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Further Adventures Pt. 2
After completing the DCC workshop last week, I hurried home to get started on my "homework assignment," a four page document listing the 20 competencies we covered in the training. Our assignment, should we choose to accept it, is to respond to the competencies one by one, outlining how we would meet the competencies in our practice after completing the training. My four page doc is now 8 and I have eight competencies to go... Pity the poor person that has to review these!
I'm extremely happy that i went to this training. It's been 10 years now since I finished my program, and honestly this is the first training I've been to since I graduated that I thought was valuable. Besides focusing on the online aspect, it was a helpful review of best practices overall. Sometimes we forget that the practices of the agencies or institutions we work for are not necessarily always "best". I feel much more confident about how to do this thing called online therapy, and where I'm still a little weak kneed, I have resources and supportive folks that are right there with me.
Having the teensiest touch of ADD, I may have been the "student" during the workshop that other folks hope will shut up for five minutes. but I was so enthusiastic and really felt the relevence for the content in what I'm doing. Now there is so much WORK.
The web page has to be redesigned and the documents created and uploaded, along with links to find and post... sometimes I feel like I need a manager standing behind me saying "Now, do that! Then do this...." But I have the materials and the outlines so it's not that I can't figure it out. It's maintaining the patience to do each step as it needs to be done, correctly.
In my LivePerson "practice," clients have all but dried up. All the Counseling "Experts" are complaining that there's not enough to go around. Fees have increased and no one seems to be happy. I did a little more investigating and found a site called "LiveCounseling.com" which is modeled after LivePerson down to the category listings. Same general premise and structure. But there are two very big differences, their customer service staff actually work with you and the development folks are willing to listen.
I learned this when I got a call one morning from a customer service person saying "I think you shut down your computer without logging off the software, you've missed several clients." We got into a discussion about the site (still listed as in Beta testing) and I mentioned some concerns I had about structure, ethics, etc. To my surprise they were actually willing to listen and asked if I would be willing to consult with them on some of the issues I brought up (namely how do you bring the ACA code and other ethical guidelines and established best practices in line with the companies Terms and Conditions. I imagine there will be some heated debates but I feel if I turn my back, there's little change going to occur if clients have no process for recourse and the other counselors are happy with the set up. LivePerson is so big that they don't see reason to change. This is a small site taking on the giant and they might be persuaded to make changes now before their site is fully functional.
I'm extremely happy that i went to this training. It's been 10 years now since I finished my program, and honestly this is the first training I've been to since I graduated that I thought was valuable. Besides focusing on the online aspect, it was a helpful review of best practices overall. Sometimes we forget that the practices of the agencies or institutions we work for are not necessarily always "best". I feel much more confident about how to do this thing called online therapy, and where I'm still a little weak kneed, I have resources and supportive folks that are right there with me.
Having the teensiest touch of ADD, I may have been the "student" during the workshop that other folks hope will shut up for five minutes. but I was so enthusiastic and really felt the relevence for the content in what I'm doing. Now there is so much WORK.
The web page has to be redesigned and the documents created and uploaded, along with links to find and post... sometimes I feel like I need a manager standing behind me saying "Now, do that! Then do this...." But I have the materials and the outlines so it's not that I can't figure it out. It's maintaining the patience to do each step as it needs to be done, correctly.
In my LivePerson "practice," clients have all but dried up. All the Counseling "Experts" are complaining that there's not enough to go around. Fees have increased and no one seems to be happy. I did a little more investigating and found a site called "LiveCounseling.com" which is modeled after LivePerson down to the category listings. Same general premise and structure. But there are two very big differences, their customer service staff actually work with you and the development folks are willing to listen.
I learned this when I got a call one morning from a customer service person saying "I think you shut down your computer without logging off the software, you've missed several clients." We got into a discussion about the site (still listed as in Beta testing) and I mentioned some concerns I had about structure, ethics, etc. To my surprise they were actually willing to listen and asked if I would be willing to consult with them on some of the issues I brought up (namely how do you bring the ACA code and other ethical guidelines and established best practices in line with the companies Terms and Conditions. I imagine there will be some heated debates but I feel if I turn my back, there's little change going to occur if clients have no process for recourse and the other counselors are happy with the set up. LivePerson is so big that they don't see reason to change. This is a small site taking on the giant and they might be persuaded to make changes now before their site is fully functional.
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