Assessing presence in videconference telepsychotherapies: A complementary qualitative study on breaks in telepresence and intersubjectivity co-construction processes

Assessing the efficacy of online psychotherapies is an important issue in eHealth. In the present research, we used an innovative approach to focus on the characteristics of breaks in interactions that impact the acceptance of the psychotherapy setting of a telepsychotherapy delivered in videoconference. We also tried to build a method to assess if the level of telepresence in online interactions would be influenced by the acceptance of the psychotherapy setting. Sessions of psychotherapy delivered in videoconference to two adults receiving CBT and two others receiving psychodynamic psychotherapy were analyzed to test the method. In this paper, we describe the methodology and illustrate preliminary results. An interactional grid was used to analyze verbal and non-verbal interactions, physical and social presence, and breaks in acceptance of the telepsychotherapy setting. This led to observe the interactional process of construction of enonciative co-presence, fundamental to allow people to experience intersubjectivity. This study is the first step towards a better understanding of the level of acceptance of the technological setting by patients and its influence on the interactions between them and psychologists.