Find out more about this survey published on the Cercle Psy website.

Psychologists’ practices are changing and shaping, in line with collective needs and the development of communication techniques. What will tomorrow’s psychologists be doing? What difficulties will they face?

Home psychologist, street psychologist, Internet psychologist, telephone psychologist, psychologist in the field of public transport, sport, the elderly, new technologies, road safety. ..  » Societal change has led to a multiplication of the fields of intervention for psychologists. Societal evolution has led to a proliferation of fields of intervention for psychologists, » analyzes Patrick Cohen, occupational psychologist and communications officer at the FFPP[i]. The profession is taking unprecedented turns, surprising even the most conservative. Psychology is becoming more widespread, more democratic, closer to the everyday lives of the general public.  » While the substance of the psychologist’s profession has remained semantically constant over the decades, the form of his or her work has undergone major changes, » says Patrick Cohen. Certain practices, currently emerging, will tend to develop over the next ten years. Not to mention the fact that psychoanalysis is losing ground to neuroscience and cognitive-behavioural therapy, in a society where the desire for productivity and speed has increased. The traditional image of the patient who consults his psychologist in an office, a product of our collective unconscious, has been hit hard. For better or for worse? No one can predict.

Literally at the patient’s bedside

All psychologists are sensitive to the patient’s request and motivation to consult them. This is the cornerstone of the therapeutic approach. However, with the current democratization of psychology, this approach is tending to be reversed, particularly in the case of home psychologists: it is no longer the patient who physically (and symbolically?) goes to meet the psychologist, but the psychologist himself who goes to meet the patient. This is a rapidly expanding practice, which is proving necessary for people who are unable to move about (the elderly, disabled, people at the end of their lives, etc.). « In the privacy of his practice or office, the clinical psychologist assigns his place to the person who comes to consult him. Here, the roles are reversed: we are invited to settle down in a particular, sometimes uncomfortable, place, » testified Françoise Ellien, psychologist, psychoanalyst and director of the Soins Palliatifs Essonne Sud city-hospital health network, during the XIIth SFAP National Congress. [ii].

Patrick Cohen adds: « Unlike in the office, in the patient’s home, the psychologist no longer manages the setting or controls all its variables. He or she is now subject to the reality in which he or she intervenes, to ambient smells and noises, to people in the vicinity, and so on. This context does not offer the same meaning to the relationship ». If individuals’ need to be visited by a psychologist is real, are psychologists ready to leave the cosy confines of their offices?  » Some psychologists may be destabilized by the absence of a traditional framework, feeling invaded and losing their bearings, at the risk of being ineffective, » adds Patrick Cohen. The aim? To recreate a symbolic framework, whatever the environment. A real ability to adapt is required. This new form of intervention is tending to develop as the population ages. And with good reason: by 2050, almost 18 million people will be over 65, while between 2005 and 2050, the number of people over 85 will increase by 288%. Street psychologists share this dynamic of going out to meet the « patient ».

Accessible 24 hours a day?

As psychology becomes more democratic, new communication tools are emerging, closely linked to the boom in new technologies. Psychologists, by definition the kings of communication, cannot escape this phenomenon. In fact, some of them are already doing so. « In a short space of time, cyberpsychology has become an essential part of the French professional landscape. Unavoidable, because we can’t afford to ignore these societal issues, which call on psychology to think outside the box, » suggests Cyrille Le Jamtel, clinical psychologist and secretary of the CNCDP. [iii] in his article « Psychologie de l’avatar : avatar de la psychologie » published in the Journal des Psychologues (n°301, 2012). Psychologists can now be consulted by webcam, e-mail, telephone or chat. Rates, posted on the sites, vary between one and two euros per minute, and between 25 and 30 euros per e-mail. The functions, which are extremely diverse, range from support to psychotherapy, guidance, advice and coaching. The use of these communication tools is accompanied by relatively unprecedented forms of intervention: a growing number of psychologists are taking a more proactive stance in their relationship with their patients, accompanied by freedom of expression and personal opinion. In this sense, positive psychology has the wind in its sails.

But computer enthusiasts will soon be out of the picture. Our good old companions are declining in favor of cell phones and tablets of all kinds. « Studies tend to prove that, in the years to come, people will be browsing more with their smartphones than with their computers. Hence the interest in using this communication medium, which offers uncommon accessibility and is totally in tune with the times, » argue the creators of « Monsieur Coach », a smartphone-based coaching and therapy service, on their website. What’s on offer for these extraordinary consultations? Psychologists, psychotherapists, dieticians and, of course, coaches. In the « Choose your coach » section, you’ll find the therapist’s face, background, schedule and, for the more daring, a video presentation of more or less dubious quality, as if filmed by the little cousin’s camera at the Sunday family dinner… Let’s hope these therapists are better at handling the tricks of psychology than new technologies.

