Background: Globally, the use of technology has significantly increased over the last few years. Telepsychology or online therapy, until recently was a developing practice, however, its use accelerated as a result of Covid-19. Most facets of psychological professions such as organisational systems, clinical practices, training, and research transitioned to the digital medium. This also meant that some university level counselling psychology doctoral training programmes had to shift aspects of their training online. Therefore, trainees on these programmes were also required to offer online therapy at placements in lieu of in-person therapy. As this was not standard practice up until recently, research is needed to understand the experiences of trainees and how training provisions at universities and placement organisations can better support trainees. The aim of this research was therefore to explore the experiences of trainee counselling psychologists offering web-based therapy at clinical placements and thereby understand implications for the profession. Methodology: A qualitative research design was used to understand the experiences of the participants in this research study. Twelve counselling psychologists in training attending doctoral programmes across United Kingdom were recruited. Semi-structured interviews were conducted via videoconferencing and the data was analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. As such, the transcripts of the recorded interviews were analysed to develop themes. Findings: The analysis led to the development of four themes and 15 sub-themes. The four broad themes that illustrate participant experiences are 1. Working in a digital environment 2. Translating the therapy process to a web-based medium 3. Necessary but insufficient training, and 4. Availability of support. Discussion: Based on the analysis and prior research literature, this study outlines trainee counselling psychologistsâ experiences of web-based therapy across three sections. These are 1. You lose some, you win some: coexisting with the loss in web-based therapy which highlights opportunities they gained and losses they encountered in the process of transitioning to and working with the digital medium. 2. More breadth, less depth: training and supervision experiences illustrates the training that trainees received and benefited from, alongside the challenges they experienced as a result of inadequate depth and nuance in them. Lastly, 3. HereâÂÂs the experience, where is the scaffolding? outlines the limitations experienced with practicing online therapy, however, that it also served as an effective pedagogy for telepsychology training and education. Strengths and limitations, possible implications for counselling psychology training and the larger profession and recommendations for future research have also been considered.
Date of Award | 1 Aug 2024 |
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Original language | English |
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Awarding Institution | - The University of Manchester
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Supervisor | Terry Hanley (Supervisor) & Laura Winter (Supervisor) |
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- training
- covid-19
- online therapy
- counselling psychology
Trainee Counselling Psychologists' Experiences of Offering Web-based Therapy During the Covid-19 Pandemic
Jain, S. (Author). 1 Aug 2024
Student thesis: Doctor of Counselling Psychology