14th PSYCHOLOGY DAYS
Zadar, Croatia
26 – 29 May,
2004
Abstract
E-Therapy and the Digital Version of Clinical Psychology:
Surveys and Delphi Approach for the evaluation of a new therapeutic
phenomenon.
Matteo Rossi, Renato Gentile,
Giovambattista Presti and Paolo Moderato
E-Psychology Research Group
Department of Psychology - University of Parma - Italy
New cyber frontiers and the
“internet way of life” permit us to make psychotherapy over the Net. This new reality
of clinical psychology seems to be a controversial phenomenon. In particular:
-
it could be a potential way
to help people who live in remote zones and people with handicap
-
it could be a potential
ineffective service or maybe it could be a potential dangerous service
We have poor empirical
results on e-therapy at the moment and a lot of aspects of its have to be
inquired:
·
effect of the absence of
non-verbal communication
·
How to make e-therapy in a
legal and an ethical way
·
How to make correct diagnosis through the Web
·
How to solve emergencies
through the Web
If e-therapy represents a new
area of psychotherapy and we are obliged to study it in the best way we can.
Our research tries to
focuses the main problems that are felt by Italian psychologists. Our hypothesis is that
e-therapy is growing with poor experimental
evidences and might be hampered
by prejudice.
We interviewed more than 100 therapists with two questionnaires:
1- the first questionnaire explored the computer literacy and the
perceived limits and benefits about e-therapy;
2- the second questionnaire evaluated which areas were perceived as to be adressed by experimental researches on
e-therapy.
Results of first questionnaire show us a very low
propensity to provide e-counseling,
e-therapy, or to integrate “traditional” psychotherapy with
e-therapy and this
results is related to the clinical approach of the therapists.
Fisher’s Test confirm these results and
it demonstrate a ideological detriment that some school of psychology feel
towards psychological services
delivered on teh Net. The absence of
non-verbal communication and the difficulty to make correct diagnosis
through the Internet appear the most relevant
problems that hinder e-therapy
instead the possibility to help people with handicap and people who live in remote zones could be
positive aspects of e-therapy.
Results
of the Delphi Approach confirm that:
1. absence of non-verbal communication
2. possibility to make correct diagnosis on the Net
3. possibility to help
people with handicap and people who live in remote zones
represent important areas we should inquire in the next researches on e-therapy.
E-therapy is probably
something different from “traditional” psychotherapy and we think this could be
the first step to make a good empirical work in the future.