Synchronous digital couple and family psychotherapy: a meta‐narrative review

Abstract

Objective: Our objective was to identify, review and synthesise the findings of articles regarding the practice of synchronous digital couple and family psycho-therapy over the past three decades. Methods: A meta-narrative approach was adopted. Results: Thirty-one papers were identified for inclusion in the review, including nine descriptions of practice and 22 empirical studies. Conclusions: Findings show that practitioners have used synchronous digital technologies in their work over decades. Psychoeducative and cognitive- behaviourally oriented hybrid, self-directed synchronous family and couple psychotherapeutic interventions have been found to be feasible, effective with diverse populations, are associated with good user satisfaction, and are found to have similar clinical outcomes to in-person psychotherapy. Further research is required.