Psicoter-APP-ia: presencia, fonciòn y rol de las App en la clinica psicoterapéutica

Abstract

Systemic therapists have always been attentive to changes in the social and life context of their patients. Use of telephone, e-mail, SMS, whatsapp is by now an established practice for any psychotherapist.

Besides these commonly used devices, there are more, like Apps, that can be employed within a therapeutic relationship. Use of all these resources anyway is not without consequences on the patient-therapist relationship: from the standpoint of systemic therapists there is an implied relational level even in long distance communication because written communication and a limited number of characters do not transfer only data, but also implicit emotional and relational elements.

Given the premise that it is practically impossible today to maintain a relationship without the use of internet and smartphones, it becomes necessary to question the ways in which the online space can become a useful extension of the therapeutic setting.

Technology can be of great help to clinicians and the rapid evolution of digital innovation, accentuated by the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, has aroused further interest in the study of a new variable that increasingly intersects with patients' stories: the use of Apps.

Through the study of data derived from a qualitative research based on a specifically designed questionnaire addressed to psychotherapists recruited on social media  and their confrontation with the authors’ own clinical experience, many ways are identified by which  different Apps can play an important role in the therapeutic context, becoming  powerful means of access to the patients’ world.

The article explores the use of tools, such as software and applications, which enable therapists and patient to contact outside of the traditional setting but also take into therapy space and time bits of real, not only related, interactions with other significant people, by means for example of messages sent and received, photos, music…

The authors describe how Apps make it possible to modernize the traditional technique of introducing an absent person in the therapy session, not only by related accounts or fantasy or an empty chair, but directly by messages and photos and by Apps of dating or music.

The use of Apps can prove to be a powerful relational tool, capable of allowing competent and flexible therapists to access the narrative dimension of individuals, including children and adolescents, and their families. Results of the qualitative investigation illustrate what Apps, how often and by whose initiative enter therapy; the description by Authors  of some of their own experience in clinical cases involving use of different Apps makes it possible to integrate results of the qualitative research exemplifying in a more specific way the role Apps can play in the therapeutic interaction and relationship. Related examples illustrate specifically presence and use in therapy of Apps for messaging, for videoconferences, for music, for gaming and dating, Finally, some risks of Apps potentially interfering with therapy are illustrated by the inclusion, by initiative of a mother, of therapists in a family group of an App for messaging titled Emergency!