amazing link about ethics andsocial media for therapists

This is a wonderful article from the Washington Post on the ethical issues of social media for therapists. Among other valuable issues the article raises is the simple question of whether therapists should have a Facebook page. The article notes how the impact of seeing pictures of their therapist could impact the client. A notable and powerful issue it raises cites an example where the therapist is forwarded a suicidal email and blog posting from a concerned friend of the clients. Should the therapist read the blog?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/29/AR2010032902942_2.html

august

"August is a month of Sundays", a quote from my wife. Indeed. Change is in the air, the pause of summer is past. Here's to Autum's blaze and all that it brings.

ethics

The next issue of Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association will be focusing on ethics. As we enter the era of social networking, how to manage ethics and boundaries as a clinician is very relevant and important issue. I am particularly interested in the traditional view that the therapist should be a "blank slate" to the client. I find this concept a profound contrast to the increasing resources and media knowledge that social media often entail. Googling ones name may be more than a fun somewhat self-indulgent way to track one's status, but rather a form of quality control to see what your are "attached to" and just what is "out there" related to your name, affiliation, etc.

More thoughts on twitter

I am rethinking my earlier stance of "How can you love language and twitter", seeing more clearly the value in playing and editing words down to their core and their essence. Yet, I still can't shake the adolescent connotations that twittering and even texting bring up in my mind. Perhaps I have official encountered the first of no doubt many yet to come generational divides as I approach 40.