Spring has Sprung!
Wow has it been a busy couple of weeks!
What follows are summaries, statements and snippets from the various trainings and events that have taken place over the past 2 weeks- from Washington DC to New Jersey to New Orleans to the United Kingdom!
Kate attended and presented at the the 3rd annual OCTIA conference (Online Counselling and Therapy in Action) took place in Bristol UK last week. The conference was simultaneously streamed online so that participants can watch from all over the world, and discuss the presentations within a chatroom that is beamed onto the wall so that everyone is “in the same room”.
Gill Jones started the day discussing how best to market online therapy websites, and was followed by a great ethical discussion from Tim Bond of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). After lunch, Kate Anthony of the Online Therapy Institute gave a dynamic presentation about one of the more futuristic aspects of therapeutic use of technology, demonstrating the use of virtual environments and avatars. Chloe Morton and Jessica Shaw from BeatBullying talked about their work as managing teams of cybermentors for young people, and Steph Palin from Relate gave a presentation on understanding and working with online sex addiction. The day ended with a video from Vilma Kurziemediscussing her work in Lithuania, before a plenary session chaired by Anne Stokes. It was a great relaxed day of chatting and learning, hosted in part by the ever-super-organised OnlinEvents team.
OTI member, Mieke Haveman offers a nice summaryof OCTIA on her blog! http://networkedblogs.com/g7Ikr
DeeAnna attended the Psychotherapy Networker Symposium and presented on the topic of The Future of Online Therapy (Her post-presentation blog can be found here: The Future of Online Therapy: Wrap Up). While at the symposium she met several people that she has come to know on Twitter and meeting face-to-face was a great experience! She met folks from YourTango, GoodTherapy.org, MyTherapistMatch and others! The conference’s theme was Braving New Worlds. Be sure to check out the conference highlights.
As many of you may know, Online Therapy Institute has established working partnerships with the Institute for Life Coach Training and ReadyMinds. Since neither Kate nor DeeAnna were able to attend the American Counseling Association Conference this year, we asked Lyle and Randy about their experience at ACA.
Lyle said,” I was surprised to see just how print-intensive our profession remains in this age of ubiquitous digital connectivity. A walk-thru of the ACA Conference exhibit hall revealed a handful of vendors (I counted three) offering variations on web-based case management (Orion HealthcareTechnology and Therapy Charts), and “the first Internet-based virtual environment designed for behavioral healthcare” offered by InWorld Solutions. From the sprawling book store to the multiplicity of mental health resource publishers, print seemed to be everywhere. A quick, if not thorough review of the sessions also revealed only a few courses relating to use of the internet (“web 2.0”) and social media.
As for the interest in coaching, nearly everyone we spoke with, throughout the near constant stream of visitors to our ILCT booth, seemed to immediately recognize and appreciate the value for pursuing the Board Certified Coach credential and requisite training. It seems many counselors and therapists in general are increasingly interested in expanding their practice by offering coaching and are excited about the prospect of doing so in a way that is recognized and credentialed by NBCC affiliate, the Center for Credentialing and Education. While the need or value for online technology generally did not enter into the conversations, which were primarily focused on explaining the relevance of the BCC credential and the need for training, we may find that those who are first to pursue coaching will also be among the first to pursue the web-enabled solutions that will go with it.”
Randy Miller, Founder & CEO of ReadyMinds, also attended ACA this year in New Orleans and found more conference attendees very enthusiastic about distance and online counseling. He said “It was encouraging to see the interest in 21st century practices and the efforts being made to learn more.” Randy remains pleased of the solid work that the ReadyMinds Training division does to assist counselors worldwide. www.readyminds.com
And speaking of solid training, DeeAnna just conducted a Distance Credentialed Counselor two-day workshop at the ReadyMinds office facilitating the Distance Credentialed Counselor Training last week. She also met trainees in the group that she had previously been acquainted with on twitter! Saturday DeeAnna presented at the New Jersey Counseling Association. This year’s New Jersey Counseling Association Conference theme was Counseling in the Cyber Age. DeeAnna presented Cyberculture: The New Chapter in Multicultural Awareness and you can read of summary of the presentation here.
As usual, we will keep you posted on things to come!
Kate and DeeAnna
