March 18, 2020: Therapists Coping with Corona Stress Support Group

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This is a free group to support therapists in coping with their lives and this virus.
First Group is Friday 3/20 at 4pm.
Other group days/times vary according to the day of the week and when Ruth is available to host. 
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Please RSVP through Calendly and then log on through Zoom at the time you reserved your spot. 
Other options for support groups:

Dr. Rebecca Wara-Goss is also hosting: 
Topic: COVID-19 Peer Support Group for MH Professionals
Time: Mar 20, 2020 06:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada) Every week on Fri, until Apr 10, 2020, 4 occurrence(s): Mar 20, 2020 06:00 PM, Mar 27, 2020 06:00 PM, Apr 3, 2020 06:00 PM, Apr 10, 2020 06:00 PM
Zoom Link

March 20, 2020: Helpful Provider Links

FREE 2 day Continuing Education training online for Tele-mental health certification (worth over $400). Use code: TELEFREE at checkout.

Department of Health and Human Services: Telehealth web apps can include zoom, FaceTime, etc, if needed during this crisis. 

Health Insurance Links to updates for Tele-health coverage:
Low Cost Therapy Options:
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LiveTrue is offering "pay what you can" counseling for those affected by this virus. Click here to learn more. 

March 15, 2020: Email templates for switching to online therapy in light of Coronavirus. 

Email 1: Acknowledgement of virus and what we are doing at the office to sterilize space and request that if clients are showing any symptoms they stay home. 

                (This was not saved in a way I could copy, but you get the gist, it was about one paragraph long.) 
Email 2:  Choosing to switch to Telehealth:

Hello, 

I have an update:

​A respected healthcare colleague sent this Medium article out after closing his in-person practice down indefinitely (to only practicing telehealth). "This article has received over 27 million reads over 72 hrs. and contains important information, as this pandemic has not been experienced before by anyone alive today. It has been translated into multiple languages already."

I am realizing that I can do my part by following his lead. Let's flatten the curve in spreading this virus and act now.

I welcome your thoughts, and will send out an email soon with instructions on how to make our next session a telehealth appointment. As a reminder, I have done telehealth sessions for years and while they can be experienced as "different" than coming in person, they also tend to be useful and meaningful similar to meeting at my office. 

Thank you for your support of this conservative and preventative approach. 

Also, someone recently taught me a meditation to become present when the fear of the unknown and current events overtakes me. When I breathe in, I say to myself, "I am here." and when I breathe out, I feel the words, "Here I am." 

Keep breathing and I'll see you online at our next session! 

-Ruth
Email 3: Instructions for switching to telehealth
In a time where we are all likely to feel more isolated, I know that *not* meeting in person with your provider can be another blow, and appreciate your flexibility in keeping me, you, and other clients safe during this unprecedented time of caution, care, and preventative social distancing. 

If you need to do a phone call for our first session while we get the our tele-health routines arranged, we can start our next session by phone and orient to below instructions together. However, for your information, please find the following guidelines. As I mentioned in my previous email, I've done tele-health for years and most clients find this a suitable portal for their needs when we are unable to meet in person.
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1) The session will be through therabook, which is what you signed into to see this email. Here is a link to FAQ on sessions through this portal. Some people ask, why not do this through facetime or skype ? The answer is that in general, those sites are not secure for a confidential session. 

2) Technology - If you haven't checked already, please make sure you are using (or download) Firefox  or Google chrome for your internet browser when we meet. Also, to use video conferencing (so I can see you also), make sure that your computer has a functional camera connected. 

Sometimes, depending on online traffic, there can be difficulty with the video feed (it will lag, become blurry, or cut out). If so, we will try to do a phone call with video turned on and muted. This way, if the video feed cuts out, we will still be able to keep hearing and interacting as normal. 

3) Safe Space - If you were meeting with me in person, we meet in a private office where we are uninterrupted and you are not be required to do anything except be there for yourself. Since we are not meeting in person, I need you to make sure of your situation and space is as safe for you as possible to be however you need to be during our time together. This ideally looks like:

  •  Make sure you are in a room that has a door that closes, and when we meet is locked if you need to ensure that nobody is going to walk in on you.
  • If we are talking by phone and it is a landline, make sure you have told anyone in your home to please not pick up the phone during the hour we will be meeting.
  •  Please do not be driving during therapy.
  • Make sure that people cannot hear you or see you while we are meeting. This includes children if you have them. If the only space you can meet with me is from your vehicle, make sure to drive to a place where you are unlikely to be seen or recognized by people you know (e.g., co-workers, friends, family).
  • If you have questions about this, or want help problem-solving on getting yourself to a place where you have the flexibility let down and open up about whatever is going on, we can start by phone and take it from there at our next appointment.
See you soon,
-Ruth
Email 4: Group switching to Online
Hi! 

As you might have guessed, our last group for this round is going to be online this week. I wonder how the "group creature" will be experienced online!? Through necessity, we will be finding out on Thursday through the online platform of Zoom. Here's a video about joining a meeting on Zoom if you are unfamiliar with it.

Here's the invite:

Ruth Diaz is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/**************

Meeting ID: ***********
Password: ****

If you are thinking you cannot join by video, let's problem solve this ahead of time. Please reply to this email with any concerns and let's also check in about this at our next session. 

I'm weirdly excited to try this! Looking forward to circling up, even if not in person. 

-Ruth

July 2018: Blog that other therapists have used as a handout for clients and family of clients who are experiencing suicidal thoughts. 

Let's talk about Suicide and Why we Don't. 

December 2015: Here's a prezi on relationships of psychopathology to trauma.

Some of you asked for this as a printable photo. Will upload later as a PDF