login2life living in a virtual world

I first became aware of this documentary during the 3rd virtual conference on counseling organised by Counselor Education in Second Life. Immediatly I was enthusiastic and noted down the air date of the documentary. It aired on ZDF [german tv] on monday the 17th of october. The reason that I am blogging a day early this week is that you can still watch it online for free until sunday evening. This is the link. If this subject interests you at all, I would urge you to do so. It's nearly 90 minutes long and don't be put off by the fact that it is German. Most of the documentary is in English, so you will be able to follow most of what is going on.
 
Now what is it all about? Filmmaker Daniel Moshel followed some people from all over the world who spend parts of their lives in virtual worlds and made a documentary about them. Last year I watched a documentary that highlighted the negative aspects of such a lifestyle and it was refreshing to see that login2life stresses the postives.

The focus is on two virtual worlds. One a gaming environment, World of Warcraft [WoW] and  Second Life [SL]. For those who don't know. SL allows you to make an avatar and then explore the many many worlds with that avatar. So it really comes close to a 'second life' especially with how fast technology is growing.

The documentary follows a few people active on WoW and doing more than just gaming. There is someone who makes movies involving Wow characters. Another swedish gamer talks about being in one of the best guilds in the game and what that means in his life. 2 stories moved me the most. A young chinese man who was up in the middle of the night collecting gold which he sold to other people and who actually made a living in the real world this way. He was just scraping by and his whole bio rythm was disturbed because he was online most nights. The other was a young man from the US who had been paralyzed in a car accident and could only work the computer with his mouth. It made me smile that he would tell those he defeated that they were defeated by a criple and the joy it gave him to be able to do this with his avatar. He was able to live out dreams that he would never be able again in the 'real' world.

The other part focussed on SL. Here the mother of the paralyzed young man would read parts of the story she had written about her life as a caregiver. There was a German musician giving great concerts to an audience all over the world. A man selling sex aides on SL, it was very funny to see how they had to make the movements so it could be translated digitally. :) The most moving part of the whole documentary for me was the story of Alice, gentle heron in SL. She is a woman from the US with MS. This makes life in the 'real' world harder and harder and movement gets harder with this disease. But she lives another life online, making friends and doing much more than that! She has actually set up a community in SL where people with disability can meet and learn how to enjoy themselves in SL. If you are interested to learn more follow this link.

This shows that even if you cannot move much or are bedridden, there is a world out there on the computer where you can make new friends and even live out some of your dreams if you are open to it!



So if you have time before monday, please go and have a look at this extraordinary documentary.

More on online education

This week I want to talk some more on my favorite topic. Education for counsellors. If you read my post regularly, you will already know how important that is to me. That is the reason I qualified myself as an online counsellor next to my f2f diploma's in counselling and coaching. For those who want to train for online counsellling this course is starting next week.

But being a counsellor means you keep learning, I think curiosity is a great trait to have for a therapist. This week I am attending a counseling conference that takes place in Second Life. [it will be on until saturday so you can  still catch some of it. This is the 3rd year the virtual conference for counsellors is being held in Second Life. [if you don't feel secure enough in Second Life onlinevents is streaming it live from their website and you can still participate in the chat!] It is an excellent oppertunity to network, learn more about what is going on in the world of online counselling, new technologies and learning a lot more about virtual worlds and their possibilities. The starting day yesterday already had some very interesting topics. Most interesting yesterday was a discussion by Kate Anthony and DeeAnna Marz Nagel with the director of an upcoming documentary login2life. This documentary focusses on the positive sides of Second Life, how virtual worlds can be a haven a support for people with dissabilities. I can't wait to see the whole documentary!

I want to mention another online conference as well. Normally I do not go for paid conferences , but for this one I am making an exeption. The practice building conference is organised by Casey Truffo. Her book " How to be a wealthy therapist" is like a bible to me. A lot of therapists have problems with charging money for what we do and this book has helped me see that I am worth it! Marketing a practice is strangely enough not a part of most therapy training programs. That is were books and conference like this one come in. You gain so much knowledge and it is also such a great oppertunity to network and get to know other therapists. This alone can lead to business oppertunities somewhere in the future.

knowledge is power

I believe information is very important not only to a counsellor. I think when you have a business and you work with clients it is your duty to always keep looking for information and be the best you can be. That is why I love to attend seminars and such online to further my knowledge. Next of course to my addiction to books. I am always reading up on new matters and subjects that I want to learn more about.

Yesterday I attended the Open Office Hours of the Online Therapy Institute. If you are a fellow therapist reading this and you want to know more about working online, have a look at the website, it is full of very useful information. And there is a forum you can join and chat with other therapists. And try to attend one of the coming open hours. Every other month they are held in Second Life. Yesterday was in Second Life and that also gave me the opportunity to learn more about that medium. [Yes I am reading a book about Second Life right now as well]

For me it was very interesting to talk about marketing ideas and brainstorm about my personal dream of there being a global insurance company in the future so that therapists can work with clients from all over the world easier. A big thank you to Kate and DeeAnna for sharing your time for free.

2nd Virtual Conference on Counseling

One of the great things of the internet, you can attend a conference without leaving your own home. Last week there was a virtual conference taking place in second life, organised by counselor education in second life. I had been in there once before, but to say that I know a lot about it would be an overstatement. That is why I took some time during the days before to make a new avatar and to make sure that I at least had the skills to make her sit down. But in case I totally sucked I had the backup of onlineventswho were going to show the whole conference few of charge. The great thing was also that their chatroom was integrated into the chatroom of the conference.

