Design Opportunities Tracking Related Cues to Support Remote Psychotherapy

Remote psychotherapy has been growing rapidly. Despite its increasing prevalence, it presents challenges such as privacy concerns, technological familiarity, and interaction blockers. Most significantly, it often compromises the therapeutic alliance—a key factor in effective psychotherapy—due to a lack of non-verbal cues and a perceived distance between client and therapist. This research aims to address these challenges through the integration of sensor tracking systems, which offer the potential to improve online interactions and support a stronger therapeutic alliance. We begin by exploring the opportunities and challenges of deploying sensor-tracking systems in remote psychotherapy, through qualitative analysis of interviews, card-sorting activities, and co-design sessions with 9 clients and 10 therapists. We subsequently propose a sensor-based remote psychotherapy platform, informed by the findings from these activities. Finally, we ran a user testing session conducted with 7 clients and 3 therapists to evaluate the feasibility of our proposal. This work offers insights into the deployment of sensor-tracking systems in remote psychotherapy, presenting valuable directions for enhancing the therapeutic alliance and overall experience for both clients and therapists.

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Department dc:contributor.department

Industrial Design

Grantor dc:publisher

Georgia Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Gao, Lan

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Aflatoony, Leila

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Purdy, Timothy G.
• Wilson, Wendell G.

• Pervasive Sensing
• Remote Psychotherapy
• Digital Health
• Health Informatics
• Computer-Mediated Communication

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1853/72717

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.gatech.edu:1853/72717