Improving Patient Mental Health With Psychotherapist Virtual Training

Improving Patient Mental Health With Psychotherapist Virtual Training: A Practice- Research Network Study

Several types of psychotherapy are equally effective to treat mental disorders. However, many patients remain symptomatic after treatment. The investigators demonstrated that a professional development training program to improve psychotherapists' skills at identifying and repairing therapeutic alliance tensions resulted in improved therapeutic alliance (an important therapeutic ingredient) and patient mental health outcomes. However, the investigators delivered this training program by conventional in-person workshops which limited access by psychotherapists living outside large urban centres. Further, post-study interviews with therapists suggested that cultural/diversity factors complicated the therapeutic alliance.

In the current study, the investigators will test the effectiveness and acceptability of a virtually-delivered training program to psychotherapists in North America to improve their capacity to identify and repair problems in the therapeutic alliance, including tensions related to patient diversity. The investigators will also examine how acceptable the virtually-delivered training is to psychotherapists and whether they would use such training in their practice. Participants in the study will be community-based licensed psychotherapists and their patients engaging in therapy in North America. Patient mental health outcomes, therapeutic alliance, and diversity issues will be assessed by comparing outcome measures between three groups: 1) therapists complete a self-paced virtual course + consultation, 2) therapists complete synchronous workshop + consultation, 3) control: therapists do not complete training.

The team of investigators developed Canada's largest psychotherapy practice-research network and has expertise in clinical trials, diversity, and education research of virtual training. State of the art training is often out of the reach of therapists who live outside of urban centres, and the effectiveness and acceptability of providing training virtually is not well-studied in mental health care. This study will improve psychotherapists' effectiveness at managing the therapeutic alliance and issues related to diversity, and will improve patient mental health outcomes thus promising to reduce the burden of mental illness.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Therapist participants: The investigators will recruit mental health professionals who deliver psychotherapy in North American community settings; inclusion criteria: therapists are in good standing with their provincial or state regulatory college, their scope of practice includes individual psychotherapy for adults in North America; they are able to accept a minimum of 3 new participating patients into their current practice to conduct 6 consecutive therapy sessions via a secure, PHIPA compliant virtual meeting platform.
• Patient Participants: Adults (> 18 years) residing in Canada or the United States who want to engage in therapy with a study therapist or who have recently sought services from a study therapist; inclusion criteria: have participated in fewer than 3 sessions with their study therapist and anticipate being able to see their study therapist for 6 sessions over the next 6 months.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Therapist participants: The investigators will exclude therapists who are employed by an organization if the investigators cannot obtain organizational approval from their employer or coordinate data collection from an alternate virtual platform in instances where the employing organization does not permit the use of the study platform. Therapists will also be excluded if they have completed professional development workshop after 2017 with PPRNet.
• Patient participants: The investigators will exclude patients if they: (a) have a psychotic or neurocognitive disorder that may preclude engagement in psychotherapy, (b) are in concurrent psychological treatment with another practitioner, (c) are at high risk of suicide or suicidal behaviors as assessed by their therapist (e.g., suicide attempt or hospitalization for suicidal behaviors in the past 6 months), or (d) for whom the therapist judge that approaching them with information about the study will be harmful.