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Below is an article by Dr. Richard Kevin inspired during the creation of his website. In 2005, Gibbs Design developed an informational site for Dr. Kevin in order to promote his Raleigh, North Carolina based business.
Internet Empowerment for Clinical Practice
By Richard Kevin, Ph.D.
Member, DIPP Board of Directors
www.drrkevin.com
Life moves fast on the Internet, In 1957, our military wanted a nuclear-hardened communication system. Twenty-six years later, an international, easily accessed, computer network existed. In 1992, Neal Stephenson published Snow Crash. His hero, a samurai copmuter hacker and Mafia pizza delivery man, spent much time in the Metaverse, a virtual universe where individuals escaped a bleak relity to live in mansions fashioned of computer code. Fast forward... by 2003 you could log on to www.secondlife.com, "construct" your own mansion, hang out, do business, or have cybersex in an internet world modeled on Stephenson's Metaverse. Therapists can set up virtual offices and bill for counseling in Second Life.
Before you rent an office in Second Life and order an avatar (virtual body) that resembles Freud or Erickson, there's much to understand. Especially for psychologists who typed their dissertations, the tentacles of the Web wrap around business and clinical issues in informational and social networks shaped by Meetup.com, blogs and Facebook are just the tip of the iceberg. Sometimes you wonder how much is hype ..., or whether to laugh or to scream.
Luckily, time-tested strategies for managing change can ease your entry into the intricacies of Internet culture. First, inform yourself. Larry Rosen's columns in the National Psychologist, (www.csudh.edu/psych/TNPTopics.html) and the Psychotherapy Financees newsletter (www.psyfin.com/articles/120304.htm) are just two of many resources that can demystify the basics of Internet marketing. Browse the websites of other psychologists. Do a Google search on your own name. I was shocked to find myself listed, due to a mention in a client's blog, and thankful that the mention was positive. Finally, be intentional about your goals and level of involvement. Depending upon your goals, there are three stages of engagement with the Internet.
Stage One: Create a Directory Listing
You will not be noticed by many sophisticated service seekers if you cannot be found on the Internet. Establishing an Internet directory listing is easy and costs no more than a Yellow Pages listing. A listing on the NCPA Division of Professional Practice referral service at www.ncpsychology.org will put you on the NCPA website for no charge. Looking at commercial sites: www.psychologytoday.com (National) or www.psychotherapyresources.com (North Carolina) are two directories that usually rank well on search engines. A listing should allow you to be found by name with a search engine. A listing will also allow you to direct inquirers to a photo and brief profile. Listings require minimal computer smarts, most can be created and edited quickly. They are essential for any practice seeking outside referrals.
State Two: Create A Website
If your directory listing is the business card of the 21st century, then your practice website can be anything from an engraved business card to a slick, multi-media magazine which introduces you to the public. You can build a simple site yourself using resources listed in Psychotherapy Finances and get online for about the cost of a directory listing. Or you can hire expertise in web design to create a graphically striking, interactive, content-rich marketing tool for your practice. My choice was to purchase a simple, graphically attractive site (from www.GibbsDesign.com) that I could maintain and expand myself (www.DrRKevin.com). Your choice will be governed by your practice emphasis, your budget, and your enjoyment of technology.
Stage Three: Make Using the Internet Integral to Your Practice
Internet "addictions" seem ubiquitous and debates about their true nature and appropriate treatment are raging (on the internet, of course.). Compulsive Internet use, the isolation of telecommuters, and changes in children's peer relationships are just a few psychological issues driven by the web. When you begin to establich an Internet presence, many of these influences will affect you and your potential clients. A website begins a relationship with its audience in ways that traditional media cannot approach. You have choices for self-presentation that will shape your potential clients' expectations and few external constraints, such as cost per page. Even this side of the ethical precipice of e-therapy, there are new manifestations of boundary issues to consider.
Whether you stop with a basic directory listing and an awareness that the Internet may shape and create your clients' presenting problems, or you embrace the Internet as a tool for developing new forms of practice, it has already affected your life and your clinical work. You can't stop the growing influence of the internet. But you can inform yourself and choose your leveles of engagement. Engagement will allow you to shape both your own experience and, potentially, the future impact of the Internet on you and your clients.
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