JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The therapeutic alliance is crucial for the success of face-to-face therapies. Little is known about how coaching functions and fosters the therapeutic alliance in asynchronous treatment modalities, like smartphone apps.

Objective:

To review selected papers to assess how coaching is used in digital mental health

Methods:

We conducted a selected review to gather preliminary data about the role of coaching in mobile technology use for mental health care. We identified 26 trials using Tønning et al.’s 2019 review and Tokgöz et al.’s 2021 scoping review to assess how coaching is currently being utilized across different studies.

Results:

Our results showed a high level of heterogeneity as studies utilized varying types of coaching methods but provided little information about coaching protocols and training. Coaching was feasible by clinicians and non-clinicians, scheduled and on-demand, and across all technologies ranging from phone calls to social media.

Conclusions:

Further research is required to better understand the effects of coaching in mobile mental health treatments but examples offered from reviewed papers suggest several options to implement coaching today. Coaching based on replicable protocols able to be verified for fidelity will enable scaling of this model and better exploration of the digital therapeutic alliance.