As the summer winds down I am pleased to report that my summer project of improving my digital career literacy has been going well.  I decided to focus my attention on LinkedIn first.  I’ve been learning a lot.

One of the first steps I took is following, and occasionally participating in [need to increase my participation rate!], various LinkedIn Career counselling group discussions on about ways to use LinkedIn.  My favourite discussion topic so far was titled “Thanks for the endorsement. Have we met?”

Those of you who have a LinkedIn profile have probably had the experience of being “endorsed” by someone you have never worked with for a skill you didn’t have listed.  The topic has generated a great deal of discussion and opinions are varied as to the usefulness of these endorsements.  Not to mention discussions about whom we connect with and how well we ought to know them.  Some have suggested endorsing is equivalent to clicking the ‘like’ button on Facebook and others have suggested that makes it meaningless.  Have a read and see what you think.

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I can’t avoid it any longer.  I’ve talked about it enough.   The time for action has come!

When I read “Building Online Employability – a guide for academic departments” by Longridge, Hooley and Staunton[1] I was reminded of how important it is for me as a career development practitioner to be digitally career literate.  

What is digital career literacy?  To quote the authors, “…an interlinked set of technical skills, career management and employability skills”. They go on to say, “Digital career literacy is already important to an individual’s ability to pursue a career successfully, but it is getting more important.”

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Summer is fast approaching and we have a tradition in our household of setting summer goals.  Trails we want to hike, new places to explore, farmers’ markets, days at the beach and, of course, the ubiquitous summer reading list.  Ah, summer!

It’s not all fun and games or light summer fiction.  Here’s what’s on my serious summer reading list.

In May the American Telemedicine Association released their new “Practice Guidelines for Video-based Online Mental Health Services.  You can download the guidelines for free here – http://www.americantelemed.org/practice/standards/ata-standards-guidelines/practice-guidelines-for-video-based-online-mental-health-services

While you are there you may want to check out their other resources.

Call me strange but I will also be cruising through Azy Barak’s Index of References related to the Internet and Psychology looking for articles that attract my attention.  Such an excellent resource. 

http://construct.haifa.ac.il/%7Eazy/refindx.htm

An issue that has been coming up in the past while with clients is video game addiction.   So I will be reading more about it on Dr. Brent Conrad’s site http://www.techaddiction.ca

and on Mike Langlois’ site http://gamertherapist.com/blog/gaming-and-therapy/

 That should take care of the summer.   After all I still need time to do all those other summery activities!  

Dawn Schell, MA, CCC, CCDP is an affiliate of Worldwide Therapy Online, Inc.  http://www.therapyonline.ca

I was talking with other online counsellors and discussing the speed with which technology is changing and ways in which we all try to “keep up”.  One conclusion we came to was that we can’t stay on top of everything! There is so much to know and only so many hours in the day.   How to select what areas to focus on is challenging.   

One way to determine where to focus my learning and growth in technology could be following my clients’ interests.  Here’s an example – in recent months I have had clients talk about their experiences in virtual reality and how those have impacted their daily life.  While I have developed competencies in certain types of online counselling virtual worlds is something I don’t know much about. Whether it’s gaming or Second Life or other applications.  

So I read. 

TILT (Therapeutic Innovations in Light of Technology) magazine often has articles that address “virtual reality” and therapeutic applications.  The ways in which others use these virtual realities is intriguing though I have not yet tried any of them myself. 

Here’s one that I might try. The most recent edition[1] describes a new program called ProReal (www.proreal.co.uk).   ProReal is a program designed for coaches and therapists to use with clients to create virtual worlds.  It’s a way to do socio and psychodrama virtually. The client, along with a trained facilitator – “creates a 3D visual interpretation of a person’s world through story, metaphor, symbols and social mapping.” The idea is that the virtual landscape becomes “the visual interpretation of the client’s world”.   Fascinating. 

There is a videoclip showing how it can be used in a therapeutic setting.  I can see how useful a process and how rich a source of information it could be if this is the type of counselling you do.   

Dawn M. Schell, CCC, CCDP is an affiliate counsellor with Worldwide Therapy Online Inc.  http://www.therapyonline.ca

As I understand it the revised Canadian Standards and Guidelines for Career Development Practitioners will be reviewed and discussed at the upcoming conference [wishing I could be there!]. The three key areas that were revised were technology, diversity, and the Career Counselling area of specialization.   Check out  http://career-dev-guidelines.org/career_dev to see these changes.  My focus for this blog post is on technology.  It is certainly an area that has been changing rapidly over the past few years and there are ongoing discussions about best practices for Career Practitioners.

One of those discussions was recently hosted by the Career Counselor Technology Forum.  They held a two-part international webinar series on “How the Internet Changed Career”.

The first webinar was presented by Tristram Hooley, whom I have often referenced in these blog posts in the past.  He is a Reader in Career Development and Head of International Centre for Guidance Studies at the University of Derby. You can listen to his webinar here – http://careercounselortechnology.com/resources/past-webinars/

A brief summary of his presentation:  He says the internet changes the context in which career is enacted.  By that he means, the internet has changed the way in which we find out about work, find work, apply for work, communicate, build networks and learn.  Which means new skills are required for effective career management.  What are those skills?  Hooley calls these skills “digital career literacy” and he lists seven C’s: changing, collecting, critiquing, connecting, communicating, creating and curating.  You can find a more detailed description of the seven C’s in the article listed below. [1]  According to Hooley, career practitioners need technical skills and we need to have “digital career literacy”.  I would agree.

