Online conference Part I

In my profession you are not finished learning when you receive your diploma. I would even state that the day you have your diploma in your hands is the day that your learning really start. Every day you learn about life from your clients. And you owe it to them to stay up to date about what is going on in the world and in the field of counselling and coaching.

Yesterday I had such an oppertunity. The good part, I did not even have to leave my house to do so. Thanks to onlinevents I was able to watch a conference in Edinburgh, Scotland online. It was called Insight, Impacts and Innovation Conference. It was organised by Simpson house an organisation based in Edinburgh. And the topics of the day was mostly working: with children with addicted parents, working with at risk children and working in a prison setting.


I have attended online conferences through onlinevents before and it is always excellent quality. On their webpage you can watch the conference and even better there is a chatscreen that let's you chat with othe online attendee's. The great team keep an eye on the chat room and will pose your questions to the lecturers in the venue. It is really worth giving it a try.


I will make a start with giving you my impressions of the conference, which I will continue next week.


The morning part started with a talk on the importance of attachment. It is something we all remember from our training and yet we don't use it enough. When children and young people show agressive behaviour it is so important to understand were they are coming from, where the anxiety come from. Did they ever have a secure base at home? Do they feel secure and safe now? Giving them that feeling of safety is a basis to really start work. She also stressed the need for art and music therapy, areas that suffer so heavily from the recent government cutbacks.


The next brief talk was on outcomes of a study on if counselling is succesfull for addicted people. The outcomes were amazing. Almost all of those in the trial had not believed counselling would help at the outset, and most had changed their mind and found it very useful in the end. What was mostly mentioned was that it helped them feel less isolated and helped them relearn social skills. it also gave them more insight on why they used drugs.


The next pat consisted of 3 short case studies and a talk about working in the prison system. This section could have been a bit longer. The ten minutes talks were too short to really do the speakers justice I thought. But still it was very impressive. Especially the case study of "Jake" a prisoner. It showed him as a person with feelings and fears and not an outcast in a prison.

The last part of the morning was a talk by Kate Anthony on social media & technology. As always this was very informative and offered a lot of information for those who are not used to working online. She is always an advocate on working ethically online and stressing the importance of training when working online. [Training online is offered for example by the online therapy instute and online training for counsellors.]



I will cover the afternoon part of the day next week.




Some websites for you to look at:
http://www.simpson-house.org/sunflowergarden.htm
http://www.mihedinburgh.org/welcome.htm 
http://www.simpson-house.org/home.htm
http://www.onlinevents.co.uk/
http://www.onlinetherapyinstitute.com/
http://www.onlinetrainingforcounsellors.co.uk/

 

Can gaming be a positive thing? Part 2

 

It’s been a while since I blogged about online gaming. I promised to get back to it after I had asked some of my own online friends who game what gaming meant to them. And how it had helped them in a positive way during their lives. In a time when gaming has again been shown in a negative light due to the shootings in Norway, I would like to stress the positive sides.

Two of my friends got back to me [both want to stay anonymous]. But they did not mind if I shared what they had to say with you. So here are a few of their responses.

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Did gaming ever help you through a bad period?

Luckily, I haven't had that many really big bad times in my life. I

guess I'm still young, and perhaps haven't experienced that much. But,

I will say that gaming helps with stress, such as the stress of

school, and classes, etc.

If I weren't able to retreat into the world of games, the pressures

of being a grad student might have driven me to do other things a lot

of people my age and in my position end up doing.

You know - drugs, drinking, and that sort of thing.

Here's an example - I'm doing homework on my comp, rendering sketches

for a grade. And it takes 3 hours for the render to complete, so I do

something else in that time. And it is usually game oriented. And it helps the time slide by really smooth.

So, I think gaming is like any other hobby. It makes slow, dull,

boring, or stressful work-shiz slide by.

Has gaming made you more or less social?

I think I'm not as reserved, or

quiet as I was in high school thanks to role-playing. I still qualify

for what a lot of people call "emo". The quiet, contemplative, and

often very opinionated side of Goth culture. But, when you really

throw yourself into the role of a loud-mouthed Klingon, you begin to

learn your own range and limitations when it comes to things like

assertiveness. I think I'm more assertive than I was before I was a

gamer.

Having said all of that, all the gamers I've ever met have been happy,

well-grounded, well-adjusted individuals. And it is the non-gamers;

the jocks, and "cool kids" who put down, tease, harass, and wedgie

gamers that are usually the social misfits, miscreants, and

ner-do-wells.

Have I made friends, through gaming that I can turn to and rely on in RL ?


I think I've met more people and made more friends in SIMing, because it is on line and anyone from anywhere in the world can participate together. You're from the Netherlands, M lives in Belgium now, K is in Australia, R is in the US.

But the friends I've made in on-line gaming are, by and large, people I trust and people I'm comfortable talking to and confiding in.

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I hope that these few replies helped to show people that most gamers are very normal balanced people. 

If you want to share your story feel free to do so through comments.

It's all about attitude

Normally I do not post during holiday weeks but this week I felt that I wanted to. It might not be completely on topic like my usual posts. Yet a week of traveling around the country made me think about how we people treat each other. It was a week that showed me the two opposites of the spectrum.

On the good side this week I have seen:

• People caring for relatives who are not as well of as they are
• A farmer giving a free tour of his farm
• Friends caring for friends and enjoying each other's company
• Kids smiling about being in a big zoo for the first time in their life
• A stadion full of people giving a retiring goalkeeper the evening of his life

On the down side were:

• KPN [Dutch telecom] service shops showing their worst side by telling a 82 year old men they would not try to help solve his phone problem by making one simple call for him.
• Parents who allow their kids to disturb animals in the zoo, despite many signs asking them to keep their kids in check.
• Some football supporters booing a player from an opposing team even when he was playing for the national team in this game.

To end I just want to leave you with these thoughts. What kind of world do you want to live in? How do you want to be treated and how do you treat your fellow men? I know it made me think and make my choices.