Psycho-technological proficiency

Many of us did not become therapists expecting to be required to develop technological abilities, however, we believe that psycho-technological proficiency is now a basic required skill. Just as we attempt to stay updated with the latest reading on the modalities we work with, we now need to accept that staying up to date with psycho-technological development is also necessary. We have passed the point where being a “technophobe” is an acceptable reason for not developing these crucial skills.

Weinberg, Haim; Rolnick, Arnon; Leighton, Adam. Advances in Online Therapy: Emergence of a New Paradigm (p. 54). Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition. 

One of the things that irritates me beyond the significance of the event is to go to a workshop and have the presenter fool around with equipment, not being able to make it work properly while the audience sits there fiddling awaiting the opening remarks.

I am thinking to myself, “Really?!” You didn’t run an equipment check and sound check before you took the stage?”

The same situation occurs when a therapist is conducting an online session and doesn’t know how to operate the equipment being used for the transmission.

“It’s outside my job description” doesn’t cut it in this day and age of telehealth when the provider is responsible for providing a safe, secure, reliable means for communication in virtual reality.

Being an old guy I know many physicians who decided to retire rather than learn and adapt to electronic health records and other forms of digital communication. Some agencies provided them with “scribes” and technical assistants to operate the digital equipment while they provided the clinical services.

To operate a clinical psychotherapy practice one must be relatively proficient in using the various digital management tools both hardware and software. I have tried to teach myself about the technology and have taken other workshops and classes, but I still find the use of the technology a challenge. It seems like just when I learn how to accomplish a task using the software, an update comes out and there are aspects of operating the software I have to relearn. As choices in software multiply to address the same activities and tasks it becomes even more confusing how to set up these administrative processes and what tools to use.

How psycho-technologically competent would you rate yourself: low, medium, high or use a ten point scale with 0 dumb as a rock and 10 a rocket scientist. I would give myself about a 5. I spent two hours yesterday trying to figure out how to attach a google doc file to an email. I learned today that it can’t be done. The google doc has to be converted to some other format first.(This still doesn’t seem right to me. Does anyone know better?)