Description

The course: Making Virtual Psychotherapy a Relational Experience by Janina Fisher

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• Course language: English

In a climate of fear and isolation that equally affects us all, therapists are now being asked to help clients deal with the practical challenges of self-isolation in a time of danger and heightened anxiety—and doing so in isolation. Worse yet, telehealth requires the sudden acquisition of new technical skills and facing any phobias we and the clients have about the use of technology.

Without the contact we and they value as the heart and soul of psychotherapy, virtual psychotherapy can feel distant and impersonal just when clients have an increased need for connection. But it does not have to be!

This recording addresses how to overcome the limitations of telehealth technology to make remote psychotherapy a warm and relational experience.

• Practical tips for making virtual psychotherapy feel personal and connected
• Resources for helping clients tolerate fear and loneliness 
• Interactive neurobiological regulation: using our nervous systems to regulate the client’s nervous system

1. Determine the challenges for clients and therapists of virtual psychotherapy
2. Apply 3 ways of decreasing technophobia
3. Determine the impact of threat on the autonomic nervous system
4. Practice interventions for regulating autonomic dysregulation
5. Demonstrate techniques that increase tolerance for fear and stress
6. Model uses of the social engagement system for telehealth

Challenges to helping clients in a time of pandemic

• Fear of what will happen
• Isolation or forced proximity
• Moving from face-to-face to virtual psychotherapy

Addressing technical challenges and technophobia

• Transparency
• Collaboration: “we are in this together”
• Celebrating growth and mastery

Fear and the body

• “Inside threat” versus “outside threat”
• The impact of danger on the brain and body
• Somatic interventions for supporting immune system function
• Mindfulness-based interventions for calming the body

Increasing relational contact in virtual space

• Making use of the social engagement system
• Increasing feelings of “being fully present” 
• Capitalizing on somatic techniques for increasing relationality