There is still time to get tickets to OCTIA online counselling conference

If you would like to know more about online counselling there is a great event taking place this saturday at the watershed in Bristol, United Kingdom. Octia 2011 [The reason my blog post is early this week, I am flying out later in the week!]


Have a look at the programme to see all that will be covered. You can see that online therapists take their work very seriously and we continue to educate ourselves and talk amongst ourselves how we can work ethically online. It is a great way to meet new people and see each other in the flesh as most of our work is done online from home.

If you are thinking about attending there are two ways you can do so. Come to Bristol in person or if you are unable to come you can attend the conference online.That is what I did last year. Onlinevents record the conference as it is taking place and the realy cool thing is the chatscreen where you can interact with other people attending online. This chat screen is projected on the wall of the venue and makes you feel as if you are really part of the conference. Your questions are seen by the speakers and replied to. Well worth to try out. So you can feel part of Octia wherever you are in the world.

Here you can see me talking about my online experience of  last year's conference.

I will share more next week when I get back from my short break in Britain. 

6 pitfalls for Highly Sensitive People coming to the Netherlands

At the moment I am researching and writing an information packet on what it means to live as a foreigner in the Netherlands. While I am doing this research it dawns on me that there are several factors in my country that don't make it the easiest country to live in for Highly Sensitive People. Don't get me wrong, I love living here and there are also many good things about my country. Here I just want to point out some pitfalls for foreigners and indeed native Highly sensitive persons.

Image via Wikipedia

amount of land that would
be underwater without the dykes

Image by FaceMePLS via Flickr

bicycles should move as many as possible







1. The sheer number of people living here close together. There are more than 16 million people living together on a piece of land the size of the state of Maryland in the US. Drive 3 hours in any direction and you are in Belgium, Germany or the North Sea. And of this almost 20% is water. This means that you will often be surrounded by other people. Finding a piece of land that is truly silent and peaceful can be a bit of a challenge. So don't be too shocked by it and set out to find your haven right away. It can be done!
2. The Dutch Bureaucracy. We have a name for being pretty easy going and the country where everything is possilbe. Drugs, prostitution, euthenasia to name a few. But don't be fooled. If you want to get something done, prepare to have a lot of time and do not get irritated quickly. Stay patient and polite. For example the Dutch rijksmusuem was supposed to close 2 years for restauration. That was 5 years ago and it is still closed. Everybody wanted to have their say about it, we love commitees of any kinds. And of course cyclists protested when the plans included them being unable to drive underneath the building any more.
3. Cyclists bring me to another problem. With 16 million people and at least 1 car in every household you need a lot of patience on the roads. Be warned that cyclists are everwhere in the cities and the rules of the road do not apply to them. They will ingnore traffic lights, ignore right of way. What makes it really bad? The law is on their side, if you hit a cyclist in any way even when having right of way and a green light you are almost always the guilty party. So make sure you develop a 6th sense when it comes to cyclists and err on the side of caution. 
4. If you think public transport is the solution, think again... especially when it comes to rush hour. Dutch trains and busses tend to be overcrowded. When a train comes into the station staid businessmen will turn into warriors and little old ladies will use their walkingsticks to beat a path to the entrance. For any age it means anything is allowed to get in first. If people wanting to get out of the train first are in the way just push them back and out of your way.




5. Yes the Dutch are rude. Even to Highly Senstive People living here they appear very rude. We don't like hieranchy very much, so don't be surprised when even bosses have to be very polite to ask employees to do something for them. We don't know how to queu, will not stay on the right side on an escalator, staff in restaurants and shops will often treat you rude and doctors have no bedside manner. Be prepared for it in advance.

And yet I love this little very full country. We are also a nation who love their languages, were one of the first nations to have freedom of religion.


If you have other examples of Dutch quirkiness feel free to comment.

