In-depth clinical learning on a key area of practice, guided by leading experts.
Event overview:
Compulsive engagement with screens and social media is a contemporary behavioural addiction that often hides in plain sight.
Shaped by attention economics, reward systems and emotional regulation, digital environments amplify comparison, avoidance, dissociation and dysregulation in ways that are frequently normalised or minimised.
This 2 hour clinical webinar explores screen and social media use through psychological, relational and neurobiological lenses, equipping you to work with clarity, confidence and ethical balance.
We will examine:
- How digital platforms interact with reward circuitry and dopamine systems
- The role of comparison, shame and identity construction online
- Screens as regulation, avoidance and dissociation
- Ambivalence and resistance around behaviour change
- The relational and developmental impact of excessive screen use
We will also consider how social media and gaming can become highly compelling for ADHD and autistic clients because of reward loops, predictability and controlled social contact.
You’ll explore ways to talk about screen use with neurodivergent clients that respect their regulation needs while still addressing risk and harm.
Clinical Takeaway
By the end of this session, you will be able to:
- Confidently assess problematic screen use without moralising or dismissing
- Recognise when digital engagement is functioning as emotional regulation
- Formulate compulsive use within attachment and nervous system frameworks
- Use values based conversations to address ambivalence
- Design collaborative boundary setting experiments with clients
- Intervene actively rather than remaining in general lifestyle discussion
This webinar forms part of The Addiction Series
The Addiction Series is a five‑part Grove Series CPD course on addiction across porn and sex, alcohol, social media and screens, drugs and work. You can book this event on its own for £30, choose a select few, or purchase all 5 webinars together for £120. (Prices inclusive of VAT).
Dates and Times
All Wednesdays, 17:30–19:30 (UK time)
