our courses are the live “vivas” – a chance for DeeAnna and I to talk individually to each of our students. These talks, held over the telephone, through a videolink, or in a chat room, take place twice during our larger trainings – once at the end of the Foundational Course in CyberCulture and then again on completion of the written work in the Specialist Certificate portion.

We used to call them “oral examinations”, but that seemed very formal for what is essentially a check-in to ensure the learning is being taken on board, to clear up any misunderstandings about the work, and to clarify any parts that may be unclear or need further unpicking. It is also a chance for us to exemplify our message that communication is at the heart of all we do – whether in a learning environment or working with the clients we serve. To truly model our belief that communication is communication whatever technology we use (including those chairs Douglas Adams talked about), moving away from the written feedback we give at the end of every lesson towards the live conversation and back again allows the concept of the importance of blending technologies to emerge.

But what I really love about these conversations is hearing how the learning is being applied to each student’s work environment – whether a therapist, coach, support worker or other human wellbeing professional. This gives us a chance to drill down into how the student can take the learning forward, not only for their own ongoing development but for the good of the clients and the wider profession. I can get flavours of this through our ongoing written dialogue throughout the course, where the ideas the student has take hold and start blossoming – but it is the live conversation that allows not just the brainstorming part between two people, but also the infectious enthusiasm we both get as those ideas start to be fleshed out. There is nothing more satisfying than to hear the course content come to life when the student finds their niche – recent examples have been around how to reach and serve the suicidal client better, the use of blogging for co-education for senior Supervisors, the creation of a virtual gallery for those interested in showcasing art therapy techniques, and how best to de-stigmatise mental health services for children and young people.

The students on our courses are the pioneers of the profession. Sure, we give them the tools to work effectively and ethically online, and I honestly applaud any practitioner who seeks the training so necessary to do so (whether they are trained with us and the Online Therapy Institute or not).

But it is hearing the spark igniting the fuse towards meaningful ground breaking online work as each student applies the technology that makes my day during these vivas. Fostering that spark and helping to turn it into a realistically better way to be present for our colleagues and clients in any therapeutic field is intensely satisfying for us as tutors and mentors. It’s simply a privilege to see how our courses can startle a new thought into action for each and every student who joins us.

🙂

Kickstart TILT on the rest of the journey!

June 7, 2014 by Kate Anthony

A few weeks ago, I blogged about how TILT is put together, and how DeeAnna and I complement each other as co-Managing Editors in producing such an accessible and visually pleasing magazine. “Pride and joy” is a phrase we use a lot in relation to it, but another one we use is “labour of love”!

When we first discussed the possibility of creating a publication of benefit to those not only in our field of working online professionally, but also to those approaching the idea of fitting technology into practice, we talked at length about a journal. We even had a name for it, JOT, the Journal of Online Therapy. We approached publishers, wrote proposals, started seeking an Editorial Board and started making lists of potential peer reviewers. In short, we started by going down the academic road to getting information about technology in our work to the field of counselling and therapy.

Why didn’t we continue down that road?

Well, firstly we knew that the work we do, and the work our colleagues worldwide do, need not be straight-jacketed into the phrase “therapy” in its traditional sense. We wanted a publication that spoke to other members of the helping profession – the coaches, the alternative practitioners, the befrienders and peer-supporters (to name but a few). Essentially, we wanted to reach an audience that encompassed every type of change-agent using technology – and I include the client in that group as self-facilitator of their improved mental health.

Secondly, it became clear that journals need to make money to attract publishers. Making money from professional journals involves a large financial commitment by readers, and how could we square that with reaching as many people as possible to educate and entertain them about online work? We needed a platform where we could offer the magazine free to our students, free generally for archived issues, and at minimal cost to everybody else for the current issue.

Finally, we wanted a publication that could keep readers as up-to-date on developments in the field as possible, and this meant that we had to trust our own skills and judgement in what we let get through the editorial process to the page. I contribute articles to journals, I peer-review papers (sometimes three times over), and I work with editors all over the world. I know what a long process that can be first hand (and applaud those who stick with it!).

But here’s the bottom line – TILT costs money to produce to meet those three targets above: wide audience; open access; quick production. Our baby has grown up, and we need help to continue guiding it on the journey to maintaining the reputation it has as a great resource. Our pride and joy is also a labour of love, and we need to reach out to those who appreciate it now for help to keep it going.

As DeeAnna outlines on her blog – “We have started a Kickstarter campaign to help with the production costs of TILT Magazine, anticipating that as our student body continues to grow, we will not require supplemental monetary aid by 2016. In the meantime, we pay for the production and distribution of TILT, including graphic layout and the time to edit and compile.”

By contributing to the Kickstarter campaign, you can help us keep TILT on the virtual stands. Please help our Labour of Love remain our Pride and Joy! It can cost as little as 60p, $1, or 70 Eurocents!