First chance to read...

.... my new article about the use of blogging in Counselling and Psychotherapy, to be published later in the year in the BACP Journal. This is the draft, so ignore grammatical errors for now, I'll repost the final version when its ready next week.

Cheers,

Kate


Blogging

by Kate Anthony

You thought you were just getting used to the concept of therapy taking place in Cyberspace? Well, welcome to the Blogosphere…

Introduction

There are many different types of virtual space when working online, many of which have been examined on the Technology pages of CPJ. The use of technology to communicate with our clients and each other has exploded in the last ten years, not least via email and Internet Relay Chat (IRC). Very recently, you will have read Sylvia Walker’s[i] positive experience of her client using mobile phone text to end a two-year face-to-face contract, an occurrence that few of us would have anticipated even a couple of years ago.

There is a further area of Cyberspace that few members of the profession have yet to consider relevant to counselling and psychotherapy, and that is the Blogosphere; containing the art of writing and maintaining an online journal that is made public on the Internet for anyone who happens across it. Furthermore, the journal is not just a passive document for reading; it is a dynamic interactive space where visitors can leave comments and opinions, whether positive or negative, for anyone to read. This article will try to demystify blogs, and show the reader just how important they may become for the profession and the future of therapy, not just from a theoretical standpoint but also from ethical and legal aspects.

Definition: Blog
1. noun. A contraction of weblog, a form of online writing characterised in format by a single column of text in reverse chronological order (i.e. most recent content at the top) with the ability to link to individual articles. There is usually with a sidebar displaying links, and the content is frequently updated.
Usage: "Kate is examining Action Research processes on her blog”
2. verb. To write an article on a blog.
Usage: "Kate has just blogged about the woes of getting the Victoria Line to Hangar Lane”[ii]

So, a blog is basically a journal that is available on the web (weB LOG). The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger." Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog. Postings on a blog are almost always arranged in chronological order with the most recent additions featured most prominently. The part of cyberspace occupied by bloggers is known as the “blogosphere”, the intelligentsia of the blogging community is the “blogerati”, and experiencing “blogorrhea” and “blogstipation” should be self-explanatory (also see glossary). The most popular software used for blogging in the UK is by a free download from http://www.blogger.com/, which is very simple to use and which I recommend (a recommended site for purchase of professional blogging space is http://www.squarespace.com/, which has monthly fees ranging from £4 for the basics to around £10 for advanced software functions).

Now we have the definitions out of the way, you may be asking yourself why I’m telling you all this. You may have heard of the Baghdad Blogger, Saleem Pax, who gave an insider’s view of Iraq while the conflict took place, or read about the stimulating (I use that word advisedly) diaries of Belle de Jour, a London call girl. The blogs that hit the headlines are often exposés of customer service providers, such as call centres[iii], or other fields of employment, such as the police force, teaching and academia[iv]. My colleague John Grohol, a pioneer of online work in the USA, has a very useful blog on psychotherapy resources[v], but the type of blogger largely ignored by the press so far is that of the sort of person who we, as practitioners, are likely to encounter as part of our day-to-day service provision; the client.

How would you feel as a practitioner if details of sessions with your client were posted on the Internet? How would you feel if the content of the sessions and your interventions were not only made public, but also commented upon by the client him/herself and then left with an open invitation for anyone else in the world to leave comments on your work? How about the online practitioner who’s typed verbatim interventions, whether communicated via email, chatroom or forum, are cut and pasted into a blog for general analysis by anyone with an Internet connection globally? What are the ethical considerations to be had in knowing your client is blogging, reading the blog and his/her innermost thoughts facilitated by the online disinhibition effect (Suler, 04 (v.3))[vi], and also his or her interpretation of what is happening within the therapeutic relationship?

