I recently went on a day workshop with an organisation that I work for about arts and writers facilitation. The whole day was really well done and the content itself was really thought provoking.

Within the training there was brief discussions around paperwork - structuring and exploring the need and clarity of things such as contracts, risk assessments and evaluations.

The afternoon then focused onto social media. In some ways it was very useful for me to explore what my opinions and reasons why I chose to engage or not to engage with sites such as facebook and twitter.

Within the workshop, there were the perhaps usual reluctance from people about using new technology and the idea around privacy and the public realm. It felt as though this was being listened to, but perhaps swept away a little as being merely 'irrelevant' hurdles to overcome in order to get onto facebook.

I did feel as though I was being a bit of a cave dweller - afraid to come into the light of posts and tweets. Perhaps this is how others feel about emails or the internet in general and maybe I will look back on this and think that 'yes, I was being over-cautious'. But at this moment in time it feels much more complicated than that.

As my role of emotional support worker/counsellor I work with people within a group setting. This has both benefits and complications around my role. I don't really know of anyone else working in this sort of position and has been new territory for me.

This has been great to get in and define a new role for me - combining cousenlling skills and arts knowledge, but of course whenever I am with the group, I am a counsellor.

Here are some of the main issues...

Contamination

What if I read that a client had been out drinking at the weekend when I know they have an issue around alcohol? Or if they posted that they were feeling really low and I wouldn't be seeing them for a few days or weeks?

The difficulty with this is that it is not hearsay - the person themselves are writing this.

What do I do? What should I do and what is the person responsible for themselves - even if they are vulnerable?
There are a lot of scenarios that could very easily happen - information that I see outside of a session and then the client not chose to tell me. This could create tension, collusion and difficulty within the work that we then do.

Open all hours

I wouldn't give a client my mobile number, but this seems at odds with the idea that something could be posted on a wall somewhere and it enter my private space away from a session. Perhaps within the traditional idea of counselling there might not be a real issue, but as I am working continually with a group of people this is possibly more of an issue. I know that you can change your settings and wall etc., but you can't stop people (now would I want to) posting on other's walls and seeing what they write there.

I had a good example of this at the training itself, where I saw that one of the members of the group has posted on the organisations website and commented about one of the posts. Even just seeing their name and profile pic made me feel strange - slightly voyeuristic.

I know that people are choosing to put what they want within the public realm, but there are some concerns if they realise what they are putting out there, particularly if they are vulnerable.

But what about me?

I suppose though I have talked a lot about the welfare of mt clients and perhaps I need to consider myself as well. Am I missing out? Are my family and friend missing out through not having contact with me?

This is obviously difficult to answer as I wouldn't know unless I actually signed up. I wouldn't know who would reach out to me or I reach out to myself. If someone really wanted to get in touch with me - I'm easy to find otherwise.

Again, I know that there are ways around this - fake profiles, no profile pics etc. But this feels as though it's missing the fundamental point and not dealing with the underlying issue. Once you know something, you can't unknow it. The damage has been done.

'm not scared of using facebook or twitter, and I have a good understanding of how it works (our company's facebook account has currently 4,500 followers and 2,000 followers on twitter) and indeed the marketing value it would have.

I just don't want to go ahead with something without considering all the implications.