Re-Envisioning

Division 29
Embracing Diversity,
Globalization, and “Being
Connected” Through Technology
Who We Were

 Primarily a membership-based
group of Psychologists
committed to advancing and
preserving psychotherapy as an
art and science
 Mostly over 50 years of age,
Caucasian, and male
What We Like
 Attending conferences
 Reading journals & books
 Relating to others like ourselves
 Passing on traditions of psychotherapy
 Addressing obstacles to our work
 Teaching, training, researching, publishing
 Being a member of an elite group
The Trend and
Challenge
 Membership has been dwindling every year and over
the last decade has reduced approximately 50%
similar to trends in other divisions
 Today’s psychotherapists do not find as much appeal
belonging to professional societies and organizations
 Our source of income from memberships is drying up!
 Newer social structures are emerging
Practice Directorate’s
Survey of 3,000
Practitioners
 61.9% work in independent practice
 29.9% work in institutional practice
 8.2% work in academic settings
 78% work in either full or part-time
practice
 92% provide individual
psychotherapy!
A Paradigmatic Shift is
Occurring

 New social systems based on

technology are emerging
 Being connected may be enhanced by
technology
 The “world is flat” and information
can be accessed anywhere in the
world that is connected to the web
What Do We See When
We Envision Our
Future?
Some Trends to
Consider
Creating a Tipping
Point
 Informatics
 How Public Perception Shapes Science
and Practice
 Revolution in Digital Publishing
 Inter-disciplinarity, unification, and
dissolution of boundaries
From Seed: Science is Culture Magazine 2008
Informatics— The sciences
concerned with gathering,
storing, retrieving, and
classifying information
Informatics
Informatics supports decision-making:
 Psychotherapists have to deal with
vast amounts of information and pick
the most promising elements
 Psychotherapists need powerful tools
to reveal patterns, trends, and outliers
in streams of data flooding us
Public Perception Shapes
Science & Practice

 Psychologists need to know how to present

to the public and share our knowledge in
meaningful ways to improve mental health
and enhance society
 The internet has become one of the main
vehicles for marketing
How many of you have been Googled before the

patient scheduled an appointment?

Revolution in Digital
Publishing
 Digital publishing—“more profound than
the printing press”
 Open access publishing—rapid
availability may do away with paper
 Creating freely available information on
the internet
e.g., Wikipedia
Interdisciplinarity,
Unification, and
Dissolution of Boundaries
 There is a dissolution of the boundaries
among disciplines, as well as researchers
and clinicians
 Scientists and practitioners must be
comfortable holding multiple perspectives
 Bridging the divide will advance the field
through increased generativity
Technology is Changing
the Social and Global
Landscape
 The computer/internet and rapid
technological advances have
fundamentally changed who we are as
social, information-gathering individuals
 We have moved from hunter-gatherers, to
farmers, to industrialists, and now to
information generators-gatherers
What is the
Prescription?

Capitalize on
these Trends to
Meet the Needs of
Current and
Future
Psychotherapists
of the World
Moving From
Contemplation to Action
Inspire Our Field—
Present our Knowledge &
Introduce our Leaders
Jeffrey Barnett, Psy.D.,
ABPP

PSYCHOLOGY TODAY
blogs

Seven Questions
Project
The Seven
Questions
Seven Questions for Jeffrey Barnett:
1. How would you respond to a new client who asks:
"What should I talk about?"
2. What do clients find most difficult about the
therapeutic process?
3. What mistakes do therapists make that hinder the
therapeutic process?
4. In your opinion, what is the ultimate goal of therapy?
5. What is the toughest part of being a therapist?
6. What is the most enjoyable or rewarding part of being
a therapist?
7. What is one pearl of wisdom you would offer clients
about therapy?
Internet as Portal to
D29
 Offer the best available and most current
information about the science and practice of
psychotherapy
 Make it easy to view all educational programs
and attain CEs from anywhere on the globe
 Create a compelling site that is user friendly and
attracts users because of content
CREATING A GLOBAL COMMUNITY OF
PSYCHOTHERAPISTS
What Can We Do?
 Re-envision ourselves based on needs of
psychotherapists and public
 Be responsive to current trends
 Anticipate future trends
 Capitalize on trends to advance our mission
 Use the tools (technology, informatics, marketing)
available to us to make us the portal to information
about the science and practice of psychotherapy
Encourage Greater
Interdisciplinarity
 Offer webinars with leaders in other
fields to increase our members
breadth of knowledge and video
broadcast these so that anyone can
watch no matter where they reside
 Hold think tanks at our conferences
and on internet and invite other
leaders in science, technology and the
arts (see www.poptech.org/ )
Speak and Capture Our
Audience with High Quality
Interactive Information
 Offer cafés that are for members only where
they can join a video-conference using
webcams from their offices
 Create blogs on a variety of topics by leaders in
our field and consider paying stipend
 Have an ongoing video feature where some of
us interview various individuals in the field and
make their personal-professional story come to
life
Capitalize on our
Specialized Knowledge as
our Source for Generating
Funds
 Offer various levels of participation for
access to our information through our
internet portal
 Provide a basic free access zone to
interested parties to increase traffic on
our site
 Offer electronic journals that make it
easy for people to access information
Increase our
collaboration with
other groups
 Continue to work more closely with Society for
Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI), Society for
Psychotherapy Research (SPR) and other high
level scientific and practice based groups.
Have links to their sites, after they are
approved, so that we can enhance
collaboration
 Create links on our site to approved non-profit
organizations which provide pro-bono services
for mental health
Strengthen Scientific
Resources
 Create on-line research-clinician
collaborative programs
 Offer downloadable empirical
measures to monitor psychotherapy
and accumulate large cohorts of data
available to researchers
 Initiate the Unified Psychotherapy
Project (UPP)
Possible Offering—
Current Technology
Corner
Hire someone to write a blog on technological
advances and how to get started such as:
 Audiovisual Recording—How to get started
 Basic Biofeedback—Compare equipment
 Supervision—Using Webcam to Enhance Connection
 Videotape supervision—How to enhance training
Brainstorm, Dream,
and Envision Our
Future
Thanks to Technology
“I Am Connected”
I Want Your Vision for
the Division
Thank You!
Jeffrey J. Magnavita
MagnaPsych@aol.com