{"id":2390,"date":"2022-01-12T08:45:56","date_gmt":"2022-01-12T08:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/practicalhealthpsychology.com\/?p=2390"},"modified":"2025-11-04T14:05:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T14:05:07","slug":"carrying-counseling-outside-the-clinic-the-promising-potential-of-mobile-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/practicalhealthpsychology.com\/hu\/2022\/01\/carrying-counseling-outside-the-clinic-the-promising-potential-of-mobile-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"Carrying counseling outside the clinic: The promising potential of mobile technology"},"content":{"rendered":"

Egon Dejonckheere & Peter Kuppens, KU Leuven, Belgium.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many forms of counseling and psychotherapy still predominantly take place within the therapy room. Yet, once patients leave the therapy room, they sometimes struggle to face their challenges, seize opportunities to get better, and implement what they learned in session. <\/span>Evidence shows<\/span><\/a> that <\/span>therapeutic practice can greatly benefit<\/span><\/a> from having direct access to information about what takes place in people\u2019s daily lives. Such information can identify ways to intervene, and effectively close the gap between counseling sessions and real life.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

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Today\u2019s ubiquity of smartphones, activity trackers and other mobile devices opens up exciting opportunities in this regard. It paves the way for counselors to obtain insights into the daily routines of their clients, and complements clients\u2019 recollections of their life in therapy sessions. The use of mobile technology between sessions provides therapists with a direct and continuous stream of information about people\u2019s real-life experiences, and can improve possibilities to intervene therein.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regarding assessment, therapists can use mobile technology to have patients repeatedly report on their momentary experiences of relevant symptoms or personal strengths <\/span>as they happen<\/span><\/i> in daily life. In so-called <\/span>experience sampling platforms,<\/span><\/i> practitioners can design short surveys that are tailored to each client\u2019s specific complaints or needs. When patients complete such surveys, they provide therapists with a fine-grained stream of <\/span>in the moment<\/span><\/i> information about the patient\u2019s life that is less confounded by possible memory biases.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One freely available experience sampling<\/span> platform is <\/span>m-Path<\/span><\/a>, which we developed in recent years. Experience sampling applications like m-Path can be used for counting the frequency of debilitating behaviors (e.g., binge episodes, panic attacks, intrusions or compulsions, self-harm rituals, etc.), detecting temporal patterns (e.g., the client\u2019s depressive feelings typically peak in the morning, but clear up during the day), or getting insight in the antecedents and consequences of one\u2019s complaints (e.g., the client\u2019s anxiety levels typically rise during social interactions). In the role of scientist-practitioner, the therapist can analyze and summarize these data in intuitive graphs and charts prior to a session. During their actual meeting s\/he can feed the established patterns back to the patient. Such an approach allows therapists to refine their diagnoses and <\/span>put the patient\u2019s complaints into context<\/span><\/a>. Likewise, mobile technology also facilitates process monitoring throughout the entire course of therapy. Here, therapists are also able to closely evaluate treatment effects (e.g., <\/span>routine outcome monitoring<\/span><\/i><\/a>), because they receive immediate feedback about the efficacy of their interventions and are able to adjust these in due time in case of a client\u2019s status quo.<\/span><\/p>\n

Therapeutically, mobile technologies may also offer benefits, and these are situated at two levels. First, evaluating, labeling, and reporting about one\u2019s complaints may boost patients\u2019 sense of <\/span>empowerment<\/span><\/a>, as simply paying attention to symptom fluctuations and their causes promotes insight and coping capacity. Similarly, mutually discussing mood or symptom patterns and regularities during counseling sessions may strengthen <\/span>the alliance<\/span><\/a> between the patient and practitioner. Second, the assistance of mobile technology in therapy can also be <\/span>more direct<\/span><\/a>. Mobile and automatic reminders in everyday life about the exercises discussed during a counseling session increase the client\u2019s therapeutic adherence between meetings (e.g., the client gets a daily reminder to complete the discussed relaxation exercises). Moreover, many applications with these so-called <\/span>just-in-time adaptive interventions<\/span><\/i><\/a> also provide evidence-based exercises themselves for a growing variety of psychological complaints (e.g., exposure, breathing exercises, mindfulness clips, etc.). As clients typically carry around their mobile device everywhere they go, they can consult and try-out these exercises with the simple tap of a fingertip. In this way, counselors not only valorize their therapeutic impact beyond the counseling room, they also have real-time info about the use and efficacy of interventions (e.g., do the relaxation exercises actually mitigate the client\u2019s stress levels?).<\/span><\/p>\n

In sum, the assistance of mobile technology in therapy has promising potential, from both the assessment and therapeutic perspectives. In terms of efficacy, real-life assessment via mobile devices provides counselors with detailed case information and allows for continuous progress monitoring. In terms of efficiency, collecting information in daily life creates room for other therapeutic practices within counseling sessions. Similarly, clients can already monitor themselves before actual therapy starts, creating valuable baseline information for clinicians and reducing waiting lists. Regarding therapeutic interventions, many applications are readily available in the app store for everyone to use.\u00a0 Nevertheless, when proposing mobile (self-help) apps to a client, make sure to examine whether they are <\/span>scientifically grounded<\/span><\/a> and comply with applicable privacy regulations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Practical recommendations<\/b><\/p>\n