Marriage and Family Therapists’ Reporting of Telehealth Use on Practice Websites during COVID-19: A Linguistic Analysis

Abstract

Clinicians may have to adapt their online marketing and engagement strategies to convey messages regarding COVID-19 and telehealth appointments for current and potential clients. This study reports the results of a linguistic inquiry of ways therapists presented telehealth services, advertised on their professional websites in six cities in the United States, during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Results of the analysis indicated that while MFTs use positive emotional tone in their language, the authenticity scores were poor. Dimensions of Clout and analytical language scored high. This suggests that MFTs use language that is professional, but distant, or inauthentic. Implications are discussed. The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19; SARS-Cov-2) was classified as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (World Health Organization [WHO], 2020) in the spring of 2020. The global pandemic disrupted typical daily life in many countries. In an effort to mitigate the spread of the pandemic, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] (2020) recommended social distancing and minimizing contact with other people. Many state governments established shelter-in-place orders and closed all non-essential businesses throughout March, April, and May of 2020 to comply with public health officials' COVID-19 recommendations.Mental health care, often accessed through face-to-face outpatient appointments, was disrupted throughout the United States because of the shelter-in-place protocols and other efforts to reduce COVID-19 transmission. While providers should abide by protocols to mitigate coronavirus transmission, research suggests that the effects of a mass trauma, such as a global pandemic, may cause an increase in need for quality mental health services (

The Psychological Effects of Digital Companies’ Employees during the Phase of COVID-19 Pandemic Extracted from Online Employee Reviews

“…To the effects of COVID-19, Wu et al used a LIWC on Weibo data pool to explore the psychological effects of COVID-19 home confinement in China [34]. Thomas et al reported the results of a linguistic inquiry of ways therapists presented telehealth services, advertised on their professional websites in six cities in the United States during the COVID-19 global pandemic [35].…”