The Therapist's Notebook for Systemic Teletherapy

Many therapeutic activities that engage clients in in-person therapy rooms are not obviously available via telehealth. Yet there are creative, practical, and easy ways to intervene in teletherapy that go beyond talk therapy. The Therapist's Notebook for Systemic Teletherapy: Creative Interventions for Effective Online Therapy provides systemic teletherapy activities and interventions for a variety of topics and presenting problems. Forty chapters are arranged into seven parts: setup and preparation, self of the therapist, children and adolescents, adults, intimate relationships, families, and training and supervision. Leading experts provide step-by-step guidelines on setup, instructions, processing, and suggestions for follow-up for interventions that are grounded within foundational therapy theories/models and evidence-based practice. This book explores both new intervention strategies and ways to adapt in-person therapy interventions for telehealth. This book provides creative inspiration and practical advice for novice and experienced family therapists, clinical social workers, counselors, play therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and others in related fields.

Rebecca A. Cobb, PhD, LMFT, is a clinical professor for Seattle University's Master of Arts in Couples and Family Therapy program. She also has her own Seattle-based private practice, where she provides supervision as an American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) approved supervisor and supervision mentoring to AAMFT approved supervisor candidates. She has authored numerous journal articles and book chapters, is a former president of the Washington Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (WAMFT), and has won awards from AAMFT, WAMFT, and the National Council on Family Relations. When she isn't working, she enjoys hot yoga, hosting dinner parties, hiking with Laney the Aussiedoodle, and spending time with her partner and the small humans that keep attempting to make her a morning person. Christine Borst, PhD, LMFT, is an artist, therapist, and creative entrepreneur. She left her role as an assistant professor in family therapy to pursue a creative career, which includes but is not limited to writing and illustrating children's books and tearing up old magazines to make pretty pictures. Her published books include, What is Coronavirus?, For the Love of Organs: A Quasi-Educational Collection of Poems, Us: An Introduction to Pronouns, and Drawing the Sun, a book about the journey to the authentic self. Additionally, she runs a private coaching practice, where she supports clients in connecting with their wild selves. When she isn't having fun at work, she is hanging out in Colorado with her husband (the other Dr. Borst), her three wonderful children, and their two dogs, kitten, and hedgehog. You can find her on Instagram at @thechristineborst or at www.christineborst.com.

Section 1. Setup and Preparation 1. Can We Meet Remotely? Legal and Ethical Considerations for Systemic Teletherapy 2. Managing Multiple Therapeutic Environments 3. Confidentiality in Systemic Teletherapy 4. Building Therapeutic Relationships Via Teletherapy 5. Overcoming Lack of Visual and Auditory Cues in Online Sessions 6. Using Background Images to Signal Messages Via Teletherapy Section 2. Self of the Therapist 7. Managing Distractions and Remaining Present: Suggestions for Online Therapists 8. The "Commute Home": End of Day Letting Go Rituals for Online Therapists 9. Teletherapist Self-Care Assessment 10. Burnout for Online Therapists 11. Self-Care Tips and Tricks for Online Therapists 12. Bumpin' into Teletherapy: Planning for Parental Leave Section 3. Children and Adolescents 13. Digital Sand Therapy: Cognitions and the Underworld 14. Virtual Puppet Play Therapy 15. Chess and Telemental Health: A Structural Therapy Approach 16. The Solution-Focused Scavenger Hunt 17. Teletherapy Poetry Section 4. Adults 18. Transformational Teletherapy Chairs 19. Changing Narratives with Virtual Vision Boards 20. Guided Grounding in Teletherapy Intervention 21. Solution-Focused Teletherapy for Sucicidal Intervention 22. A Peek Inside: Virtual Home Visits for Hoarding Disorder 23. Virtual Cognitive Stimulation Therapy: A Group Intervention for Older Adults with Memory Loss Section 5. Intimate Relationships 24. Structural Interventions for Intimate Relationship Therapy: Capitalizing on the Limitations of Telehealth 25. Doorbells, Babies, and Dogs, Oh My: Distractions as Metaphors in Teletherapy with Intimate Relationships 26. Intimate Relationship De-escalation for Teletherapy: The Structured Pause 27. Mapping the Cycle: A Virtual Emotion Focused Intervention for Clients Practicing Consensual Nonmonogamy 28. Mindfulness-Based Sex Therapy: Setting the Stage for Sensate Focus via Telehealth 29. Assessing Appropriateness of Teletherapy for Intimate Partner Violence Section 6. Families 30. Digital Play Genograms 31. Telehealth Family Sculpts: So Many People, So Little Space 32. Stacking the Deck: A Strategic Approach to the Ungame 33. Virtual Altar-Making for Grief and Loss 34. Migration Journeys: Increasing Bonds with Shared Stories and Geographical Maps 35. Medical Family Teletherapy: Expanding Care to Promote Health Equity Section 7. Training and Supervision 36. Supporting Therapists through Deliberate Practice in Systemic Teletherapy 37. Round-robin Case Concepulization for Theoretically Grounded Virtual Supervision 38. Virtual Reflecting Team: A Milan Approach to Teletherapy Intervention 39. Plurilinguistic Virtual Reflecting Teams with Latino/a Families 40. "Real" Practice with Clients: Using Simulation in Virtual Group Supervision