Let me give an overview of some of the lectures I attended, it will give you a bit of an idea of what was discussed.

Wednesday:
I attended the opening session and I must say I was very busy watching what other avatars looked like etc and amazed at the technology of second life.

Keynote session: sexualized Role Play in Second Lie and Beyond. 
I was a bit surprised that the conference opened with a discussion on a topic like this. But soon I was watching and found myself imagining the benefits this might have for counsellors working with sexual issues in clients. So much is possible in SL. You can make your avatar very life like. :) And to use this in issues, make it vivid so to speak, yes I can see the benefits in that.

Counseling in Genderland
As this is still a controversial topic, I was very interrested to hear this lecture. I have not worked with Transgendered clients myself, but I firmly believe that there are people who were born in the 'wrong' body. And that they are entitled to care and the possibility to change bodies. SL can help in this process. Before trying to live as the other gender in real life, they could safely practice the other gender role in SL and get a feel for it already.

Demonstrating Cyberculture through Film: Life 2.0. 
We started with watching the trailer for this movie. It does show some of the drawbacks of SL. The people who get into it too much and forget their first life. How healthy is it to be in SL more than 18 hours a day? Is it adultery to have a cyber affair on SL? all interresting questions for a counsellor. The cases of internet addictions will only grow in the future and how many of us are prepared for that? Do we run the risk of addiction ourselves when we work on the computer and also do our research there? How would you help couples with relationship issues if you don't know about cyberculture? So much to think about.

On thursday morning there would be a tai-chi session, I was interresting to watch that, as I did not think my avatar could manage it. But I could not find the location. Instead I did find the meditation area and tried a little bit of that.


Competencies in Addressing the Christian Client's Worldview.
This morning there were some technological problems. It wasn't until halfway through the lecturetime that the sound came back. That shows that even with many experts in one room, technology can still let us down. That is why it is important to have backups when working online with clients. Make sure there is an emergency telephone number you can reach each other on, so one of you is not left hanging and waiting what is going on.
The lecture had to be cut very short and it lost some because of that.

CACREP goes international with IRCEP: the international registry of counselor education programs. 
Very interresting to hear that there is now some movement to come to international counselling standarts. IRCEP will try to do that and counselling institutions from all over the world can apply. Right now there is such a difference between counselling education all over the world, in some countries it means a masters degree, in other countries you can call yourself a counsellor without any training again. Which makes it important for the client to check a counsellor's education before starting work with them.

So the conference gave me a lot to think about. I like the medium that Second Life is. I can see a lot of possibilities to use it in counselling. But before I could ever contemplate that I would have to get a lot more familiar with it. And find out how secure it is. Can it be encrypted so the client's anonymity can be guaranteed.


I would love to get feedback about what other people think about SL and counselling.

 



 

Training, training, training

Counselling & Coaching are both professions where you are never finished with your studying. Sure you have your degree and your work but the world around us changes. New methods are found and tested and to be honest most of us are just plain curious. I definately fall into that category. Since finishing college and starting work I have always done some studying on the side. Sometimes for work and sometimes just *gasp* for fun. Right now all my studying and reading is geared towards online working. I will read about social media, networking, marketing but also about how to work effectively online. This week there is a conference in and about second life I am thinking about attending. I very much see the advantages of working in second life and making an avatar that expresses who you are inside. My only problem... second life is still one of my challenges online. I have been able to finally dress my avatar but adding hair is still beyond me. So the next few days I am going to give it one more try to teach myself new skills. And hopefully I will feel confident to attend.

Review TILT magazine

I have talked about TILT magazine before and as I have now finished reading the magazine I would like to say some more. It is pretty exciting as this is one of the first magazines focussing completely on online work. 




I am going to focus on the articles that struck me the most.

What would you do?

This invites the reader to participate by posting their reply to a dilemma. This one is pretty close to my own heart. What would you do when others tag you in photos on the internet that you rather not be tagged in. you can post your reply on the forum. You can be so carefull about your own internet security making everything friends only but you don't always have control over what others write about you. Or post photo's of you.


Want to know what is in the top 10 hits when you type your name? Try this Dutch site. WieDanOok The text is in Dutch but it is pretty simple. Time your first and last name in the search box and see what comes up. you might be surprised.

Alice in virtualland

An article about the journey that a therapist and a client, Alice, make together. The client is already welversed in how new media work, she spends a lot of time on the internet and has a virtual life in Second Life. For this she has created an avatar a 11 year old girl.  The therapist, Lucy has a lot of experience and is totally confident at the beginning of therapy. But because she is a novice when it comes to computers, she totally misses the point of Alice's troubles. And only after many a session do they both realise this. At this point Lucy's journey of learning about new technology begins.


I think this raises a very important issue. Therapists working today, are going to get more and more clients, especially younger ones, for whom an important part of their lives take place online. Facebook, twitter, second life and words like avatar, tweet are normal to them. If we want to be able to relate we can't but help get familiar in this new world as well.


There are many more interresting articles, tips, reviews etc in the magazine, but I suggest you read them yourself.



The magazine is free and you can download it to your computer or your ereader like I did.


If you want to read the magazine for yourself you can download it here.