How many professionals, in recent times, are faced with the doubt whether or not to include the now much debated online consultancy among their services? How many oscillate between acknowledging the advantages of this practice (such as the greater accessibility and diffusion of psychological services) and skepticism about its effectiveness?
The network and multimedia communication media have upset the relationship models of all the intervention realities where the relationship represents the tool of professional action. In the psychological field, this has led to a real revolution, freeing the psychologist-client relationship from one of the main aspects of the intervention, namely the face to face meeting (Manzo, 2012).
Although many psychologists have already opened up to this novelty, other professionals facing this opportunity still show some uncertainty. In Italy, for example, there is a constant increase in the offer of psychological services online, with an overall growth both in the number of psychologists who offer online services, and in the number of web portals dedicated to these professionals (such as lists of psychologists etc.).
However, the skepticism linked to the effectiveness of an intervention in which there is no (material) co-presence of the psychologist and the client in a specific meeting place, the lack of knowledge of new technologies, as well as the inadequate competence in their use , delay their spread.
Therefore, it is precisely to those who still do not feel fully sure to start practicing this type of intervention that we intend to address, indicating as a valid alternative to experiment with digitalized counseling that of Online Single Session Therapy, continuing where necessary with the intervention. vis a vis.
First of all, let’s see the functions that an online psychological service can perform.
The CNOP (National Council of the Order of Psychologists) in 2012 carried out a research to better understand the characteristics of online psychological services and to provide ethical and practical guidelines to guide professionals and their clients to a safe and responsible use of this type of intervention.
From the survey, the CNOP observed that the function of the network is not limited to the task of facilitating the meeting between the client’s demand and the professional’s offer, but coincides with another space, capable of extending the encounter. beyond the simple exchange of information, transforming it into a digitalized psychological intervention in all respects.
Let’s see what the online consultation consists of?
It includes
“All professional actions, offered by a real professional to a client, aimed at: informing, raising awareness, supporting, modifying, preventing, treating, enabling and rehabilitating, through the aid of new communication technologies” (Manzo et al., 2015).
As mentioned above, therefore, the web can represent the pretext for the meeting between the customer’s demand and the professional’s offer and in this case the technological mediation is a pure channel of promotion and communication of one’s activities, therefore an advertising channel. , of information and knowledge for the customer. In this case, the meeting and the actual intervention will take place within the traditional channels and contexts (for example the professional’s office).
Or serve as a context, space or place for the professional’s performance. In this case, the role of the new communication technologies is mainly auxiliary, i.e. it constitutes a means, a place, a tool, through which the professional and the client interface in view of their purposes (Bozzatora, A., et al., 2017).
How, then, can TSS represent an advantage for psychologists who want to try their hand at online therapy?
Beyond the tools with which the online psychological intervention can be carried out (such as email, text chat or video-consultancy), engaging in an online TSS can offer some advantages (both to the psychologist and to the client) and give the professional the opportunity to experiment with a new practice, without having to give up the possibility of continuing the intervention, where necessary and requested by the client himself, directly at the psychologist’s office.
Let’s see what the advantages of online TSS can be for the psychologist and the client.
Not wishing to enter into the debate on the efficacy of digitized psychological services, with respect to which it is possible to find numerous studies in which data are reported in favor of the efficacy of interventions mediated by new technologies, for which we refer to the dedicated literature (Haug , Meyer, & John, 2011; Kersting, Kroker, Schlicht, Baust, & Wagner, 2011; Newman, Szkodny, llera, & Przeworski, 2011; IM Ritterband et al., 2009; MI Ritterband & Thorndike, 2006; Sloan, Gallagher , Feinstein, Lee, & Pruneau, 2011), the advantages of an online TSS can be summarized as follows:
- Approaching all those digital cultures that convey their own methods of interaction and exchange, with which professionals are encouraged to interact. Examples of such cultures are represented by the so-called digital natives, who have had touchscreen-based systems as their primary digital interface with the web; or digital late arrivals necessarily exposed to the use of the internet or remote technologies such as telephone, e-mail, chat and video conferencing for access to knowledge and information (Mallen, Vogel, & Rochlen, 2005).
- Greater accessibility to care by the client, i.e. the ability to eliminate architectural barriers (e.g. people with disabilities or who live in areas where it is difficult to reach centers of interest) or connected to stigma and prejudices (e.g. victims of victims of gender stigma or abuse), representing a very valid remote assistance tool.
- Support for traditional intervention with the possibility of maintaining continuity in the relationship even where professionals or clients change residence or country. The possibility of integrating the digital intervention with the direct one also allows, where required or deemed necessary, thus does not preclude the direct meeting between psychologist and client.
To conclude, therefore, integrating the online consultancy with TSS would give the professional the opportunity to offer the client an additional service, to complement the traditional face-to-face service. With the online TSS the psychologist could provide information, listening and psychological support, knowledge on the functioning of the problem presented and any techniques to overcome it, finally orientation to other services (including therapy at the psychologist’s office), always leaving the leads to other forms of direct or technology-mediated therapy.
Angelica Giannetti
Psychologist, Psychotherapist
Italian Center team
for Single Session Therapy
Bibliography
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