Evaluations issued by Members of the Psychology Profession in Costa Rica on their Therapeutic Skills and Techniques for Practicing Individual Clinical Psychotherapy by means of Information and Communication Technologies During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22544/rcps.v42i01.04

Keywords:

Best Practices, Therapy-oriented Telepsychology, Therapist Skills, Virtualization in Psychotherapy

Abstract

During the COVID-19 Pandemic, the virtualization of psychological care grew rapidly in Costa Rica, parallel to the expansion of regulation for this modality in the Colegio de Profesionales en Psicología de Costa Rica. The objective of this article is to identify the appraisals of Costa Rican psychology professionals regarding their abilities to practice individual clinical psychotherapy by means of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Through the completion of a self-administered online questionnaire, professionals were consulted about the strategies, tools and skills that they put into play during the use of ICTs in their psychotherapeutic practice, narrating deeply important experiences, presenting key learnings and above all, making visible the absence of a consensus and clarity regarding the best practices for use in this modality. The main recommendation emanating from this process is to promote to the maximum continuing-education on the topic of therapist skills, especially those that may not be used regularly during a remote consultation, such as observation and comprehensive clinical examination.

Author Biography

Jose Andrés González Miranda, Colegio de Profesionales en Psicología de Costa Rica. San José, Costa Rica.

Bachelor of Psychology from the University of Costa Rica with experience in scientific research in clinical projects on neuropsychology, as well as in educational evaluation and psychometrics, in public and private research institutes. Currently, he works as Prosecutor's Office in the College of Professionals in Psychology of Costa Rica. He has participated as a speaker in national and international conferences on issues related to telepsychology and the professional practice of psychology. He has collaborated with Spanish teams of Scientific Psychology and with professionals of Agronomic Sciences in projects on the human-animal bond.

References

Acero, P., Cabas, K., Caycedo, C., Figueroa, P., Patrick, G., & Rudas, M. (2020). Telepsicología: Sugerencias para la Formación y el Desempeño Profesional Responsable. Asociación Colombiana de Facultades de Psicología.

American Psychological Association. (2013). Guidelines for the Practice of Telepsychology. American Psychologist, 9(68), 791-800.

American Psychological Association. (2021). Telepsychology Best Practice 101 Series, Continuing Education in Psychology. https://apa.content.online/catalog/product.xhtml?eid=15132

Alharbe, N. (2021). Security and Privacy of telehealth Apps in the Era of COVID-19 Pandemic: Saudi Arabia Perspective. The 23rd International Conference on Information Integration and Web Intelligence, 23(1), 467-472.

Argüello, A., Cervantes, S., Martínez, J., Alva, N., de Santos, F., Espinosa, I., Parra, L., Aguirre, A., Gómez, J., Díaz, D., López, I., & Bautista, R. (2020). Guía de Atención Psicológica Virtual para Personas de Grupos Vulnerables en Crisis por la Pandemia Covid-19. Universidad Autónoma de Nayarit.

Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. (2020). Telehealth Guidance for Practitioners. Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency y National Boards.

Backhaus, A., Agha, Z., Maglione, M. L., Repp, A., Ross, B., Zuest, D., Rice-Thorp, N. M., Lohr, J., & Thorp, S. R. (2012). Videoconferencing psychotherapy: A systematic review. Psychological Services, 9(2), 111-131.

Campbell, L. F., Millán, F., & Martin, J. N. (2018). A telepsychology casebook: Using technology ethically and effectively in your professional practice. American Psychological Association.

Colegio de Profesionales en Psicología de Costa Rica. (2018). Estadísticas, Estatus de Colegiado. https://psicologiacr.com/estadisticas-estatus-de-colegiado

Colegio de Profesionales en Psicología de Costa Rica. (2020a). Lineamientos del Colegio de Profesionales en Psicología de Costa Rica para el uso de la Psicología en Línea.

Colegio de Profesionales en Psicología de Costa Rica. (2020b). Servicios de Telepsicología durante la Emergencia Nacional Sanitaria por el COVID-19.

