Janina Fisher – Making Virtual Psychotherapy a Relational Experience
Description Of Making Virtual Psychotherapy a Relational Experience
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
What You’ll Learn In Making Virtual Psychotherapy a Relational Experience
Objectives
- Determine the challenges for clients and therapists of virtual psychotherapy
- Apply 3 ways of decreasing technophobia
- Determine the impact of threat on the autonomic nervous system
- Practice interventions for regulating autonomic dysregulation
- Demonstrate techniques that increase tolerance for fear and stress
- Sketch uses of the social engagement system in a telehealth clinical setting
Outline
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
Target Audience
- Psychologists
- Addiction Counselors
- Counselors
- Social Workers
- Marriage & Family Therapists
- Nurses
- Other Behavioral Health Professionals
About Janina Fisher
Janina Fisher, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist and former instructor at The Trauma Center, a research and treatment center founded by Bessel van der Kolk. Known as an expert on the treatment of trauma, Dr. Fisher has also been treating individuals, couples, and families since 1980.
She is past president of the New England Society for the Treatment of Trauma and Dissociation, an EMDR International Association Credit Provider, Assistant Educational Director of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, and a former Instructor, at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Fisher lectures and teaches nationally and internationally on topics related to the integration of the neurobiological research and newer trauma treatment paradigms into traditional therapeutic modalities.
She is co-author with Pat Ogden of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Attachment and Trauma (2015) and author of Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors: Overcoming Internal Self-Alienation (2017) and the forthcoming book, Working with the Neurobiological Legacy of Trauma (in press).
Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Janina Fisher is an international expert and consultant on Trauma and Dissociation. She is a consultant for Khiron House Clinics and the Massachusetts Department of MH Restraint and Seclusion Initiative. Dr. Fisher receives royalties as a published author. She receives a speaking honorarium, recording royalties and book royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. Dr. Fisher has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Janina Fisher is on the advisory board for the Trauma Research Foundation. She is a patron of the Bowlby Center.
More courses from the same author: Janina Fisher
Related products
