Personal writings in psychotherapy

Interactive E-mail journals: a model for providing psychotherapeutic interventions using the internet

The communication medium of the Internet affords psychologists an unprecedented opportunity to provide psychological services to populations who might not ordinarily present to the mental health system but who may nevertheless benefit from psychological intervention. Because the Internet is primarily a medium of the written word, one of the difficulties in providing online psychological services is developing models appropriate to text-only delivery. This article discusses a model for providing online psychological interventions based on the similarity of E-mail composition to traditional journal writing. Two different approaches to interactive online journaling, the Intensive Journal method developed by Progoff and dream journaling, are examined regarding their possible application to delivery within the text-based medium of the Internet.

Open reporting in child psychiatry

Although medical reports are usually viewed as special confidential communications between health care professionals, the author has found that there are many advantages to open communication with parents; having them present in conferences about their child and giving them copies of psychiatric reports. Personal experience, a survey done by the Child Development Program of BC Children's Hospital and the small amount of literature available suggest that "open reporting" increases parental understanding and taking of responsibility for constructive change.