Re-envisioning Division 29

Re-Envisioning Division 29 Embracing Diversity, Globalization, and “Being Connected” Through Technology

Who We Were  Primarily a membership-based group of Psychologists committed to advancing and preserving psychotherapy as an art and science  Mostly over 50 years of age, Caucasian, and male

What We Like       

Attending conferences Reading journals & books Relating to others like ourselves Passing on traditions of psychotherapy Addressing obstacles to our work Teaching, training, researching, publishing Being a member of an elite group

The Trend and Challenge  Membership has been dwindling every year and over the last decade has reduced approximately 50% similar to trends in other divisions  Today’s psychotherapists do not find as much appeal belonging to professional societies and organizations  Our source of income from memberships is drying up!  Newer social structures are emerging

Practice Directorate’s Survey of 3,000 Practitioners    

61.9% work in independent practice 29.9% work in institutional practice 8.2% work in academic settings 78% work in either full or part-time practice

 92% provide individual psychotherapy!

A Paradigmatic Shift is Occurring  New social systems based on technology are emerging  Being connected may be enhanced by technology  The “world is flat” and information can be accessed anywhere in the world that is connected to the web

What Do We See When We Envision Our Future?

Some Trends to Consider Creating a Tipping Point  Informatics  How Public Perception Shapes Science and Practice  Revolution in Digital Publishing  Inter-disciplinarity, unification, and dissolution of boundaries From Seed: Science is Culture Magazine 2008

Informatics— The sciences concerned with gathering, storing, retrieving, and classifying information

Informatics Informatics supports decision-making:  Psychotherapists have to deal with vast amounts of information and pick the most promising elements  Psychotherapists need powerful tools to reveal patterns, trends, and outliers in streams of data flooding us

Public Perception Shapes Science & Practice  Psychologists need to know how to present to the public and share our knowledge in meaningful ways to improve mental health and enhance society  The internet has become one of the main vehicles for marketing How many of you have been Googled before the patient scheduled an appointment?

Revolution in Digital Publishing  Digital publishing—“more profound than the printing press”  Open access publishing—rapid availability may do away with paper  Creating freely available information on the internet e.g., Wikipedia

Interdisciplinarity, Unification, and Dissolution of Boundaries  There is a dissolution of the boundaries among disciplines, as well as researchers and clinicians  Scientists and practitioners must be comfortable holding multiple perspectives  Bridging the divide will advance the field through increased generativity

Technology is Changing the Social and Global Landscape

 The computer/internet and rapid technological advances have fundamentally changed who we are as social, information-gathering individuals  We have moved from hunter-gatherers, to farmers, to industrialists, and now to information generators-gatherers

What is the Prescription? Capitalize on these Trends to Meet the Needs of Current and Future Psychotherapists of the World

Moving From Contemplation to Action

Inspire Our Field— Present our Knowledge & Introduce our Leaders

Jeffrey Barnett, Psy.D., ABPP

PSYCHOLOGY TODAY blogs Seven Questions Project

The Seven Questions Seven Questions for Jeffrey Barnett: 1. How would you respond to a new client who asks: "What should I talk about?" 2. What do clients find most difficult about the therapeutic process? 3. What mistakes do therapists make that hinder the therapeutic process? 4. In your opinion, what is the ultimate goal of therapy? 5. What is the toughest part of being a therapist? 6. What is the most enjoyable or rewarding part of being a therapist? 7. What is one pearl of wisdom you would offer clients about therapy?

Internet as Portal to D29  Offer the best available and most current information about the science and practice of psychotherapy  Make it easy to view all educational programs and attain CEs from anywhere on the globe  Create a compelling site that is user friendly and attracts users because of content

CREATING A GLOBAL COMMUNITY OF PSYCHOTHERAPISTS

What Can We Do?  Re-envision ourselves based on needs of psychotherapists and public  Be responsive to current trends  Anticipate future trends  Capitalize on trends to advance our mission  Use the tools (technology, informatics, marketing) available to us to make us the portal to information about the science and practice of psychotherapy

Encourage Greater Interdisciplinarity  Offer webinars with leaders in other fields to increase our members breadth of knowledge and video broadcast these so that anyone can watch no matter where they reside  Hold think tanks at our conferences and on internet and invite other leaders in science, technology and the arts (see www.poptech.org/ )

Speak and Capture Our Audience with High Quality Interactive Information  Offer cafés that are for members only where they can join a video-conference using webcams from their offices  Create blogs on a variety of topics by leaders in our field and consider paying stipend  Have an ongoing video feature where some of us interview various individuals in the field and make their personal-professional story come to life

Capitalize on our Specialized Knowledge as our Source for Generating Funds

 Offer various levels of participation for access to our information through our internet portal  Provide a basic free access zone to interested parties to increase traffic on our site  Offer electronic journals that make it easy for people to access information

Increase our collaboration with other groups

 Continue to work more closely with Society for Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI), Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR) and other high level scientific and practice based groups. Have links to their sites, after they are approved, so that we can enhance collaboration  Create links on our site to approved non-profit organizations which provide pro-bono services for mental health

Strengthen Scientific Resources  Create on-line research-clinician collaborative programs  Offer downloadable empirical measures to monitor psychotherapy and accumulate large cohorts of data available to researchers  Initiate the Unified Psychotherapy Project (UPP)

Possible Offering— Current Technology Corner

Hire someone to write a blog on technological advances and how to get started such as:    

Audiovisual Recording—How to get started Basic Biofeedback—Compare equipment Supervision—Using Webcam to Enhance Connection Videotape supervision—How to enhance training

Brainstorm, Dream, and Envision Our Future

Thanks to Technology “I Am Connected”

I Want Your Vision for the Division

Thank You! Jeffrey J. Magnavita [email protected]