Child therapists’ views and experiences of video conference psychotherapy with children

Abstract

Although important research on remote psychotherapies was conducted for many years, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the spread of remote therapies. However, studies focusing on children and the family population are still quite new. Exploration of therapists’ views and experiences of using online psychotherapy interventions is of importance. In addition to these, confusion caused by referring to remote therapies with different names and using them for different purposes and forms makes it difficult to know which evidence is available for tools and forms. Therefore, this study aims to investigate psychotherapists’ views and experiences of video conferencing psychotherapy (VCP) for children using a qualitative description method. In line with this purpose, semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with seven female specialists who conducted VCP with children in different cities in Turkey. Data collected from the interviews were analyzed using an inductive content analysis approach. Analysis results indicated two themes and ten sub-themes that described benefits, new opportunities as well as limitations and difficulties of VCP provided to children. Results showed that VCP enhanced accessibility for both therapists and children and their families, enabled comfort and flexibility, and was economic. Besides, such psychotherapy was found to increase fathers’ participation in psychotherapy. On the other hand, difficulties are experienced in therapeutic relationships in the VCP process; the child’s characteristics affected the applicability of the psychotherapy; maintaining focus became difficult; lack of materials and toys affected psychotherapy applications; children’s connecting to psychotherapy from home caused privacy issues; and technological problems affected communication and sustainability.

Virtual care delivery of whole family assessment and intervention with infants and preschoolers: a thematic analysis of clinician and family experiences

“…Families and clinicians reported benefiting from increased flexibility in scheduling appointments, saving on travel cost and time, and the ability to involve more caretakers in sessions; the latter especially relevant for the provision of whole family care with multiple caregivers residing in separate homes. While the current paper is, to our knowledge, the first to report on family and caregiver experiences with virtual LTP and RFP, these findings are consistent with the emerging literature surrounding virtual mental health care (e.g., Beet & Ademosu, 2023; Nicholas et al., 2021; Usluoglu & Balık, 2023). Additionally, VTC has been demonstrated to enhance access to therapy for older children (Cluxton‐Keller et al., 2018; Nicholas et al., 2021; Sossong et al., 2019), which is consistent with the present study findings.…”

“…Clinicians in the present study also noted the increased fatigue associated with providing virtual whole family therapy for the infant and preschool population. Others have reported similar findings, citing the increased cognitive load and emotional demands on clinicians when providing virtual mental health care (Chen et al., 2020; Lynch et al., 2021) and when managing multiple family dynamics remotely (Beet & Ademosu, 2023; Usluoglu & Balık, 2023). These factors, in addition to reports of fewer no‐shows, must be considered for the well‐being of clinicians and to ensure the quality of care being provided (Patel et al., 2018).…”