The Virtues of Telehealth in Conducting Systematic Desensitization

This paper overviews the current options available via telehealth technology to administer online exposure therapy and discusses the ways in which providers must familiarize themselves with online technologies to remotely provide psychotherapy services. The response to the COVID-19 Pandemic has elucidated the need for and merit of telehealth-delivered psychotherapy. Given the growing need for online psychotherapy, providers need to acquire new skills and adapt their intervention methodologies. The paper also looks at a particular type of behavioral intervention, exposure therapy, and discusses the theoretical basis of the intervention, as well as ways in which online services can accommodate this intervention type. The paper then introduces a psychotherapy case example of virtual systematic desensitization therapy administered to a patient via telehealth. The paper concludes with a discussion of the merits and drawbacks of utilizing online platforms to administer exposure treatments and proposes further research in relevant areas of study