Licensed Clinical PsychologistLicense # PSY 8161
138 N. Brand #300 Glendale, CA 91203 (818) 243-0839
This overview is designed to ease practitioners into the world of 21st century technology tools and information that can be useful in daily practice. We will cover 1) The Essential Clinician Technology Toolkit (e.g, why you need a website or blog and how to get one; how to email clients safely; technologies that are acceptable for insurance reimbursement; & using technology as part of assessment); 2) What you should know about clients’ technology habits (Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, MMPRPGs, and photo sharing sites) 3) Inexpensive and easy to use technologies to track improvement and increase client motivation (e.g., daily reports, simple interactive tutorials, use of comic software, simple animation).
Bruce M. Gale, PhD, clinical psychologist (PSY10598) specializes in assessing and treating children with autistic spectrum disorders; ADHD/ADD, learning problems, developmental delays; plus oppositional defiant disorders, and spectrum anxiety disorders in both the special needs and general population. He primarily functions as an Independent Educational Evaluator and has trained staff in numerous school districts on assessment procedures, data collection methods, and positive behavior interventions. Dr. Gale developed LUNCH Groups for students and adults, an evidence-based social skills program that incorporates ancillary technologies to enhance the treatment process. Through his company, BehaviorTech Solutions, Inc., Dr. Gale provides training to teachers and CE credit training to practitioners on the use of technology to improve student behavior in educational and clinical settings. He is the developer of the C-BATT®, the Comprehensive Behavior Assessment & Treatment Tools, a series of user friendly online programs for assessing and providing adjunctive treatment to students and adults. Dr. Gale is former Chief Psychologist of Inpatient Psychiatry at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He currently teaches Abnormal Psychology at American Jewish University, serves on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology and Behavior, and is currently Division VI Chair for the California Psychology Association (Media, Technology & Communication). He completed his undergraduate training in psychology at UCLA and received his Master’s and Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Florida State University. He completed his clinical internship plus advanced fellowship training at two Harvard Medical School training facilities: Judge Baker Guidance Center and at Boston Children’s Hospital, with specialized training at the Developmental Evaluation Clinic.
Contact Info: Bruce M. Gale, PhD BehaviorTech Solutions, Inc. 16430 Ventura Blvd., Ste 107 Encino, CA 91436-2135 (818) 788-2100 x1
This presentation will provide a brief overview of the variety of e-technologies that are popular among adolescents followed by a description of the core developmental issues that adolescents are faced with such as sexuality, identity, and intimacy. It will then address how adolescents’ use of these newer technologies may be related to their well-being.
Adolescents’ online and offline worlds are psychologically connected. Research from the Children’s Digital Media Center UCLA/CSULA will show that young people use online forums such as chat rooms, blogs, and social networking sites to help with adjusting to their sexuality, formulating their identity and interconnecting with peers and other significant others in their lives. For wired teens living life online virtual and offline worlds are actually connected and practitioners should be concerned when they are not.
Dr. Kaveri Subrahmanyam is a Professor of Psychology at California State University, Los Angeles and the Associate Director of the Children’s Digital Media Center, UCLA/CSULA. She received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from UCLA in 1993. She studies youth and digital media and uses developmental theory to understand the effects of their interactions with these new media forms. She has examined a variety of digital media including computer/video games and Internet communication forms such as chat rooms, blogs, and social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook. She is interested in the mediating role of these culturally provided tools on adolescent development.
Contact Info: Kaveri Subrahmanyam, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Psychology California State University, Los Angeles 5151 State University Drive Los Angeles, CA 90032-8227 (323)343-2279 ksubrah@calstatela.edu
An Overview of Online Media and Social Networking for Therapists It’s only been a decade since Google burst upon the World Wide Web. By 2006 it was officially declared a verb by Miriam Webster and now we are not only “googling,” but “tweeting” and “friending” as well.
This technological transition is changing both social behavior and the ways of doing business. From email management to emerging practices in online therapy, the web is now a necessity. And each therapist has his or her own requirements for online communications and connectivity. How do you set those requirements appropriately within the scope of your business?
This presentation will trace the path from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 and help you to integrate it within your practice. It will specifically address ways to create, communicate and measure value online:
• How old models of marketing have evolved on the web • Identifying your online “audience” and how to reach them • Branding a business versus nurturing relationships • Content management to contact management – scaling digital workflow • How will you measure success? Anna Marie Piersimoni is an independent multi-media professional specializing in the creation and promotion of digital and on-line content. She is a producer, writer and editor who has worked in television and digital media management and marketing for over 15 years.
Anna Marie was most recently Director of Internet Communications for the American Film Institute where she managed multiple web sites and was founding Director of the AFI Digital Content Lab. This was preceded by a long career as a writer and producer of on-air promotion for cable and broadcast network television, including ABC Entertainment, E! Entertainment Television and KCET Public Television in Los Angeles.
She began her career as an artist using film and video and as an administrator for several non-profit media arts organization.
Contact Information: Anna Marie Piersimoni ampiersimoni@me.com http://www.linkedin.com/in/ampiersimoni 213-272-3391
Many clinicians are beginning to wonder about the role of the Internet in the future of delivering psychotherapy. Some have already begun having email contact with patients between sessions. Others have websites but are concerned about risk management.
