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Psychotherapists’ Acceptance of Telepsychotherapy: A Machine Learning Approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2022

V. Békés ,
K. Aafjes-Van Doorn ,
S. Zilcha-Mano ,
T. Prout  and
L. Hoffman
V. Békés*
Affiliation:
Yeshiva University, Ferkauf Graduate School Of Psychology, Bronx, United States of America
K. Aafjes-Van Doorn
Affiliation:
Yeshiva University, Ferkauf Graduate School Of Psychology, Bronx, United States of America
S. Zilcha-Mano
Affiliation:
University of Haifa, Department Of Psychology, Haifa, Israel
T. Prout
Affiliation:
Yeshiva University, Ferkauf Graduate School Of Psychology, Bronx, United States of America
L. Hoffman
Affiliation:
New York Psychoanalytic Institute, N/a, New York, United States of America
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Therapists’ forced transition to provide psychotherapy remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic offers a unique opportunity to examine therapists’ views and challenges with teletherapy.

Objectives

We aimed to develop predictive models of three aspects of psychotherapists’ acceptance of teletherapy during the COVID-19 pandemic; attitudes towards teletherapy, concerns about using teletherapy, and intention to use it in the future.

Methods

In an international survey, therapists (N = 795) completed a survey about their experiences during the pandemic, including quality of therapeutic relationship, professional self-doubt, vicarious trauma, and telepsychotherapy acceptance. Regression decision trees machine learning analyses were used to build prediction models for each aspects of telepsychotherapy acceptance.

Results

Attitudes toward telepsychotherapy were most positive for therapists who reported neutral or strong online working alliance, especially if they experienced little professional self-doubt and were younger than 40 years old. Therapists who were most concerned about telepsychotherapy, were those who reported higher levels of professional self-doubt, particularly if they also reported vicarious trauma experiences. Therapists who reported low working alliance were the least likely to use telepsychotherapy in the future.

Conclusions

Therapists’ professional self-doubt and the quality of their working alliance with their telepsychotherapy patients appear to be the most pertinent factors associated with therapists’ acceptance of telepsychotherapy during COVID-19, and should be addressed in future training and research.

Disclosure

No significant relationships.

Keywords

Covid-19Telepsychotherapyattitudesmachine learning
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 65 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 30th European Congress of Psychiatry , June 2022 , pp. S168
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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