I know, I know! “A therapist blogging!? Really!? Does she know what she is getting herself into?!!!”
I’ve been asking myself the same question since I set up my website. The ultimate goal of laurenschiffertherapy.com is to give current, potential and past clients a way to find out how to contact me, answer quick and easy questions they might have about working with me and get a general sense of how my private practice operates. Initially it was meant to only be a website, like any other business would have. However, the site host offers this handy blog feature and I was intrigued. Then I read this article by Keely Kolmes, PsyD, on psychotherapy.net, was even more intrigued and a bit inspired: A Psychotherapist’s Guide to Facebook and Twitter: Why Clinicians Should Give a Tweet!
My blog is intended to be a place where I share information about what I am doing professionally, such as articles I’ve recently read, continuing education courses I’m taking, or my thoughts on current events in the behavioral health field. I will not be discussing clients and I will not be discussing my private life. The blog is intended, like my website, to give current and potential clients a general sense of what it would be like to work with me and a glimpse into my professional style and clinical approach.
It’s important to me that readers know this blog IS NOT therapy. While the internet is a powerful tool for sharing information, it is not a substitute for treatment and should not replace direct medical, psychiatric, or psychotherapeutic care. This blog should also not be a substitute for treatment. It is BY NO MEANS my intention to dispense therapy via the internet. Reading my blog doesn’t make me your therapist and commenting on posts does not make you my client. If you are interested in working with me in individual therapy, that is through face to face sessions in my Cambridge office, please see the “Scheduling and Payment” section of my website.
Phew! Now that the dramatic part of this post is out there and it is clear what this blog is not, I want to end with a quote from Dr. Kolmes above mentioned article, which motivated me to add the blog feature to my website and describes my philosophy about therapists and their professional on-line presence better than I could myself.
“I see one’s professional online identity—so long as the interactions are professional and not personal—as a form of community outreach. I have compared it to working in a college counseling center and then visiting a class that your client may be a student in, such as when a community event affects the campus and you provide information or do a presentation. Sometimes we are visible in the community as mental health professionals and clients may see us acting in this role outside of therapy sessions. An online professional presence can be similar. Some of us are teachers, writers, and lecturers, as well as clinicians. This is our professional life. Perhaps we do not have to exist in a vacuum, only functioning as clinicians in our therapy sessions. Existing online does not have to mean we cannot hold the frame with our clients, nor does it have to mean we are incapable of boundaries or talking about the effects of our online visibility on clients, when necessary. But we are going to have to develop tools and systems to learn to take care of boundaries in new ways and be present to talk with clients about the effect our online lives have on the clinical relationship.” -Keely Kolmes, PsyD http://www.psychotherapy.net/article/psychotherapists-guide-social-media#section-personal-vs.-professional-space
Lauren Schiffer, LICSW, MPH 