Emotional Awareness and Decision-Making in the Context of Computer-Mediated Psychotherapy.

Abstract

Emotional awareness has been previously investigated among clinicians. In this work, we bring to the fore of research the interest to uncover emotional awareness of clinicians during the tele-mental health session. The study reported here aimed at determining whether clinicians process their own emotions, as well as those of the client, in a computer-mediated context. Also, clinicians' decision-making process was assessed because such action appears to be related to the way they feel and recognise how those emotions may change their thinking and impact their interaction with clients. We estimated that such ability in clinicians' would be contrasted when the psychotherapy-session level is conducted via various technologies. Participant of the study were presented by stimuli in different modes of delivery (e.g. text, audio, and video). The experiment indicates that the ability to manage, perceive, and utilise emotions was as being satisfactory during all modes of delivery. In essence, the findings contribute to the field of remote therapy suggesting emotional awareness as a key cognitive factor in diagnosis.