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Exploring the Question: “Does Empathy Work in the Same Way in Online and In-Person Therapeutic Settings?”

Providing remote psychotherapy using technology is a growing practice, especially since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even if in numerous studies video conferencing psychotherapy (VCP) was found to be clinically effective, some doubts continue to exist about how the psychotherapeutic allian...

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Autores principales: Sperandeo, Raffaele, Cioffi, Valeria, Mosca, Lucia Luciana, Longobardi, Teresa, Moretto, Enrico, Alfano, Yari Mirko, Scandurra, Cristiano, Muzii, Benedetta, Cantone, Daniela, Guerriera, Carmela, Architravo, Marco, Maldonato, Nelson Mauro
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8490728/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34621207
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.671790
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author Sperandeo, Raffaele
Cioffi, Valeria
Mosca, Lucia Luciana
Longobardi, Teresa
Moretto, Enrico
Alfano, Yari Mirko
Scandurra, Cristiano
Muzii, Benedetta
Cantone, Daniela
Guerriera, Carmela
Architravo, Marco
Maldonato, Nelson Mauro
author_facet Sperandeo, Raffaele
Cioffi, Valeria
Mosca, Lucia Luciana
Longobardi, Teresa
Moretto, Enrico
Alfano, Yari Mirko
Scandurra, Cristiano
Muzii, Benedetta
Cantone, Daniela
Guerriera, Carmela
Architravo, Marco
Maldonato, Nelson Mauro
author_sort Sperandeo, Raffaele
collection PubMed
description Providing remote psychotherapy using technology is a growing practice, especially since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even if in numerous studies video conferencing psychotherapy (VCP) was found to be clinically effective, some doubts continue to exist about how the psychotherapeutic alliance works in the online setting, and the characteristics of the empathic process are still poorly understood. This is an exploratory study aimed at analyzing the degree of empathy between the psychotherapist and client pair, and the degree of support perceived by the client who shall be referred to as the patient interchangeably in this study, comparing the sessions in person with those online, during the current pandemic, in order to discriminate the impact of empathy in the digital setting. The sample analyzed was composed of 23 patients with different severity of pathology engaged in online and in-person therapeutic sessions with five psychotherapists of different theoretical leanings. The scores of the support and empathy scale, obtained by both members of the psychotherapeutic couple in the two settings, were analyzed and compared. The test used belongs to an Italian adaptation of the Empathic Understanding (EU) of the Relationship Inventory. What emerged from comparing the scores was interesting: Unlike the psychotherapists, the patients perceived their therapists as significantly more empathic and supportive in the remote setting. These are rather important data, because the literature documents that client empathic perception measures represent a more accurate measure of the empathic relationship and, in general, can predict a good treatment outcome. Although these results need further investigation, they represent an important contribution in filling the scientific gap in the understanding of digital empathy. Also, this study provides new insights for future research on the characteristics and impact empathy has on the practice of remote psychotherapy.
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spelling pubmed-84907282021-10-06 Exploring the Question: “Does Empathy Work in the Same Way in Online and In-Person Therapeutic Settings?” Sperandeo, Raffaele Cioffi, Valeria Mosca, Lucia Luciana Longobardi, Teresa Moretto, Enrico Alfano, Yari Mirko Scandurra, Cristiano Muzii, Benedetta Cantone, Daniela Guerriera, Carmela Architravo, Marco Maldonato, Nelson Mauro Front Psychol Psychology Providing remote psychotherapy using technology is a growing practice, especially since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even if in numerous studies video conferencing psychotherapy (VCP) was found to be clinically effective, some doubts continue to exist about how the psychotherapeutic alliance works in the online setting, and the characteristics of the empathic process are still poorly understood. This is an exploratory study aimed at analyzing the degree of empathy between the psychotherapist and client pair, and the degree of support perceived by the client who shall be referred to as the patient interchangeably in this study, comparing the sessions in person with those online, during the current pandemic, in order to discriminate the impact of empathy in the digital setting. The sample analyzed was composed of 23 patients with different severity of pathology engaged in online and in-person therapeutic sessions with five psychotherapists of different theoretical leanings. The scores of the support and empathy scale, obtained by both members of the psychotherapeutic couple in the two settings, were analyzed and compared. The test used belongs to an Italian adaptation of the Empathic Understanding (EU) of the Relationship Inventory. What emerged from comparing the scores was interesting: Unlike the psychotherapists, the patients perceived their therapists as significantly more empathic and supportive in the remote setting. These are rather important data, because the literature documents that client empathic perception measures represent a more accurate measure of the empathic relationship and, in general, can predict a good treatment outcome. Although these results need further investigation, they represent an important contribution in filling the scientific gap in the understanding of digital empathy. Also, this study provides new insights for future research on the characteristics and impact empathy has on the practice of remote psychotherapy. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-09-21 /pmc/articles/PMC8490728/ /pubmed/34621207 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.671790 Text en Copyright © 2021 Sperandeo, Cioffi, Mosca, Longobardi, Moretto, Alfano, Scandurra, Muzii, Cantone, Guerriera, Architravo and Maldonato. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Sperandeo, Raffaele
Cioffi, Valeria
Mosca, Lucia Luciana
Longobardi, Teresa
Moretto, Enrico
Alfano, Yari Mirko
Scandurra, Cristiano
Muzii, Benedetta
Cantone, Daniela
Guerriera, Carmela
Architravo, Marco
Maldonato, Nelson Mauro
Exploring the Question: “Does Empathy Work in the Same Way in Online and In-Person Therapeutic Settings?”
title Exploring the Question: “Does Empathy Work in the Same Way in Online and In-Person Therapeutic Settings?”
title_full Exploring the Question: “Does Empathy Work in the Same Way in Online and In-Person Therapeutic Settings?”
title_fullStr Exploring the Question: “Does Empathy Work in the Same Way in Online and In-Person Therapeutic Settings?”
title_full_unstemmed Exploring the Question: “Does Empathy Work in the Same Way in Online and In-Person Therapeutic Settings?”
title_short Exploring the Question: “Does Empathy Work in the Same Way in Online and In-Person Therapeutic Settings?”
title_sort exploring the question: “does empathy work in the same way in online and in-person therapeutic settings?”
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8490728/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34621207
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.671790
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