Managing Our Public Selves

Abstract

The Internet has fundamentally altered mental health clinicians' "public selves," challenging previous models of self-disclosure and maintenance of boundaries within treatment. The conception of a public self altered by the digital age presents both opportunities and pitfalls in clinical practice. Information about clinicians available online may be professional or personal; accurate or inaccurate; and publicly accessible, purchased, or hacked. Clinicians must consider how to manage their public selves in work with patients and the community. This Open Forum outlines a set of recommendations for managing the public self in the digital age as a routine part of therapeutic work.

Keywords: Community mental health services; Outpatient treatment; digital; disclosure; internet.