training – Page 3

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.

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At the Online Therapy Institute, our mission is to get as many trained online practitioners out there as possible, to protect the practitioner, the profession, and of course the potentially vulnerable client at the other end of the process. This is in common with my fellow trainers here in the UK and internationally – we don’t mind which training you choose, as long as you seek training in being an online practitioner!

The classic phrase we all hear from our trainees is “I just didn’t know how much I didn’t know!”

But we also hear how practitioners – who let’s face it have already invested probably a lot of money in their core training – also feel that Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is a never-ending sink hole of expenditure. We empathise with that entirely – as practitioners ourselves, we know that our learning doesn’t end when we graduate with our counselling qualification.

Transferring your offline skills to an online environment isn’t just about knowing how to use electronic forms of communication. For most of us, that is second nature now – and for the future therapists and clients it’s pretty much going to be in their blood from birth, metaphorically speaking. I recently wrote an article on this, outlining how that tipping point hasn’t quite happened yet, but isn’t all that far off.

The point is, whether you want to practice online or not, your clients live in a digital world and deserve to have a therapist that is immersed in that world – understanding Cyberculture is the new first step to being an empathic practitioner (click here for an empathy-based in-joke).

But post-graduate training and CPD costs time and money 🙁

If you are thinking about investing in your ongoing development as a practitioner, and want to be an effective therapist in a fast-changing technology driven client world, you have probably seen our full BACP Endorsed trainings as a Certified Cyber Faci OTI_CertifiedCyberTherapist_Cover_v1 (1)_001 litator (CCF) at the Institute. But what if you are just not sure if the financial outlay is going to give you what you need?

DeeAnna and I have thought about this long and hard, and as a result have introduced a new introductory course called our Certified Cyber Therapist (CCT) course. This cut-down version of our full training still gives you the one-to-one mentoring at every step that we are known for, but at a quarter of the both the cost and time needed. If you are in the United States, you will have come to know the Distance Credentialed Counselor (DCC) certification as the ‘gold standard’- and OTI has been proud to have written the DCC curriculum, training thousands of practitioners. Now we bring you the absolute latest information through our own credential with our CCT course.

What’s more – if you take the introductory 15 hour CCT course – we’ll discount the money from the full CCF or PGCert training when you are ready for it! It’s a win-win! Many of our students pick up additional courses from us as and when time and money allow – and in between they get all the benefits of ongoing resources from us, as well as free subscription to TILT Magazine and now free access to the video library of our awesome colleagues at OnlinEvents!

Read more about the CCT here, and we look forward to mentoring you on your journey to being an effective and ethical online practitioner at whatever training cost suits you!

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Fostering the Spark – How Our Students Become Pioneers

Certified Cyber Therapist – new approach, new course!