M.I.T. Admissions Head Caught in 28 Year-Old Lie!

DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO...

She Needed Therapy

Marilee Jones was the Dean of Admissions at Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was forced to step down from that position on Monday. In a note of bittersweet irony, since last fall Ms. Jones has been making speeches all around the country to promote her new book, Less Stress, More Success: A New Approach to Guiding Your Teen Through College Admissions and Beyond. The book had added to her reputation as a leader in the movement to tame the present-day college admissions frenzy. She had become well known for urging stressed-out students competing for elite colleges to calm down and stop trying to be so perfect.

But, Less Stress, More Success addresses not just the pressure to be perfect, but also the need to live with integrity. “Holding integrity is sometimes very hard to do because the temptation may be to cheat or cut corners,” she wrote. “But just remember that ‘what goes around comes around,’ meaning that life has a funny way of giving back what you put out.”

Yes, it certainly does...er, has!

Yesterday, Ms. Jones admitted that she had made up all of her higher education credentials and resigned after nearly thirty years at M.I.T. Officials of the institute said she did not have even an undergraduate degree.

“I misrepresented my academic degrees when I first applied to M.I.T. 28 years ago and did not have the courage to correct my résumé when I applied for my current job or at any time since,” Ms. Jones said in a statement posted on M.I.T.'s web site. “I am deeply sorry for this and for disappointing so many in the M.I.T. community and beyond who supported me, believed in me, and who have given me extraordinary opportunities.” Ms. Jones, 55, was originally from Albany, New York, and had on various occasions claimed to have degrees from three upstate New York institutions: Albany Medical College, Union College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In fact, she had no degrees from any of those places, or anywhere else.

Technorati: massachusetts institute of technology, M.I.T., Dean of Admissions, 28 year old lie, caught, forced to resign, higher education, education, Marilee Jones
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Myths and Realities about On-line Therapy

Issues related to the online experience and therapeutic relationships have been a central focus of the Case Study Group (CSG) of the International Society for Mental Health Online. What do most people believe about the possibility of engaging in on-line therapy? One of the Case Study Group's interesting papers disusses what they consider to be some of the more common myths about about on-line therapy.

According to the CSG study, even among mental health professionals who may be otherwise very like-minded about concepts and principles which guide traditional counseling/psychotherapy approaches, there are some specific areas of concern which continue to be hotly debated with regard to Internet-facilitated mental health services. Clearly there does need to be thoughtful consideration about professional, ethical practice, with particular concern about risk management for particular types of client situations.

Our direct experience among a group of diversely trained mental health professionals, all with experience offline as well as online, suggests that there is even more potential than we had imagined for creative and therapeutic uses of Internet-facilitated communication. Moreover, the entire group acknowledges that what we have observed through the case presentations, and shared through a peer-supervision model, has convincingly demonstrated that some things we may not have thought possible clearly are.

At the same time, we have become still more acutely aware of the realities which are well-known in translating face-to-face therapies into digital versions, and the complexities involved in employing sound therapeutic and ethical judgment when situations arise "between sessions" online. Readers may access the entire article here: Myths and Realities of Online Clinical Work.

Technorati: psychology, psychotherapy therapy, on-line therapy, clinical psychology, internet, mental health, online mental health, mental health services, Chicago

Asking for Caring Support

Barack Obama: Photography by Annie Liebovitz

I thought of two features today that might be helpful to readers. The first is a practical guide to maintaining privacy when you're looking for online mental health information. The second piece relates to the coping with our feelings about the tragedy that occurred last week at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.

First, DotCOMSENSE, is a useful brochure that provides a basic listing of some common sense ways that can help you to protect your privacy and assess online mental health information. The brochure was originally developed by the American Psychological Association, but it is no longer available from them. However, you can access it here either to read or download (in pdf format) from Mind, a leading mental health charity in England: Mind.

A second item, which I thought might be helpful to some readers, is a short article just released by The American Psychological Association in an attempt to reach out to college and university students in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech tragedy, suggesting ways for them to manage feelings of distress over that terrible event. Of course, it might well be helpful to a wider audience as well. The article is entitled Tips for College and University Students: Managing Your Distress in the Aftermath of the Virginia Tech Shootings and is available to read or download from The APA Help Center.

Technorati: therapy, online therapy, on-line therapy, online therapist, psychologist, clinical psychologist, psychology, Cho, Cho Sueng-Hui, Sueng-Hui Cho, Virginia Tech gunman, mental illnes, mental health

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On-Line Psychotherapy

May 1, 2007