Do you know that you are reading my very first blog post? Writing a blog for my website has been on my priority list for a long time and I have avoided it because I just didn’t know what to write about. Well now because I am furthering my training to become an online therapist, I can no longer avoid it because my tutors at the Online Therapy Institute require a guest blog post as part of my course work!
Pushing my boundary into the unknown world is a struggle for me. I like safe and I like comfortable and I like to know what I am doing. What I do not like is struggling with new concepts that take me an age to learn and I do not understand well and this is the place I now find myself. So let me explain how pushing my boundaries came to be.
Not too long ago I had an accident which meant for 4 months I was on crutches, could not drive or work and was impacted by how in a moment my world was literally turned upside down. I remember thinking at the time, oh my goodness what about my clients, how can I get to my therapy appointments, what will I do?
So I worked around my difficulties and eventually life returned to normal and my therapy work resumed. Then we had a very bad winter and at the time I was working at a psychological therapy centre at the top of a steep hill. On many occasions the centre was closed due to the roads approaching it being too dangerous to drive on and again my therapy work was disrupted.
That was enough I thought, I need to find alternative ways of delivering therapy when face to face is not possible. The seed was sown in my mind to deliver therapy online and that is how I found myself registered for an online therapy course.
What I did not realize was how much work is involved in training for this type of work. I have spent months setting up my Facebook business page, months trying to understand and watching Twitter, hours puzzling what is meant by encrypted email, excited by the simplicity of Skype and instant chat, an onlooker into what goes on in chatrooms.
I am overwhelmed by usernames, passwords and all the paraphernalia that goes with the cyber world. I am excited though! I cannot wait for the day when I expand my private practice to offer my online service in addition to my face to face work. I cannot wait to offer alternative ways of continuing a therapeutic relationship if either me or my client cannot travel to meet at my consulting room. I am so excited I could burst!
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Sue Hartley, student- Online Therapy Institute’s Online Therapy Specialist Certificate Programme
