Every day, clinicians gather countless pieces of information that help us understand the people sitting across from us. We ask about sleep, relationships, work, routines, and daily habits because each offers a window into how a person experiences and navigates the world. As technology becomes increasingly woven into nearly every aspect of modern life, perhaps it, too, deserves to be viewed through that same lens.
Conversations about technology often focus on reducing screen time or managing problematic digital behaviors. While these concerns are important, they represent only part of the clinical picture. This workshop invites participants to consider a different question: How is this particular client using technology, and what might that help us understand about them? Rather than viewing smartphones, messaging platforms, social media, AI, and other digital tools simply as behaviors to increase or decrease, participants will explore how technology use can provide meaningful insight into emotional regulation, attachment needs, relationships, tolerance of uncertainty, problem-solving, reassurance seeking, and engagement with an increasingly connected world.
Drawing on emerging research in emotion regulation, attachment, behavioral functional analysis, human-computer interaction, and digital communication, this workshop offers a framework for incorporating technology use into clinical assessment and case formulation. Through clinical vignettes and guided discussion, participants will discover how similar digital behaviors can reflect very different psychological processes, and how approaching technology with curiosity rather than assumption can deepen understanding of the person behind the behavior.
Rather than asking only whether technology is helping or hurting, participants will leave with a richer clinical question to guide assessment: What does this client's relationship with technology reveal about the ways they regulate, relate, think, and cope?
Rochel Moskowitz, LMSW, is a psychotherapist working with children, adolescents, adults, and families in Lakewood, NJ. She has experience across outpatient, PHP, and IOP settings, with particular interests in anxiety, emotional regulation, trauma-informed care, parenting, and culturally responsive mental health within the Orthodox Jewish community. Rochel enjoys translating emerging psychological research into practical, clinically meaningful frameworks that help deepen case formulation and strengthen therapeutic relationships. Drawing from DBT, CBT, attachment-based, and experiential approaches, her work emphasizes curiosity, individualized understanding, and the psychological function of behavior rather than symptom reduction alone.