University of Toronto

The world is changing, and counselling is no exception. Your clients are going to be asking for online counselling. Corporations now expect it is part of the package of services you can offer. Are you ready?

               This engaging full-day workshop will give participants a solid understanding of the technical, ethical, and practical issues involved in doing text-based email counselling. It will also address the Presence Techniques developed and used by the presenter in his or her online practice, giving students the opportunity to role-play and receive feedback on their approach.  The workshop will also consider:

 -  Ethical competencies, including appropriate and inappropriate clients and issues qualitatively different from face-to-face work;

-  Technical competencies, including the Internet’s functioning, security issues, and the many communication tools available for counselling;

-  Therapeutic competencies, including theoretical issues specific to email counselling, assessment, crises, referral, and e-Supervision;

-  Making email counselling effective, including coping with the lack of tone and non-verbals, enhancing meaning, and skill-building;

-  Practical exercises, including Presence Techniques I, Presence Techniques II, and Metaphors.

-  An overview of online counselling, including history, options in online work, advantages of online counselling and challenges in working online effectively.

 Further objectives of the workshop include:

 - Identification of ethical issues particular to online work

- Appreciation of the impact of internet technology on the practice of online counselling

-  Awareness of the different modalities for delivering online counselling and an understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of each

-  Awareness of theoretical and practical considerations in doing online counselling

-  Experience using online techniques and the ability to apply these techniques to email communications

                 This workshop will be helpful for learners considering taking the full certificate program in Cybercounselling at www.cybercounselling.com. All students from this course will receive a 10% discount towards the tuition for the Level 1, Cybercounselling Certificate.

Lawrence and his colleague Dan Mitchell were the first people on earth to offer clinical services over the Internet, having established Therapy Online (www.therapyonline.ca) in 1994. They co-authored the first ethical code for online practice in 1998, and have produced a number of academic publications since. Mr. Murphy has presented workshops at national and international conferences throughout Canada, including invitations as keynote speaker. He has been a guest lecturer at the University of Toronto, University of Saskatchewan, Brock University, and the University of British Columbia. Therapy Online provides training to e-counsellors worldwide.