Digital And Social Media Ethics For Psychotherapists: Clinical And Ethical Considerations For Psychologists, Counselors, And

Course overview

The Internet and social networking are offering a number of new clinical and ethical challenges for those who provide face-to-face mental health services. Digital and Social Media Ethics for Psychotherapists.These challenges include extra-therapeutic contacts between therapists and their clients, questions about what distinguishes personal and professional activities online, and a lack of clearly developed policies related to our online behaviors and interactions. This unique and first-of-its kind course offers an introduction to digital ethics and to various social networking sites and activities and provides guidelines for how to manage the concerns that may arise for practitioners who are using these sites. Applicable ethical standards will be addressed. While this course focuses on issues that may be of concern to clinicians who provide online therapy and who also maintain a presence on social media sites, online treatment is not specifically addressed in this course. The first section of the course is an Introduction to the clinical and ethical issues that get raised for psychotherapists using Social Media. The second section addresses online transparency of both clients and therapists, inclusive of what therapists may intentionally or unintentionally make available online, and whether they should access client information online. Section three looks at friend and contact requests on sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, and also examines the challenges of Facebook business pages and the blocking feature on such sites. The fourth section addresses Twitter, Status Updates, and Location-based check-in sites. The fifth section discusses the ethical issues that are raised by consumer review sites and business listings. Section six focuses on email exchanges between therapists and clients, record keeping, and digital security. Section seven provides sample Social Media Policies, and section eight, the last one, includes links to ethics codes for psychotherapists, and additional online resources. This course is also offered as part of a Telehealth & Digital Ethics Savings Package of 16 CE Credits. Educational Objectives: This course will teach psychotherapists to * Describe social media and summarize several popular social media sites and services. * Distinguish between one's personal and professional activities on the Internet. * Identify the ethical challenges that may arise from engaging in activities on the Internet. * Develop strategies for minimizing risk of ethical violations on the Internet. * Appraise their use of e-mail, record-keeping, and mobile computing devices to prevent confidentiality breaches. * Construct a social media policy for one's office to address potential boundary issues with clients. * Review the different approaches and attitudes towards social networking between therapists and clients. * Discuss the relevant ethical issues as they pertain to therapists' web sites and social networking profiles. Course Syllabus: (Articles were authored by Dr. Kolmes or Dr. Zur unless noted otherwise) * Introduction to Digital Ethics & Social Medial Ethics o Clinical and Ethical Issues in Psychotherapy & Social Media o How the Internet Blurs Professional Boundaries (With Stephen Behnke, Ph.D., JD) * Internet Transparency o Therapists Googling clients o Clients Googling Therapists – Therapists' Internet Transparency o Intentional Online Disclosure by Psychotherapists * Social Networking: Friend Requests, Facebook, LinkedIn o Managing Facebook as a Mental Health Professional o How to Respond to "Friend Request" from Clients? o Facebook Fanning: I'm not a Rock Star!