Etherapy: A Training Program for Development of Clinical Skills in Distance Psychotherapy

This article describes a project by the Virtual Teaching and Cyberpsychology Laboratory of the National Autonomous University of Mexico developed to (1) implement a teaching program for clinical psychology students to learn therapeutic skills in providing online psychological services; (2) evaluate the students' acquisition of knowledge and skills in diagnosis via the Internet, case formulation of treatment, and adherence to treatment protocols; and (3) incorporate technologies for creating training settings and online professional services in order to develop the students' clinical competency in this treatment modality. A pilot study was conducted with 17 clinical psychology students in the first phase of the teaching program and 6 students during the second phase. Preliminary results indicate that students increased knowledge of Internet-based clinical interventions and improved in clinical skills. It is necessary to continue the evaluation of the teaching program with larger samples, and further research is suggested.