The second webinar was comprised of a panel of U.S. career services professionals who shared their responses to the first webinar and also shared their experience in using technology in their career services.  The first question they answered was – How has technology changed your work in the last two to three years?  As I paused to think about that for myself I can see a myriad of ways in which my work both in general and career counselling has changed.  Not the least of which is the sheer volume of information that is available.  Learning how to filter that information for both myself and my clients has required me to really develop one of the seven C’s – critiquing.

Another message that came through loud and clear from the panel was the necessity of incorporating social networking into our teaching/training around job search.  It’s now become an essential career tool.  Knowing how to manage our online presence and how to navigate the social networking waters is crucial.

The last item I want to mention is this – the panelists all agreed that no matter how much technology we use we still need to find a balance between using the technology and maintaining a personal connection with our clients. So true!

I found the webinars to be informative, thought-provoking and inspiring.  And, it became clear to me that I still have work to do to improve my own digital career literacy.  Anyone else feel the same? 

Dawn M. Schell, MA, CCC, CCDP is an affiliate with Worldwide Therapy Online Inc. http:///www.therapyonline.ca

Dan Mitchell and I did a webinar for the CCPA on the topic of videocounselling titled “To Skype or Not to Skype”.  Videocounselling has been a hot topic in some online mental health  LinkedIn groups in recent months.  I blogged about videocounselling last year around this time and have continued to pay attention to the wider discussions in our field.

Skype is perhaps the most commonly used venue for videocounselling and a number of concerns are regularly being raised about using it for counselling.  One of those concerns is Skype’s Terms of Use.  I’m not a lawyer but here’s what I read.

4.2 Restrictions. You may not and you agree not to:

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A colleague recently had an ‘aha’ moment when listening to her client talk about Facebook.  Her client had been struggling with low mood and nothing seemed to make a difference in shifting her thoughts and mood.  The ‘aha’ came when she heard her client say things like ‘everyone seems to have a better life than I do’.  When asked where this thought came from the reply was “Facebook”.   After more discussion my colleague recommended her client take a Facebook sabbatical for a couple of weeks.  It worked.  The client’s mood elevated, their motivation and focus increased.  When the client went back on Facebook they noticed a marked decrease in mood again.  For this particular client social networking seemed to increase their sense of isolation, envy of the lives of others and the more the client read and looked at Facebook posts the worse they felt.

This conversation sparked me to find out what research is being done on social networking. While there are numerous studies on social networking and potential negative effects I want to focus on one of the most recent studies.  “Envy on Facebook: A Hidden Threat to Users’ Life Satisfaction?” [1] was a joint research study conducted by Berlin’s Humboldt University and the Darmstadt’s Technical University, led by Dr. Hanna Krasnova.

The authors of this report shared past research that “linked consumption of social information on FB to such undesirable outcomes as jealousy, increase in social tension, social overload, isolation and even depression”.  What their research focused on was examining some of the underlying dynamics, in particular the role that envy plays in these negative outcomes.

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Here’s a cool use of technology!  The Buddy App[1] designed by Sidekick Studios in the UK.  It’s not like other apps I have talked about.  This app is designed to be used by and with therapists (to use their language).  “It is a digital tool to support therapy services.  Clients use text messaging to keep a daily diary of what they are doing and how they are feeling, helping to spot and reinforce positive behaviours.” 

Currently, the Buddy App is being used by some of the National Health Service locations in the UK as well as other service providers.

Here’s what I understand about how it works.

The therapist, with the client’s consent, sets up the Buddy App system with the client’s cell phone number and appointment date.  Simple!

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I have been doing online counselling since September 2006.  That’s six years and six months [but who’s counting?].  Amongst other questions, I often get asked, “what do you enjoy about doing counselling this way?”

Well, there’s a lot I enjoy about it.  Where do I start?

Flexibility- I love that my schedule can be flexible.   Online counselling isn’t the only thing I do for a living so it’s nice to be able to schedule my online sessions around my other contracts.  I don’t always have to be at my desk either.   Nor do I have to dress up. 

Disinhibition Effect – Clients tend to tell me way more about themselves more quickly in an online environment than they do in-person. There are moments when I want to say, “Whoa…how did we get here so fast?”.  I have found this can be used to the client’s advantage.  Deeper work can happen more quickly.

Writing – I enjoy writing and I believe that my writing in general has improved as a result of doing this work. Every time I write a session I learn more about how to use writing to effectively communicate ideas, empathy, non-judgement and describe abstract mental health concepts.  I also learn from my clients about the power of words to heal. 

Best part of all? Meeting and working with such fabulous clients from various professions and backgrounds all across the country.  Given where I live I would not have had the opportunity to work with such an amazingly diverse clientele in-person.   I have learned about life in large urban centres, small towns, and remote locations.   I have learned about the pressures and stresses in large corporations and small companies.  I can’t name the types of organizations but the diversity there has been fascinating. I have “listened” to people tell their stories – each one unique and inspiring.

My clients have taught me a lot [thinking all counsellors have this experience] and it’s been a privilege to walk with them for a while on their journeys [virtually speaking].

Dawn Schell, MA, CCC, CCDP is an affiliate counsellor with Worldwide Therapy Online, Inc.  http://www.therapyonline.ca