ABSTRACT

Telepsychotherapy by videoconference (VC) is an effective way to treat clients over the Internet, yet therapists often report concerns that VC could affect the therapeutic relationship by hindering the perception of nonverbal behaviors such as eye contact. To date, no simple procedure describes the technical adjustments needed to compensate for the unnatural angle between the eye gaze of the participants and the webcam that is pervasive to most commercial VC systems. This article describes the steps towards a practical and inexpensive VC setup that enables eye contact between therapists and clients. Moreover, this setup allows users to choose between two camera framing conditions: a zoomed-out, head-to-waist framing or a zoomed-in, head-to-chest framing. These two setups were tested by four therapist-client dyads in simulated telepsychotherapy sessions. Participants indicated that they preferred the framing condition congruent with their desire to be “closer” or “farther” from their partner, highlighting how their perception of psychological distance was related to the degree of camera zooming in VC. The article provides recommendations for different adaptations that therapists and clients can implement to maximize their experience of telepsychotherapy by VC.

摘要

通过视频会议 (VC) 进行的远程心理治疗是通过 Internet 治疗来访者的有效方式，但治疗师经常报告担心 VC 可能会通过阻碍非语言行为（如眼神交流）的感知来影响治疗关系。迄今为止，还没有简单的程序描述了补偿参与者眼睛注视与大多数商业 VC 系统普遍存在的网络摄像头之间不自然角度所需的技术调整。本文介绍了实现实用且廉价的 VC 设置的步骤，该设置使治疗师和客户之间能够进行眼神交流。此外，此设置允许用户在两​​种相机取景条件之间进行选择：缩小、从头到腰的取景或放大、从头到胸的取景。这两种设置在模拟远程心理治疗课程中由四位治疗师-客户二人组进行了测试。参与者表示，他们更喜欢与他们希望与伴侣“更近”或“更远”一致的取景条件，强调了他们对心理距离的感知与 VC 中相机放大程度的关系。本文为治疗师和客户可以实施的不同适应提供了建议，以最大限度地利用 VC 的远程心理治疗体验。