Ruby Blow, owner and operator of Atlanta-based Development Counts, provides clinical supervision, consultation, and training. Among her many licenses and certifications, Ruby is an Approved Clinical Supervisor (ACS). She has provided services since 2001 and increasingly, Ruby has seen a shift in the mode of services to electronic meetings (primarily via video conferencing) rather than in-person.

Steven Levenkron, M.S., one of our alumni, is a ground breaking and well-known psychotherapist  specializing in anorexia, self-mutilation, OCD and sexual abuse. He is the author of both fiction and non-fiction books which provide theoretical analyses in his areas of expertise. In a career that began in 1970,  Levenkron has provided over sixty-thousand hours (and counting) of therapy, and boasts a 90% recovery rate for his patients.

Ray Barrett of Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC recently sat with Steven Levenkron to discuss his years of experience and the success he has experienced when using technology in his treatment of patients.  Levenkron has found that abuse victims are more open when care is provided at a distance. When those clients find themselves alone and in a secure environment and at no physical risk from others, they tend to open more quickly and disclose to the provider - hence, care and treatment begin much faster. For abuse victims, non-verbal communication (such as email) is the most effective for opening up, followed by audio (telephone), and video conferencing. The least effective style of meetings for this clientele is same-location sessions.