Always online: Therapeutic approaches in the age of chronic screen use

Description: The pervasive trend of being “always online” and the doubling of screen time during the pandemic have exacerbated various issues. These include the escalating adolescent mental health crisis, a surge in feelings of loneliness, a decline in social connections, a reluctance of kids not wanting to grow up, and the struggle to detach from our phones and laptops.

In today’s schools, hospitals, doctor’s offices, and therapy rooms, we are seeing the impacts of being constantly online. The adults who are raising and caring for today’s young people don’t have a common roadmap, highlighting the need for a collective therapeutic approach to managing screen use.

This training, will look at the modern clinical approaches for helping people of all ages build better relationships with screens and technology so they can build more balanced brains. Areas of focus will include: 

• How addictive algorithms capture our attention, making us more erratic, irrational, distracted, and self-focused.
• How dopamine reshapes our reward pathways and how to rewire the reward circuitry. 
• How constant screen use rewires our social instincts and changes our relationships.
• How excessive exposure to screens and technology changes the stress-threat response and impacts our ability to self-regulate and co-regulate.

Learning objectives:

• Learn how to assess the four types of screen use and how to intervene when screen use becomes problematic.
• Understand how to build healthier relationships with screens and technology – in friendships, partnerships and working relationships. 
• Learn how to rebalance the brain using the Balanced Brains Protocol – an integrative approach for parents, teachers and helping professionals at all levels.

Register now to gain practical tools and therapeutic strategies for navigating the mental health impacts of chronic screen use—and support clients in building healthier relationships with technology.

SickKids Centre for Community Mental Health Learning Institute offers training and education for professionals to advance mental health care – our goal is to improve client outcomes and building capacity, together. Find training to support your professional development at www.sickkidscmhlearning.ca and reserve your spot today! Don't forget to use code OPA20 to save 20% off your registration fees.