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When We Move From the Therapy Room to Social Media

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yesterday

Online content created by therapists is psychoeducation, not therapy.

Therapists' online visibility is part of modern practice and can be clinically helpful using transference.

Licensed professionals online help balance unqualified voices spreading inaccurate mental health information.

Ethical mistakes by some shouldn’t silence the many who are using social media responsibly.

I’ve been creating online social media content, including posts and videos, for a very long time now. Because I share the same kind of information online that I do in the in-person seminars I present at conferences, I consider myself an educator and the content I share to be psychoeducation. That is, I share mental health research, general stories about the different kinds of cases with which I have worked, and psychotherapeutic insights to give viewers and attendees the opportunity to learn about the sorts of things that we therapists address every day in our work. As in any book I have published, I disguise any clients with whom I have worked and share only generalities and composites of the types of cases that are most common in the people who come to see me.

The digital world has become a significant part of nearly everyone’s life. Many, many therapists now post videos online. Some of them have been criticized by other therapists, saying that the content is not nuanced enough, too nuanced for the general public, dangerous because a one-minute video doesn’t do justice to the complexities of the issue being presented in the video... the list of judgments goes on and on.

Foremost, many people don’t have access to therapeutic resources. They may not know others who have entered therapy and thus don’t understand its value. Many who read and listen to my content outside the therapy room say they cannot afford therapy, and this content helps them. I make sure........

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