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Couple and family therapists’ experiences with Telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic: a phenomenological analysis

In designing this study, we aimed to obtain a rich, phenomenological understanding of the experiences of couple and family therapists who transitioned their practice to telehealth due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Twelve experienced therapists from the U.S., Spain and Australia were interviewed in depth...

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Autores principales: Orlowski, Edmund W., Friedlander, Myrna L., Megale, Allison, Peterson, Emily K., Anderson, Shayne R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer US 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8978774/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35400810
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10591-022-09640-x
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author Orlowski, Edmund W.
Friedlander, Myrna L.
Megale, Allison
Peterson, Emily K.
Anderson, Shayne R.
author_facet Orlowski, Edmund W.
Friedlander, Myrna L.
Megale, Allison
Peterson, Emily K.
Anderson, Shayne R.
author_sort Orlowski, Edmund W.
collection PubMed
description In designing this study, we aimed to obtain a rich, phenomenological understanding of the experiences of couple and family therapists who transitioned their practice to telehealth due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Twelve experienced therapists from the U.S., Spain and Australia were interviewed in depth about their experiences of this transition, particularly how they developed and maintained therapeutic alliances in a virtual context with couples and families suffering pandemic-related hardships. The qualitative analysis identified 40 themes reflecting participants’ initial impressions of telehealth and their positive and negative reactions and adjustments to practicing remotely. Upon overcoming some initial wariness about providing services virtually, many participants described advantages to this way of working with families. Indeed, participants were creative in adjusting to this novel therapy modality, finding new ways to connect emotionally with their clients, to work meaningfully with children, to assess in-session dynamics, and to ensure their clients’ privacy and safety. Notably, several participants commented on the relatively slower development of alliances with new cases and the challenge of repairing split alliances between family members. Many of these difficulties were described as due to having minimal access to their clients’ raw emotions and the inability to use typical systemic interventions, such as moving family members around physically. Participants also reflected on being a “participant observer” to the upheaval caused by the pandemic, a distressing experience they shared with the families in their care.
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spelling pubmed-89787742022-04-05 Couple and family therapists’ experiences with Telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic: a phenomenological analysis Orlowski, Edmund W. Friedlander, Myrna L. Megale, Allison Peterson, Emily K. Anderson, Shayne R. Contemp Fam Ther Original Paper In designing this study, we aimed to obtain a rich, phenomenological understanding of the experiences of couple and family therapists who transitioned their practice to telehealth due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Twelve experienced therapists from the U.S., Spain and Australia were interviewed in depth about their experiences of this transition, particularly how they developed and maintained therapeutic alliances in a virtual context with couples and families suffering pandemic-related hardships. The qualitative analysis identified 40 themes reflecting participants’ initial impressions of telehealth and their positive and negative reactions and adjustments to practicing remotely. Upon overcoming some initial wariness about providing services virtually, many participants described advantages to this way of working with families. Indeed, participants were creative in adjusting to this novel therapy modality, finding new ways to connect emotionally with their clients, to work meaningfully with children, to assess in-session dynamics, and to ensure their clients’ privacy and safety. Notably, several participants commented on the relatively slower development of alliances with new cases and the challenge of repairing split alliances between family members. Many of these difficulties were described as due to having minimal access to their clients’ raw emotions and the inability to use typical systemic interventions, such as moving family members around physically. Participants also reflected on being a “participant observer” to the upheaval caused by the pandemic, a distressing experience they shared with the families in their care. Springer US 2022-04-04 2022 /pmc/articles/PMC8978774/ /pubmed/35400810 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10591-022-09640-x Text en © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2022 This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Orlowski, Edmund W.
Friedlander, Myrna L.
Megale, Allison
Peterson, Emily K.
Anderson, Shayne R.
Couple and family therapists’ experiences with Telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic: a phenomenological analysis
title Couple and family therapists’ experiences with Telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic: a phenomenological analysis
title_full Couple and family therapists’ experiences with Telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic: a phenomenological analysis
title_fullStr Couple and family therapists’ experiences with Telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic: a phenomenological analysis
title_full_unstemmed Couple and family therapists’ experiences with Telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic: a phenomenological analysis
title_short Couple and family therapists’ experiences with Telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic: a phenomenological analysis
title_sort couple and family therapists’ experiences with telehealth during the covid-19 pandemic: a phenomenological analysis
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8978774/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35400810
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10591-022-09640-x
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