CyberTherapy 2004 – 10-12 January, San Diego, CA.
This looks like it is more about the technology for a wide range of e-health rather than psychotherapy online. When it comes to psychotherapy I am a bit of a luddite – if that can be applied to an online therapy enthusiast. The great potential of plain text emails is mostly underutilised. Therapy thrives on simplicity. Freud is famous for a couch! It was a device to reduce visual contact. Many of the boundaries we take for granted today also reduce usual interactions. The emphasis on the communication, on what can’t be seen in rl – the inner stuff is important. Psychotherapy spares the inner world of the complexities of ordinary day-to-day life.
So I am not an enthusiast for real time and more devices to replicate reality, not for the purposes of therapy. Images are a different story. Drawing, painting, photos and cinema all have a part to play in therapy, others’ art and one’s own art. Art is a way of going beyond the surface of life to the experience of life. Art therapy online makes good sense.
But I digress from the actual conference, which sems thorough given its brief.