Let's try something together! Remember the old saying that it takes a village to raise a child? Well, researchers and philosophers throughout time have emphasized the importance of community and belonging for people of all ages. With that in mind, I'm reaching out to the online community to try something a little different. While realizing that chat groups and self-help gurus with answers are in abundance all over the Internet, I began wondering about the effectiveness of these processes for the people seeking help. Simply put, was the help any good and did it work for the person? That's basically what empirical-based treatment is all about--does research support that XYZ really works? Instead of getting so heady, I decided the old-fashioned contest might shed some light (for you and me) on what's helping folks in our online community...
First, I'm going to ask that people write in with a genuine issue that they're experiencing in their life right now. Write to me at [email protected] and tell me (1) the problem, (2) your age and gender, (3) where you live, (4) your cultural influences/preferences (e.g. religious preference, cultural identity, sexual/gender identity, etc.), (5) your career, and (6) whether this issue represents any patterns form your past or your family's past.
I will go through the submittals and post an issue (with your permission!). Then we will ask the online community for their thoughts. Your feedback can go directly on the blog or you can email me directly at [email protected]. The feedback will be shared with the person with the issue and we will see which piece of advice they want to implement. Then we will find out if it worked or not. At the end, I will share what the theories and research say about the different feedback we received along with why or why not the selected feedback was/was not effective. So, stick around and let's see what unfolds.
PLEASE HELP--In order to get a good feedback response rate, please copy this post and send it to as many of your online community folks as you can (the more geographic coverage we get, the better!). Remember you can email me directly at [email protected] and this post is on my blog--www.KimberlyRobichaud.com.
Did you know? While images of headshrinkers come to mind when hearing the word "shrink," modern interpretation means that one is simply "shrinking" an issue down to its lowest common denominator.
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