A thematic analysis study on psychotherapists’ perceptions of online psychotherapies

The development and growth of technology and internet use has led to the development of a new and increasingly widespread field in psychotherapy practices and mental health interventions other than face-to-face traditional contexts. The purpose of this study is to assess the perceptions and beliefs of psychotherapists regarding online psychotherapy processes, which still have a limited usage and literature background in Turkey. The participants of the present study consisted of 45 psychotherapists working in various provinces of Turkey, of which 39 (86.7%) were female and 6 (13.3%) were male. The obtained data was analyzed using inductive thematic analysis procedure, a qualitative analysis method. According to the findings, perceptions of online psychotherapies of the psychotherapists in our country are grouped under eight different themes. These included 1) online psychotherapy as a worrisome context, 2) online psychotherapy as an inappropriate context, 3) online psychotherapy as a reserve/conditional context, 4) online psychotherapy as a context requiring specialized education and information, 5) online psychotherapy as a context prone to misconduct, 6) online psychotherapy as context prone to problems; 7) online psychotherapy as a context with high accessibility; and 8) online psychotherapy as context not different from face-to-face psychotherapy. The findings indicate that, although psychotherapists are aware of the appropriate and facilitating aspects of online therapies, they still refer intensely to their negative features. These findings provide insights on how psychotherapies, in both practice and research, will change in the future.