Guidance for how to think about privacy, confidentiality, reliability or community standards of care in using the Internet has been notably lacking. Tempered discussion of the use of the Internet and other communication technologies in clinical practice is all too rare.
This 90-minute presentation will offer a glimpse of new vistas for the cautious practitioner who dares to imagine a new way of working. We will review a new legal and ethical practical model for remote service delivery. The nuts and bolts of how to safely use email will be provided. Professional website options will be explained. The risks and benefits of using Internet-based audio and video technologies will also be discussed. Three promising avenues for future online practice development will also be outlined. Above all, we will focus on risk management for practicing professionals who seek new ways of serving patients online.
Marlene M. Maheu, Ph.D is a psychologist practitioner, author and speaker from San Diego. She has served on numerous committees and task forces related to online counseling and the use of technology in psychology. For example, she has served APA’s Committee on Professional Practice Standards (COPPS) which establishes interim ethical recommendations between publication of new APA ethical codes. She has also served as the CPA’s Presidential Telehealth Task Force Chairperson, APA’s Media Division’s Telehealth Subcommittee Chairperson & several others.
As a speaker, she is well known for addressing ethics and legalities of online counseling. She has expertise in many Internet-related issues including: compulsive internet use; online dating, gambling, gaming, shopping, sexuality, and infidelity.
In 1994, Dr. Maheu founded and is the Editor-in-Chief of SelfhelpMagazine.com. She is a frequent consultant to companies, groups and practitioners.
Contact Information: Marlene M. Maheu, Ph.D 5173 Waring Road, #124, San Diego, CA 92120; 619-255-2788 http://marlenemaheu.com
Clinical Virtual Reality: A Brief Review of the Future!
Albert “Skip” Rizzo Ph.D.
Virtual reality (VR) has undergone a transition in the past 15 years that has taken it from the realm of expensive toy and into that of functional technology. Revolutionary advances in the underlying VR enabling technologies (i.e., computation speed and power, graphics and image rendering technology, display systems, interface devices, immersive audio, haptics tools, tracking, intelligent agents, and authoring software) have supported development resulting in more powerful, low-cost PC-driven VR systems. Such advances in technological “prowess” and accessibility have provided the hardware platforms needed for the conduct of human research and treatment within more usable, useful and lower cost VR systems.
At the same time, there has been a growing awareness of the potential value of VR by scientists and clinicians, in addition to the general public. This awareness coupled with solid scientific results delivered from VR clinical and research applications, have brought the field past the point where skeptics can be taken seriously when they characterize VR as a “fad technology”. It is not 1994 anymore!
This presentation will provide a brief overview of the many forms of Virtual Reality that have been applied across a diverse range of clinical disorders and research questions. I will then present a detailed overview of the use of VR for Exposure Therapy for anxiety disorders, addictive behaviors and with OIF/OEF military personnel with PTSD. This will be followed by overviews of research and clinical applications of VR for cognitive assessment/rehabilitation, motor rehabilitation, pain distraction and social interaction. The social interaction overview will conclude with the detailing of an emerging project area that involves the creation of artificially intelligent virtual human “patients” for clinical training. I will also bring a VR Headmounted display and demonstrate some virtual reality programs that can be run from an off-the-shelf laptop computer.
Albert “Skip” Rizzo received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the State University of New York at Binghamton. He is a Research Scientist at the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies and has Research Professor appointments with the USC Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and at the USC School of Gerontology.
Dr. Rizzo conducts research on the design, development and evaluation of Virtual Reality systems targeting the areas of clinical assessment, treatment and rehabilitation. This work spans the domains of psychological, cognitive and motor functioning in both healthy and clinical populations. In the psychological domain, his latest project has focused on the translation of the graphic assets from the Xbox game, Full Spectrum Warrior, into an exposure therapy application for combat-related PTSD with Iraq War veterans. Additionally, he is conducting research on VR applications that use 360 Degree Panoramic video for exposure therapy (social phobia), role-playing applications (anger management, etc.), and recently has used this technology to capture news scenes for future multimedia journalism applications. He is also working with a team that is creating artificially intelligent virtual patients that clinicians can use to practice skills required for challenging clinical interviews and diagnostic assessments (sexual assault, resistant patients, suicide lethality, etc.).
He is the associate editor of the journals, CyberPsychology and Behavior; and The International Journal of Virtual Reality, is Senior Editor of the MIT Press journal, Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, is on a number of editorial boards for journals in the areas of cognition and computer technology (Cognitive Technology; Journal of Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds; Media Psychology) and is the creator of the Virtual Reality Mental Health Email Listserve (VRPSYCH). In his spare time, he plays rugby, listens to music and rides his motorcycle.
Contact Info: Albert “Skip” Rizzo, Ph.D. Research Scientist and Research Professor Institute for Creative Technologies and Dept. of Psychiatry/School of Gerontology University of Southern California, 13274 Fiji Way, Marina del Rey, CA. 90292; email: arizzo@usc.edu Office: 310-301-5018 Cell: 213-610-4737 Fax: 310-574-5725 VRPSYCH Lab: http://projects.ict.usc.edu/vrpsych/
Copyright 2009 Dr. Larry Brooks