affectphobia.org, the web site for
Affect Phobia Therapy

We have found that videotaping psychotherapy sessions is a very powerful tool for two reasons:

First, therapists can review videotapes either with supervisors or alone. Video recordings, unlike therapist recall, transcripts, or audiotapes, provide important affective clues which are often overlooked during sessions. There is no better tool than videotape for learning to do affectively attuned therapy. Coding therapy sessions with the ATOS can help therapists get even more from video recordings.

Second, when patients watch videotapes of their own sessions they often benefit from literally "seeing things from another perspective." For instance, defensive patterns may be much clearer to them, or the video may help them to arrive at a more compassionate self-view.

This page links to several items (click here and read the note at the bottom of the page if you need more information on file formats):

1. A supplementary article to Treating Affect Phobia, which discusses videotaping sessions and introduces the ATOS. Click here for the pdf version file, or here to see/download the rtf file.
2. A sample consent form for video or audio taping can be viewed as a web page or rtf file. Because this file needs to be modified before you can use it, it's not available in pdf format. Note that this form is not HIPAA compliant; we hope to have a more HIPAA-friendly form available soon.

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