Related articles

• Guest post: the Dutch cyclist (cyclinglondononline.wordpress.com)
• Holland v. the Netherlands (whatthedutch.wordpress.com)
• Where To Look For Cultural Differences In Europe (searchengineland.com)

on writing an e-book

Image via Wikipedia

I have taken the plunge and have started working on an e-book. Over the years I have taken in so much information on both my specialty subjects Being Highly Sensitive and Living with chronic pain. Through reading online, reading books, talking to others and a lot through experiencing and growing from that experience myself. I feel now it is time to share with others. Some content I will put on my website [or also put on my website] yet there is only so much you can put on there before it becomes too much. And if you are like me you might not like to read from a screen for too long. With an e-book you have everything in one place and you can read it from either your computer screen or an I-pad or e-reader. [I must say I am quickly becoming addicted to my e-reader]

Next came the question what to write about? In my case rather what to write about first. And I have decided the first e-book will be for people with chronic pain. It is a group I feel so passionate about and whom I want to give easier guidelines then I had myself when I was faced with it over 10 years ago. So in the e-book I will cover such topics as:

• When is pain chronic?
• a pain-chart
• Become an expert when it comes to YOU!
• How to be possitive about life
• Setting goals 
• Protect your boundaries
• Good books on pain management 

Any good idea's? Please share them with me.

A very basic free edition should be finished soon, this will give people an idea of what to expect. The full version will take a little longer as I myself am now very capable in staying within my own boundaries and not get carried away with enthusiasm.

Related articles

• Myths About Treating Chronic Pain (webmd.com)
• Is Your Pain Acute or Chronic? (webmd.com)
• Chronic Pain: One of Our Costliest Health Problems (time.com)

Encryption safety in online therapy

Image via Wikipedia

There has been a fiery discussion about the need of using encryption by online therapists going on on one of the lists I follow closely. 

Maybe not everyody is completely clear on what encryption is. If I work online with clients I will use a special email adress like hushmail or safe-mail because I know they are encrypted so they are less easy to hack. For chatsessions I will also use a medium that is encrypted so others do not listen in on what we are talking about. In my country there are no laws yet that online counsellors have to do this. But those therapists working f2f are used to having to secure their data safely by law. They have to have a locked cabinet in their rooms where they keep all their sensitive data. Why should online work be any different? For me that means that I keep my client info and emails on a password protected USB stick and that the stick is kept in the locked cabinet.

Image via Wikipedia

Not all therapists think encryption is neccesary, basically because it means we ask clients to do more before therapy can commence. We will ask them to set up for an encrypted email account, or to learn how encrypted word documents work. Some therapists are afraid that this will scare clients off, and who would want to steal emails anyway? On the one hand you may say, they have a point. But who would want to steal your medical data from your doctor's office? Yet would you feel comfortable if they did not take precautions to keep your data safe? I think clients are smart enough to set up an email account. Most people do have gmail or hotmail already and it is not more complicated than that. And we occasionally might have to spend a little extra time explaining something. I for one do not mind that.

What I also urge is that clients take care of where they keep their own emails and chat session transcripts. Almost everything that goes on in therapy is very confidential and not something you might want to share with others. So if you share a computer [at work or at home] investing in a simple password protected USB stick is always a good idea. 

I would welcome one clear rule that covers Europe on online work, some way that clients can see who they can trust. I have insured this as much as possible by getting verified at the online therapy institute. This is an international website that any therapist can join. And some go the extra mile by getting verified. The online therapy institute check your website and make sure that you meet their standards for working ethically online and that includes using encryption.

Please share your views on this post. I would like to hear what others think about this whole debate. 

Related articles

• Is sharing information on the internet safe? - Confidentiality in Online Counseling (breakthrough.com)
• What is the Most Secure Email Service? (brighthub.com)
• What Is Online Therapy? (brainz.org)
• How Secure is Email? (brighthub.com)
• Why would one want to encrypt an message (wiki.answers.com)
• Working with Removable Media (brighthub.com)
• CES: SanDisk adds AES encryption to business USB drives (v3.co.uk)
• Kingston unveils new secure DataTraveler 4000 and DataTraveler Vault Privacy Edition flash drives (slashgear.com)