Colegio Oficial de Psicología Castilla y León. (2019). Aproximación a la Telepsicología.

Collegi Oficial de Psicología de Catalunya. (2020). Recomendaciones para Ejercer la Telepsicología.

Farkas, C., Santelices, M., & Martínez, V. (2020). Telepsicología en Infancia en Tiempos de Covid-19. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

Fernández, J., & Fernández, H. (2021). Videoconferencing Psychotherapy During the Pandemic: Exceptional Times With Enduring Effects? Frontiers in Psychology, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.589536

Fiene, S., Stark, K., Kreiner, D., & Walker, T. (2019). Evaluating Telehealth Websites for Information Consistent with APA Guidelines for Telepsychology. Journal of Technology in Human Services, 38(2), 91-111. https://doi.org/10.1080/15228835.2019.1702138

Hernández, R., Fernández, C., & Baptista, M. (2014). Metodología de la Investigación. McGraw-Hill.

Martin, J. N., Millán, F., & Campbell, L. F. (2020). Telepsychology practice: Primer and first steps. Practice Innovations, 5(2), 114-127.

McCord, C., Bernhard, P., Walsh, M., Rosner, C., & Console, K. (2020). A consolidated model for telepsychology practice. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 76(6), 1060-1082.

Observatorio para la Sociedad de la Información en Latinoamérica y el Caribe. (2004). El estado de las estadísticas sobre Sociedad de la Información en los Institutos Nacionales de Estadística de América Latina y el Caribe. CEPAL/ICA.

Reese, R. J., Mecham, M. R., Vasilj, I., Lengerich, A. J., Brown, H. M., Simpson, N. B., & Newsome, B. D. (2016). The effects of telepsychology format on empathic accuracy and the therapeutic alliance: An analogue counselling session. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 16(4), 256-265.

Rodríguez, D., Torres, L., & Rodríguez, L. (2019). Telesalud y telepsicología. Konrad Lorenz Editores.

Sánchez, E. (2008). Las tecnologías de información y comunicación (TIC) desde una perspectiva social. Revista Electrónica Educare, 1(8), 155-162. http://dx.doi.org/10.15359/ree.12-Ext.13

Sánchez, R., & Sánchez, C. (2018). Uso de las TIC como herramienta de desarrollo humano en la educación media superior. Debates en Evaluación y Currículum, 3(3). https://centrodeinvestigacioneducativauatx.org/publicacion/pdf2017/C045.pdf

Thompson, A., & Kramer, U. (2020). Work with emotions in remote psychotherapy in the time of Covid-19: a clinical experience. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 34(3-4), 368-376. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515070.2020.1770696

Downloads

Published

2023-06-30

How to Cite

González Miranda, J. A. (2023). Evaluations issued by Members of the Psychology Profession in Costa Rica on their Therapeutic Skills and Techniques for Practicing Individual Clinical Psychotherapy by means of Information and Communication Technologies During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Costa Rican Journal of Psychology, 42(1), 65–80. https://doi.org/10.22544/rcps.v42i01.04

Issue

Vol. 42 No. 1 (2023): Psychology and Social Cognition: Latin American contributions of applied research in the framework of social cognition

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Costa Rican Journal of Psychology

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

El Colegio, como institución editora, tiene todos los derechos reservados (copyright) sobre lo que se publica en la revista.  Los autores y las autoras firman una declaración de cesión de derechos de autoría en el caso de aceptación de sus manuscritos para publicación en la revista, conforme con lo establecido en la legislación vigente.  

Los artículos publicados representarán el punto de vista de su autoría y no de la revista, por lo que la autoría asume responsabilidad ante cualquier litigio o reclamación relacionada con derechos de propiedad intelectual y exonera de cualquier responsabilidad a la Revista Costarricense de Psicología y al Colegio.  

La revista publicará en cada edición su política de acceso abierto (p.ej., Creative Commons).  El material publicado en la revista puede ser copiado, fotocopiado, duplicado y compartido siempre y cuando sea expresamente atribuido al Colegio.  El material de la revista no puede ser usado para fines comerciales.