Third Virtual Counselling Conference (3VCC)

Greetings!

The next few postings will be about the Third Virtual Counselling Conference (3VCC) which was recently held in Second Life, hosted by the Counsellor Education Second Life (CESL) group. It was a wonderful conference. My only regret was that work commitments and the need for sleep curtailed my full attendance! But next year, I will make sure nothing is booked on those days. And being downunder means that my days and nights will be swapped, but it will be worth it.

Thank you to Dr Marty Jencius & Debra London for a wonderful opportunity. I have appreciated their hard work over the last three years. A thank you to all those guest speakers as well. The professional development and dialogue they have created has been excellent.

It was great to see the support from the American Counselling Association too!  Although I am located in Australia, it is encouraging to see how professional organisations are supporting such ventures in these new frontiers.

Counselling in virtual worlds certainly raises a range of ethical concerns and issues which are well worth considering, with regard to client work. So, the input from people such as DeeAnna Madfes and Kate Elize Larnia from the Online Therapy Institute http://www.onlinetherapyinstitute.com/ is always invaluable at these conferences.

We are all committed to the safety and empowerment of the client. Keeping an open mind and continuing with that professional dialogue means new directions will emerge. Technology certainly poses many pitfalls for us, but also provides many new opportunities, It is an interesting labyrinth to explore. So the balance between ethics and technology will be an ongoing challenge.I look forward to future discussion with regard to this.

However, putting client contact aside as an issue, virtual worlds offer a range of opportunities for the international counselling community to meet inworld and to participate in conferences, workshops, meetings and general networking, such as that which occurred at the 3VCC.

Stay tuned, as I will upload a few video snippets of some of the 3VCC sessions.