By way of illustration, here is an extract[vii], used with permission, of an “anonymous blog of a girl who has another blog but uses this blog to say the secret things she can't say there, about sex, about therapy, about manic depression. Franny is not her real name. And she's not sure why she's referring to herself in the third person":

"for the past four weeks or so i've been sort of dreading my therapy
sessions...i love my therapist and always walk out of there gliding on air but
for some reason i get more and more reluctant to do the digging...i don't know
why, maybe because i'm feeling okay lately and just don't want to mess with
that, or maybe because i've said all the easy stuff and now have to get into
harder stuff, or maybe it's just starting to feel a little too cramped. i always
suspected that if i ever got one of these asshole guys to transform into a
stable relationship, I'D probably have been the one getting the itch to take
off...and my discomfort lately with my therapist may be evidence of that. i'm
feeling a little tied down."

Does Franny’s interpretation of the transference within the relationship help or hinder the process of the therapy if the therapist were to read it? I don’t have an answer to that, although I do see that it is another example of technology facilitating the empowerment of the client. The personal journal as a therapeutic tool has been around for a long time, of course (Thompson, 2004: 72 – 84[viii]), but rarely have they been in the public domain with the facility for feedback to be given to the blogger from the world at large. As is so often the case with the use of technology in counselling and psychotherapy, we are already behind in forming a coherent research base from which to make informed opinion about the implications of such phenomenon.

http://katesbook.blogspot.com/ is my own blog, which is charting the process of writing a textbook about online work and allowing examination of my thought processes over time, and reflecting on the understanding of how theories have developed to the stage where they are robust enough to withstand critical feedback from members of the profession. This blog is a central part of my Doctorate in Psychotherapy, and may have important implications for the future of research and communication amongst members of the profession. The pilot blog of the research demonstrated the power of blogging when complete strangers worldwide visited and left comments about my work, a surprising (although welcome) event. I invite all readers to pop into my blog and say hello, to experience the blogosphere itself.

Conclusion

At this point in time, I can only speculate on the implications of blogging on the future of counselling and psychotherapy. Practitioners who blog have to take responsibility for being comfortable with clients having access to their blog and therefore to more information than is available in a face-to-face environment. I can suggest that practitioners, particularly online practitioners (who’s clients are more likely to accept Internet communication as a viable alternative to face-to-face communication) have some measure in place when contracting with their client about the boundaries of acceptable spaces where the therapy or therapist are discussed. I could suggest that blogging be welcomed as a new tool to work alongside the client towards their better self-understanding and mental health, although I should add that I would also welcome (and invite) further research before jumping into the blogosphere to work with clients. Either way, blogging’s place in the profession should prove to be an exciting one.

Now, before anyone accuses me of being a barking moonbat, I’m off to upload this metablog and then indulge my hitnosis, even if it incites comments from blogroaches. You may be reading it in this example of deadtree media, but Franny and rest of the globe were able to read this blogopotumus back on October 21st. To the blogerati (who are out there waiting for you to join them), a blog is for life, not just for Christmas…

Glossary

Barking moonbat - noun. Someone on the extreme edge of whatever their -ism happens to be

Blogerati - noun. The blogosphere (qv) intelligentsia

Blogopotomus - noun. A very long blog article

Blogroach - noun. A reader who infests the comment section of a weblog, disagreeing with everything posted in the most obnoxious manner possible

Deadtree media - phrase. Paper newspapers and magazines, also known as Old Media. Also: 'on dead trees'

Hitnosis - noun. Being unable to stop yourself constantly refreshing your browser to see if your hit counter or comments section has increased since the last time you did it (i.e. about 1 minute ago)

Metablog - verb. To write blog articles about blogging. Also: metablogging

[i] Walker, S. (2004). To Text or Not To Text. CPJ, Vol 15, No. 03
[ii] With thanks to http://www.samizdata.net/blog/glossary.html
[iii] http://callcentrediary.blogspot.com/
[iv] Jim McClellan, The Guardian Online Section, 7th October 2004
[v] http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/category/psychotherapy/
[vi] http://www.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/disinhibit.html
[vii] With thanks to “Franny”, http://depression-sex.blogspot.com
[viii] Thompson, K. “Journal Writing as a Therapeutic Tool”. In Bolton et al, (eds) (2004). Writing Cures. Brunner-Routledge, Hove and New York.

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