Cyberpsychology: strengths and limitations

What are the selling points of the creators of these online services? Yoann Hervouet, e-marketing trainer and co-founder of tonpsy.fr, a platform for consulting psychologists and psychoanalysts via webcam, tells us: « It’s all about facilitating access to therapy for certain people who, until now, have refused to take part, because of shyness, motor disability or scheduling constraints. As for the therapists, we know how complicated it is to find a job. Our tool is a springboard to enable them to practice more easily, without having to bear the burdens that are sometimes crushing for a beginner therapist (office rent in particular) ». An argument shared by some psychologists themselves: « Several pages would not be enough to list the multitude of advantages of the Internet, so considerable are they, » confides Patrick Cohen in his aforementioned article.

While cyberpsychology boasts many advantages, it also has its limitations. Patrick Cohen points out two major drawbacks to this remote consultation: « With a dematerialized meeting, the psychologist cuts himself off from certain data that promote a better understanding of the other person: parasitic movements (legs, hands), perspiration, body tension, odor (alcohol in particular), etc. The second drawback, if the psychologist has not thought through his relational framework, concerns the lack of transparency. The second disadvantage, if the psychologist has not thought through his or her relational framework, concerns the psychologist’s permanent accessibility. No need to travel, no timetable to keep, the psychologist can receive e-mails or text messages at any time ». The prospect of such consultations is enough to send shivers down the spines of psychologists who prefer the traditional therapeutic setting. Yoann Hervouet’s response to the fierce criticism he hears in practices and institutions is: « We have no intention of replacing « physical face-to-face » psychology with « webcam face-to-face » psychology. As Pierre Musso explains so well [iv]New uses never totally obliterate old ones: they constitute an « overlay », a meta-level, they improve the user experience of those who choose them, without signing the extinction of old uses. Our service is not for everyone, but only for people (patients and therapists) who feel comfortable with this tool, this new medium ». . Patrick Cohen advocates embracing the tool rather than resisting it: « The question today is no longer for or against the Internet, but rather how the Internet should be used, and under what conditions.

A game console as psychologist?

You thought you’d seen it all? Think again! Some scientists are seizing on the boom in these new technologies to feed psychology. Watch out: researchers at the Institute for Creative Technologies at USC (University of Southern California) have adapted the Kinect from Microsoft’s Xbox 360 video game console (i.e., the sensor that allows you to control the video game without a joystick) into a tool for diagnosing depression. How does it work? In a program called SimSensei, users are invited to answer an interactive questionnaire, while their facial expressions, posture and manner of speaking are simultaneously analyzed by the Kinect camera’s motion detection function. With an accuracy of around 90%, this tool could replace a psychologist, at least for a pre-diagnosis phase. From here, we can easily imagine the emblematic Freud turning in his grave. But that’s not all. After diagnosis, it’s time for treatment.

At the University of Auckland in New Zealand, a country with one of the world’s highest suicide rates among young people, doctors Sally Merry and Karolina Satsiak have created Sparx, designed to treat teenage depression. In this seven-level video game, whose methodology is inspired by cognitive-behavioral therapies (CBT), players are invited to carry out missions designed to lead them to recovery: kill mosquitoes representing negative thoughts (« everyone hates me », « I suck »), learn to manage strong emotions, such as anger, by interacting with dragons, and work out solutions aimed at developing positive thinking. According to the presentation of this project published in April 2012 in the British Medical Journal, of the 187 teenagers who took part in this study, 44% recovered from their depression, compared with 26% with traditional treatment. « To date, technology has not completely replaced caregivers, but we are getting close to it in front-line care (…) We have passed the stage where new technologies have acquired a certain degree of autonomy. It’s reasonable to think that the day when a technological object will be totally autonomous in the human sciences is still a long way off (but still closer than we think, for sure), » declares clinical psychologist Carl-Maria Mörch in his article « My psychologist is a game console » published on his Huffington Post website. Tomorrow’s psychologists will no doubt be called upon to develop these new tools jointly with the geeks.

While psychologists rightly fear the explosion of new forms of intervention linked to the development of technology, they need to consider them, so as to be better prepared.  » To guard against the « misuses » of psychology, we need to explore the new « uses » that are destined to play an increasingly important role in the psychological landscape, » concludes Patrick Cohen. In short, amidst all this uncertainty, one thing is certain: psychologists will soon be called upon to deploy their considerable adaptability. But is there a limit to how far they can go? Patrick Cohen answers:  » As long as the psychologist’s methodology is elaborate and coherent, all requests are admissible. It should be remembered that the substance of the intervention takes precedence over the form. On the other hand, if the practitioner finds that the conditions for good practice are not met, he or she must refuse. It’s important to distinguish between fads and real needs. The dangers of commodifying the psyche and the risks of instrumentalizing the psychologist are undeniable!  »