Therapist's perception on the use of videogames by their patients

JOAQUÍN ASIAIN; ANDRÉS J. ROUSSOS

Buenos Aires

Congreso; 50th Annual International Meeting of the Society for Psychotherapy Research July 3-6, 2019. Buenos Aires, Argentina; 2019

Society for Psychotherapy Research

Aim. Using new information and communication technologies is now cheaper, more accessible and already a visible phenomenon that concerns mental health professionals. There are plenty forms of technology applied to psychotherapy worldwide, such as guided or unguided self-help and virtual reality exposure therapy. There is a remarkable lack of knowledge regarding the use of videogames and its role in psychotherapy. Despite this, The World Health Organization (2018) added Gaming Addiction Disorder to the ICD-11. This study seeks to explore how psychotherapists perceive their patients' use of videogames. Methods. Psychotherapists will be contacted via email following the snowball method. After completing a consent form they will be interviewed face-to-face or via videocall. Interviewees will also be asked about their opinion regarding advantages, disadvantages and challenges of incorporating video games as tools into psychotherapy practice. Data collected will be analyzed using Thematic Analysis (Braun et al. 2018). Results. Preliminary results are presented and discussed. Discussion. Research on this field is scarce, existing literature mainly focus on potentially negative effects of the use of videogames on the user, but there have been highlights indicating potentially positive effects. Is the patient's use of videogames relevant to his or her therapist? We argue that it should be relevant, and look forward to explore the current state of affairs. Keywords: psychotherapy, technology, videogames, therapist perception