The measures adopted by governments around the world to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus (e.g., social distancing) have propelled a rapid transition from face-to-face to online therapy. Studies on online individual therapy indicate that therapists often have favorable attitudes toward this modality. To date, there is scant work on couples therapists’ attitudes, despite the fact that the provision of online couples’ therapy poses unique challenges (e.g., dealing with escalating conflict remotely). To provide a snapshot, in real time, as to how therapists experience the transition to online therapy, we surveyed 166 Israeli couples’ therapists during April 2020, when lockdown orders prevented therapists from seeing couples face-to-face. A few weeks later, when the stay-at-home policy was lifted, a subsample (N = 60) of these therapists completed a follow-up assessment. The results suggest that couples therapists had limited experience using the online modality prior to COVID. The therapists reported experiencing online couples’ therapy as somewhat successful and that their experience of providing therapy during the COVID-19 crisis had an overall positive impact on their attitudes toward online work. Establishing a strong therapeutic bond with both partners, dealing with escalating conflict, and treatment dropout were identified as the issues of most concern when conducting online couples therapy. The perceived difficulties with online therapy prospectively predicted lower usage of online couples’ therapy, as well as less intention to continue online treatment once the crisis is over.

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COVID-19 危机期间夫妻治疗师对在线治疗的态度


世界各国政府为控制 COVID-19 病毒传播而采取的措施（例如社交距离）推动了从面对面治疗到在线治疗的快速转变。对在线个体治疗的研究表明，治疗师通常对这种方式持积极态度。迄今为止，尽管提供在线夫妻治疗带来了独特的挑战（例如，远程处理不断升级的冲突），但关于夫妻治疗师态度的工作还很少。为了实时了解治疗师如何体验向在线治疗的过渡，我们在 2020 年 4 月期间对 166 名以色列夫妇的治疗师进行了调查，当时封锁令导致治疗师无法面对面见到夫妇。几周后，当居家政策取消时，这些治疗师的子样本（ N = 60）完成了后续评估。结果表明，在新冠疫情之前，夫妻治疗师使用在线方式的经验有限。治疗师报告说，在线夫妻治疗取得了一定的成功，他们在 COVID-19 危机期间提供治疗的经验对他们对在线工作的态度产生了总体积极的影响。与双方建立牢固的治疗联系、处理不断升级的冲突和治疗中途退出被认为是进行在线夫妻治疗时最关心的问题。在线治疗的感知困难前瞻性地预示着在线夫妻治疗的使用率会降低，并且危机结束后继续在线治疗的意愿也会降低。