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Dear Colleague,
 
If you hate practice update emails, just scroll to the end and you can download a free measurement tool for tech use.

The Crisis Behind Crises.
This month alone, I have worked with the aftermath of one homicide/suicide in a video game server community; one threat issued over another; and 3 new requests for consultations from clinicians on how to improve their work with families and individuals related to online technology.


I know, you’re probably thinking that I’m about to blame the technology, the erosion of family values, the rise of violence or some other social ill. I’m not. As I reflect over several of these cases, the common symptom I see is not mental illness or family dysfunction, but a crisis in digital literacy.


What all of these cases have in common is that before they got to the emergent stage, there were several opportunities for kids to solve their own problems; for educators to teach; for parents to engage or for therapists to help; if they’d seen the opportunities and had some education in digital literacy. Too often we see the end result of our dismissing or demonizing tech use. “Just leave the server, or Facebook,” we say, unintentionally further isolating kids. “You need to stop playing so many video games,” we opine, citing sketchy research to take away the one thing a person may experience some competency doing.

As a therapist and educator who has worked for the past twenty-five years with emerging technologies in mental health, I have been helping schools, clinics and workplaces identify vulnerabilities before, during and after crises. I assure you that before is the most useful and least utilized. I’m hoping you and your administrators will consider doing this differently. I have started offering custom educational offerings on Healthy Boundaries in the Digital Age, and you can find out more about it here.  I'm still doing my other presentations as well.
 
Social Justice Work
Besides this new offering and my other presentations on technology and mental health, I continue to work on social justice issues around disability and immigrant rights. If you are interested in volunteer opportunities at the nonprofit Case for Here, surf on over to read how to get involved and register. We need clinicians, caseworkers, tutors and translators!

Therapy Practice
As of February I moved my practice to a hybrid model, one which alternates between in-office and online therapy every other week. The result has been overwhelmingly positive, and the benefits I have seen for my patients and myself included: increased attendance, access to 21st-Century play therapy with video games, links to psychoeducation and real-time informal assessment using things like Ekmans’ Atlas of Emotions. Online therapy is not for everyone, but for those who find technology an important part of their lives, especially gamers, it is proving very helpful. I have some availability and am accepting referrals. You can find more info here.

Geek Corner: Join Me in Blockchain Exploration!
Although I can’t articulate why blockchain technology may be an innovation that will advance mental health and social work yet, I’m beginning to educate myself about it and experiment with it. If you want to join me in action, I’ve started participating in a professional blockchain called Dock. If you want to join my network and get verified for this project, you can do so here.

Gamer Corner
Just for kicks and giggles, I've started streaming videos on Twitch and posting them on Youtube. You can check out some Minecraft ones here! Be sure and subscribe while you're at it. ;-)

Resources for You
As promised, whether you took the time to read the above or not, you can find several free resources, including a tool to measure tech use in patients and a sample letter for a school digital literacy awareness event here. Don’t wait until there’s a crisis, use these free resources now!

Thanks for reading, feel free to be in touch.

Best,

 

Mike Langlois, LICSW
Teaching Associate in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
872 Massachusetts Ave., Suite 2-1
Cambridge, MA 02139
Confidential Vmail: (617) 776-3409
Fax: 617-453-5058
http://mikelanglois.com
http://gamertherapist.com
https://twitter.com/MikeLICSW
https://www.youtube.com/user/Langloimsw/videos

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E-mail is not a secure form of communication, and therefore confidentiality cannot be assured. Please do not use e-mail to ask for clinical matters.  This message is a PRIVATE communication. If you are not the intended recipient, please do not read, copy, or use it, and do not disclose it to others. Please notify the sender of the delivery error by replying to this message, and then delete it from your system. Thank you.

Copyright © 2018 Mike Langlois, LICSW, All rights reserved.


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