168 – Insurance for Online Counsellors

Developing Your Internal Supervisor - Personal Beliefs in the Therapy Room In episode 168 of the Counselling Tutor Podcast, Ken Kelly and Rory Lees-Oakes talk about the concept of the internal supervisor. 'The Digital Counselling Revolution' then looks at insurance for online counsellors. Finally, in 'Practice Matters', the presenters talk about how your personal beliefs may influence therapy work, and where you can learn more about this. Developing Your Internal Supervisor (starts at 1.30 mins) It is important not only for students but also for qualified practitioners to have an internal supervisor. In this section of the podcast, Ken and Rory look at: what an internal supervisor is when and how your internal supervisor is developed how to recognise when your internal supervisor kicks in how your internal supervisor works. Rory references a book by British psychoanalyst Patrick Casement, Learning from our Mistakes: Beyond Dogma in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. You can read more about Casement's work in Rory's handout, 'Developing Your Internal Supervisor'. This can be downloaded here, or accessed through Counselling Study Resource. Insurance for Online Counsellors (starts at 12.00 mins) All practising student and qualified counsellors need insurance for their therapy work. Once you have insurance, it is all too easy to fall into a pattern of renewing the same policy each year without a second thought. This is never wise, as having the right insurance is vital - not only for the care of your clients, but also to protect you yourself. With the rapid increase in online working since the COVID-19 pandemic began, insurance for online counsellors is something that therapists now need to consider more than ever. It is important to ensure that your insurance covers you for all the work you do. It is therefore vital to: contact your insurer to check whether online work is included check their definition of 'online' to ensure that it matches your practice ask whereabouts in your paperwork you can read about this. If your current provider is not offering you insurance that fully meets your needs - or is not being helpful at providing the information you ask for - you might want to shop around and consider moving to a different insurer. Insurance both for online and face-to-face counsellors is a topic that's regularly raised on the Counselling Tutor Facebook group: you might like to ask about others' experiences there. And for a more in-depth look at insurance for online counselling work, you might like to consider taking our course, Online and Telephone Counselling. This has already been completed by well over 7,000 people, and you can read more than 1,000 reviews on our website. Personal Beliefs in the Therapy Room (starts at 22.40 mins) Rory recounts an anecdote of a student who believed himself to have UPR at all times, yet soon demonstrated this was not so, despite his best intentions. Indeed, it is likely to be impossible for humans. We all hold personal beliefs - developed through our experiences so far in life - that may differ, sometimes radically, from those of our clients. This highlights the importance of self-awareness - developed through ongoing personal-development work - and Ken highlights the value of the Johari window, covered in podcast 166. Because we all take our selves into the therapy room, we naturally are accompanied by our beliefs: the most important thing is to be vigilant to these, and to how they may lead us to react to any different beliefs expressed by clients. You can listen to a lecture entitled 'Exploring Beliefs, Values and Attitudes' by counsellor and trainer Emma Chapman in the Counsellor CPD library. There, you'll also find lots of other useful resources to help you build your CPD hours, and develop both personally and professionally. Links and Resources Suicides in England and Wales: 2023 registrations REBT Online Counselling Skills Academy Advanced Certificate in Counselling Supervision Basic Counselling Skills: A Student Guide Counsellor CPD Counselling Study Resource Counselling Theory in Practice: A Student Guide Counselling Tutor Training and CPD Facebook group Website Online and Telephone Counselling: A Practitioner’s Guide Online and Telephone Counselling Course

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