Tavistock Relationships, the internationally renowned charity which offers training in counselling, psychotherapy, and psychosexual therapy, is offering a new online counselling and psychotherapy training video: Facilitating the Therapeutic Connection in Online Therapy – The Four Domains with Dr Pierre Cachia, DCplPsych.
As well as providing training, Tavistock Relationships has over 120 highly-trained therapists providing a psychotherapeutic approach to resolving relationship challenges, and delivering more than 21,000 counselling sessions each year. In 2016 the organisation launched its online therapy service, which grew steadily and delivered 1,281 sessions from April 2019 to March 2020.
Dr Pierre Cachia, Couple Psychanalytic Psychotherapist and Head of Tavistock Relationships’ Online Therapy Service, explains: ‘Tavistock Relationships had already run thousands of online therapy sessions before the first lockdown began last March, allowing us to quickly transfer more than 350 cases online.
‘To support therapists delivering therapy online, and drawing on my own clinical and supervisory experience, our new training video Facilitating the Therapeutic Connection in Online Therapy – The Four Domains, offers an analysis of the benefits and pitfalls of ongoing psychotherapeutic work online.
‘Consideration is given to the ways in which the spatial domains of therapist and patient intersect, as well as the technological aspects that can problematise or enhance the therapeutic encounter, and to ways in which the psychology of cyberspace may impact on therapeutic work.
‘I focus the discussion around four domains, which are understood to reflect a certain quality of experience: the therapist’s domain, the patient’s domain, the technological domain and the psychological domain.
‘It’s important for therapists to remain curious about these domains, and hold in mind an appreciation of the potential effects of the camera’s gaze for therapist and patient alike.’
Dr Cachia summarises the best outcomes for online therapy are secured by:
- Avoiding the pitfalls of attempting to replicate face-to-face environments
- Being sensitive to the limits of the online medium
- Exploiting the advantages it offers
- Getting the basics right
Facilitating the Therapeutic Connection in Online Therapy – The Four Domains costs £35 for three months access.
This online self-directed learning course is a follow-up to Cachia’s successful three-part series, Online Therapy: How to Make the Transition to Working Online & How to Develop Good Practice.
For more information, and to access Tavistock Relationships’ online courses, click here or call 020 7380 828.
