Phone Therapy: A Guide for Practitioners Working with Voice Alone

✍ Scribed by Sarah Hart

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 158
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Phone therapy is as relevant as it was 50 years ago. The increased use of this medium during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the revision of professional therapy body guidance, has endorsed the validity and effectiveness of phone therapy.

The book updates, revises and reinvigorates the medium for individual therapists, counselling services and training organisations in a post-lockdown world, where blended therapy is the norm. It includes practical considerations, phone-related theory, personal experience and self-reflection exercises. Contributing counsellor vignettes cover topics such as adapting theoretical modalities and EDI considerations without visual cues. From assessments, contracting and core skills to assumptions, disinhibition and privacy issues, it supports therapists and counselling organisations to embrace the accessibility, flexibility and creativity that therapy by phone provides.

Relevant for experienced and trainee therapists alike, this book provides practitioners with the support and knowledge to confidently use phone therapy in their practice.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Endorsements
Half Title
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
1 You can trust what you hear
Hearing is our fastest sense
What is hearing exactly?
So how do we hear?
The pathway of sound
Frequency, amplitude and the soundtrack of Jaws
Sudden noise and misophonia
Silence and heightened arousal
Hearing is always switched on
Theories of selective attention
The Cocktail Party Effect
‘Halfalogues'
Hebbrian plasticity
How we manage degraded sound
Human sound, emotion and the therapeutic relationship
2 Phone therapy uncovered
The setting
How helplines differ from phone therapy
Limitations and benefits of phone therapy
Phone therapy’s greatest attributes
Main differences between phone and face-to-face therapy
3 Communication and core phone therapy skills
Non-verbal communication and paralanguage
The therapist’s voice
The effective therapeutic phone alliance
4 Theoretical modalities used in phone therapy
Person-centred
Psychodynamic
Integrative transpersonal
Pluralistic
Cognitive behavioural therapy
5 The contract – working legally, professionally and ethically on the phone
Security and confidentiality relating to phones
Therapist’s digital footprint
When and how to contract
Contracting with clients
Phone therapy contract with clients
The first session
6 Assessment, psychological suitability and risk
The phone therapy assessment
Assessing risk
Working with eating disorders and substance abuse on the phone
Referral and signposting pathways
7 Equality, diversity and inclusion within phone therapy
Disability
Hearing loss
Race and culture
Gender, sexual and relationship diversity (GSRD)
Older people
Children and young people
8 Creative interventions for phone therapy
Suggestions for safe creative working on the phone
Expressive writing therapy
Visualisation
Grounding the client during phone therapy
9 Considerations for supervision by phone
Phone supervision or supervision on the phone?
Models of online supervision
Adapting face-to-face supervision for the phone
Contracting and practicalities for supervision by phone
Helping the supervisee develop communication skills for phone therapy
Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) as part of phone supervision
Psychological suitability and managing risk during supervision
Understanding the context and legal implications of the supervisee’s work
Choosing a phone therapy supervisor
Index