The Therapist Is Online Now: How is technology changing the way we view ourselves?

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"Why don’t you like me?" No, not the beginning line of a progressive one-woman show, but one of many questions that we may ask ourselves about our friends, colleagues and lovers. If we have the time (and money), we may even pay someone to listen to us, in the form of talking therapy, in an effort to better understand ourselves and other people. Therapy has now gone mainstream - but what does that actually mean for how we understand ourselves, our relationships, and the digital world we now live in?

In this episode, we are speaking to Dr Aaron Balick, a psychotherapist, clinical supervisor, author, psychological consultant, honorary senior lecturer at The Department for Psychoanalytic and Psychosocial Studies at the University of Essex, and cultural theorist and one of the UK’s most thoughtful voices on how psychological ideas shape everyday life. Aaron’s work has long examined what happens when therapy leaves the consulting room and enters the public sphere: from the rise of therapy-speak, to the boom in online counselling, to the way digital culture reshapes our expectations of intimacy. He is a speaker, writes for GQ, and has written three books: ‘The Psychodynamics of Social Networking’ in 2013 and 'The Little Book of Calm' in 2018.

Produced by the Bloomsbury Institute London.