Online therapy as a steppingstone : using online mediums to encourage consumers to engage in therapy
SONAR|HES-SO
- Allamand, Coralie
- Harvey, Gareth (Degree supervisor)
- Genève : Haute école de gestion de Genève
67 p.
Bachelor of Science HES in International Business Management: Haute école de gestion de Genève, 2022
English
The non-treatment of mental disorders in the population has a heavy cost in terms of
productivity on the economy and an impact on the general population’s health.
Current literature shows that online therapy is as effective as its in-person counterpart.
It also shows that there are a number of barriers to therapy, including shame, stigma,
low perceived need, and structural barriers like transportation and cost.
The goal of this research is to find out if individuals with a negative or neutral view of
therapy are more likely to choose online therapy in order to encourage them to take the
first step toward treatment through online mediums.
To investigate this question, an online experiment followed by in-depth interviews were
conducted. The experiment consisted of 12 profiles of either mental health apps, online
or in-person psychotherapists. From those, participants had to choose the one they were
more interested in trying therapy with, motivate their answer and communicate which
aspect of the profiles caught their eye.
There was no statistical association between the choice of medium and the opinion of
the participants on therapy. There was however a strong association between a past
experience with therapy and the choice of medium.
Online therapy is seen as a good alternative for people who have difficulties opening up,
do not have time to travel to an office, or in times where social interactions are restricted
like during a pandemic.
Culture, stigma, lack of resources and support during the search for a therapist, and cost
are the most mentioned barriers to therapy. A recurring recommendation is the creation
of an online database with all the necessary information on therapists like name,
address, work experience, therapeutic approach, and medium of choice to make the
search easier.
There is further research to be done on the impact of culture and a past experience with
mental health treatments on barriers to therapy. A possible plan of action is to start
developing an online platform to catalog all therapists from a region to facilitate research.
productivity on the economy and an impact on the general population’s health.
Current literature shows that online therapy is as effective as its in-person counterpart.
It also shows that there are a number of barriers to therapy, including shame, stigma,
low perceived need, and structural barriers like transportation and cost.
The goal of this research is to find out if individuals with a negative or neutral view of
therapy are more likely to choose online therapy in order to encourage them to take the
first step toward treatment through online mediums.
To investigate this question, an online experiment followed by in-depth interviews were
conducted. The experiment consisted of 12 profiles of either mental health apps, online
or in-person psychotherapists. From those, participants had to choose the one they were
more interested in trying therapy with, motivate their answer and communicate which
aspect of the profiles caught their eye.
There was no statistical association between the choice of medium and the opinion of
the participants on therapy. There was however a strong association between a past
experience with therapy and the choice of medium.
Online therapy is seen as a good alternative for people who have difficulties opening up,
do not have time to travel to an office, or in times where social interactions are restricted
like during a pandemic.
Culture, stigma, lack of resources and support during the search for a therapist, and cost
are the most mentioned barriers to therapy. A recurring recommendation is the creation
of an online database with all the necessary information on therapists like name,
address, work experience, therapeutic approach, and medium of choice to make the
search easier.
There is further research to be done on the impact of culture and a past experience with
mental health treatments on barriers to therapy. A possible plan of action is to start
developing an online platform to catalog all therapists from a region to facilitate research.
- Language
-
- English
- Classification
- Economics
- Notes
-
- Haute école de gestion de Genève
- International Business Management
- hesso:hegge
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/321190
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