online therapy

pre pandemic data online therapy

indicate that online therapy is just as effective as in-person therapy

therapists concerns with therapy online pre pandemic

Quality of therapeutic relationship

Feeling impersonal

Technical glitches/internet literacy

Confidentiality

Most therapists had little experience with online therapy prior to the pandemic

aims

What are the main challenges experienced by therapists?

How do therapists’ perceptions of the relationship with their online patients relate to their challenges?

How do challenges at the beginning of the pandemic and 3 months later relate to therapists’ attitudes toward online therapy?

participants

1,257 therapists

77% female, mean age: 50 years, 17 years of clinical experience, licensed clinicians

measures

two data collection points (march/april and june/july 2020)
Therapist challenges

Working alliance (agreement on goals of treatment, bond between patient/therapist)

Real relationship (genuine/authentic human relationship)

Attitudes toward online therapy

Perceived online therapy efficacy

four perceived challenges (baseline and follow-up)

Emotional connection (52.3%, 49.4%)

Distraction (53.4%, 69.7%)

Patient privacy (53.9%, 51.9%)

Therapist boundary (28.5%, 22.2%)

results

Age and clinical experience were negatively related to all four types of challenges at baseline

At baseline, both working alliance and real relationship were negatively related with challenges in emotional connection

Attitudes and views on the efficacy of online therapy significantly improved

At baseline, challenges in emotional connection and patient privacy predicted more negative attitudes toward online therapy at follow-up

which was the only challenge that increased over time

distraction

discussion

Therapists experienced multiple professional challenges, most of which improved

Emotional connection was particularly important

Predicted attitudes toward online therapy and its efficacy 3 months later

Despite forced and abrupt transition, therapists had a reasonably good experience

Training is very important going forward!