Systemic Psychotherapy-informed Self-help and Paraprofessional Training in a Naturalistic Setting

Gunther Meinlschmidt

Status: Completed

Conditions: Psychological Distress

Treatments: Behavioral: Systemic Psychotherapy-informed Listener Training; Behavioral: Systemic Psychotherapy-informed Growth Path

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06017414

IPU_ST_2023_05

Details and patient eligibility

About

The main goal of this project is to address several gaps in the current literature in an exploratory way, by generating data via a synthesized research design. There are three fields of research this project seeks to have a meaningful impact on: the digital implementation of systemic psychotherapy-informed principles and approaches into unguided self-help growth paths, the training of paraprofessional mental health service providers with systemic psychotherapy-informed listener training, and the utilization of paraprofessional mental health service providers in the delivery of online guided systemic psychotherapy-informed self-help interventions.

This impact will be derived from addressing the following research questions:

• Are online self-help interventions based on systemic psychotherapy approaches and principles feasible?
• Are online self-help interventions based on systemic psychotherapy approaches and principles efficacious (as compared to a waitlist), indicated by mental-health-related outcomes of participants?
• Is training of paraprofessionals in guiding the use of self-help interventions based on systemic psychotherapy approaches and principles feasible?
• Is this training of paraprofessionals based on systemic psychotherapy approaches and principles efficacious (as compared to a waitlist), indicated by mental-health-related outcomes of trainees?

Full description

A comprehensive systematic review was published showing the efficacy and effectiveness of Systemic Psychotherapy in treating the most common psychological disorders. It is important to critically evaluate Systemic Psychotherapy to identify the most promising paths forward. One such promising path lies in online self-help interventions (OSIs). OSIs can be broadly divided into guided and unguided modes of self-help, with the former showing better efficacy than the latter. This distinction notwithstanding, unguided OSIs have been shown to be effective in the treatment of anxiety, depression, the prevention of suicides, and numerous other psychological disorders and conditions. From a public health perspective, OSIs are particularly interesting as they promise to address several obstacles to conventional mental health care provision and harness patients' capacities for self-help. Additionally, their scalability might facilitate the provision of services to target groups that could otherwise not be reached. Platforms such as "7 Cups" (https://www.7cups.com), which provides OSIs (called Growth Paths), text-based paraprofessional peer support, paraprofessional training (called Listener Training), and signposting to professional services, have been identified as particularly effective in incorporating this approach. Platforms such as 7 Cups, whose peer support programme has received some attention, warrant further scrutiny. While it is acknowledged as an important part of improving access to mental health care globally, there is only one published study on an OSI explicitly incorporating methods and techniques associated with Systemic Psychotherapy and no studies examining paraprofessional training in a widely accessible online platform such as 7 Cups. This exploratory study aims to make a timely and meaningful contribution towards the gaps in the current literature.

Enrollment: 222 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Have been signed up on the 7Cups platform as a member or listener for a minimum of 3 months.
• The intended 7Cups member is "anyone who wants to talk about whatever is on their mind" and the intended 7Cups listener is anyone who does the basic training and "wants to listen to members" (https://www.7cups.com/about/), including given consent to data use.
• Have actively used the 7Cups platform as a member or listener by logging into the platform at least once in the last 2 weeks.
• Agree to participate in our study and provide consent to data usage.
• Aged 18 years or above.
• English language (sufficient capacity to interact with the 7Cups platform and participate in the assessments).

Exclusion criteria

• Refusal to consent with data use.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

---

222 participants in 4 patient groups

Growth Path Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

Participants for this arm are members of the 7 Cups platform (signed up as 'members', but not signed up as 'listeners') who will receive the Systemic Psychotherapy-informed growth path intervention.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Systemic Psychotherapy-informed Growth Path

Waitlist followed by Growth Path Intervention

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants for this arm are members of the 7 Cups platform (signed up as 'members', but not signed up as 'listeners'). The waitlist comparator condition has 7 Cups access and use as usual during the waitlist period. Participants will receive access to the Systemic Psychotherapy-informed growth path intervention after the waitlist condition of 7 weeks is completed.

Listener Training Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

Participants for this arm are listeners on the 7 Cups platform (signed up as 'listeners', but not signed up as 'members') who will receive the Systemic Psychotherapy-informed listener training intervention.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Systemic Psychotherapy-informed Listener Training

Waitlist followed by Listener Training Intervention

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants for this arm are listeners on the 7 Cups platform (signed up as 'listeners', but not signed up as 'members'). The waitlist comparator condition has 7 Cups access and use as usual during the waitlist period. Participants will receive access to the Systemic Psychotherapy-informed listener training intervention after the waitlist condition of 7 weeks is completed.