Recruiting

Virtual Training

Sponsor:

University of Ottawa

Code:

NCT07087730

Conditions

Mental Disorders

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

Virtual Training Program

Training as Usual

No Training

Study Details

Brief summary:

Several types of psychotherapy are equally effective to treat mental disorders. However, many patients remain symptomatic after treatment. The investigators demonstrated that a professional development training program to improve psychotherapists' skills at identifying and repairing therapeutic alliance tensions resulted in improved therapeutic alliance (an important therapeutic ingredient) and patient mental health outcomes. However, the investigators delivered this training program by conventional in-person workshops which limited access by psychotherapists living outside large urban centres. Further, post-study interviews with therapists suggested that cultural/diversity factors complicated the therapeutic alliance.

In the current study, the investigators will test the effectiveness and acceptability of a virtually-delivered training program to psychotherapists in North America to improve their capacity to identify and repair problems in the therapeutic alliance, including tensions related to patient diversity. The investigators will also examine how acceptable the virtually-delivered training is to psychotherapists and whether they would use such training in their practice. Participants in the study will be community-based licensed psychotherapists and their patients engaging in therapy in North America. Patient mental health outcomes, therapeutic alliance, and diversity issues will be assessed by comparing outcome measures between three groups: 1) therapists complete a self-paced virtual course + consultation, 2) therapists complete synchronous workshop + consultation, 3) control: therapists do not complete training.

The team of investigators developed Canada's largest psychotherapy practice-research network and has expertise in clinical trials, diversity, and education research of virtual training. State of the art training is often out of the reach of therapists who live outside of urban centres, and the effectiveness and acceptability of providing training virtually is not well-studied in mental health care. This study will improve psychotherapists' effectiveness at managing the therapeutic alliance and issues related to diversity, and will improve patient mental health outcomes thus promising to reduce the burden of mental illness.

Conditions

Mental Disorders

Study ID

NCT07087730

Start date

Aug 2, 2023

Status verified date

Jul, 2025

Completion date

May 1, 2027

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Dec 5, 2026

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Therapist participants: The investigators will recruit mental health professionals who deliver psychotherapy in North American community settings; inclusion criteria: therapists are in good standing with their provincial or state regulatory college, their scope of practice includes individual psychotherapy for adults in North America; they are able to accept a minimum of 3 new participating patients into their current practice to conduct 6 consecutive therapy sessions via a secure, PHIPA compliant virtual meeting platform.
  • Patient Participants: Adults (> 18 years) residing in Canada or the United States who want to engage in therapy with a study therapist or who have recently sought services from a study therapist; inclusion criteria: have participated in fewer than 3 sessions with their study therapist and anticipate being able to see their study therapist for 6 sessions over the next 6 months.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Therapist participants: The investigators will exclude therapists who are employed by an organization if the investigators cannot obtain organizational approval from their employer or coordinate data collection from an alternate virtual platform in instances where the employing organization does not permit the use of the study platform. Therapists will also be excluded if they have completed professional development workshop after 2017 with PPRNet.
  • Patient participants: The investigators will exclude patients if they: (a) have a psychotic or neurocognitive disorder that may preclude engagement in psychotherapy, (b) are in concurrent psychological treatment with another practitioner, (c) are at high risk of suicide or suicidal behaviors as assessed by their therapist (e.g., suicide attempt or hospitalization for suicidal behaviors in the past 6 months), or (d) for whom the therapist judge that approaching them with information about the study will be harmful.

Study Design

Enrollment

489 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Health Services Research

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Virtual Training Program

Asynchronous virtual training professional development program including consultation.

active comparator: Training as Usual

Synchronous virtual workshop professional development including consultation.

active comparator: No Training

No training, therapy as usual.

Interventions

Virtual Training Program

Therapists randomized to this condition will receive the professional development via an asynchronous virtual training course. The Virtual Training will include written material, videos, interactive learning activities, and a text-based discussion forum where therapists and faculty will be able to interact in relation to the given activities. Clinical scenario and simulation-based interactive learning will allow therapists to explore clinical situations, make decisions, and evaluate consequences of their actions in a safe environment. Therapists will complete 6 study-related therapy sessions with 3 new patients. After therapists receive the Virtual Training and after they enroll their first patient, therapists will attend bi-weekly 1-hour online consultation meetings that include up to 6 therapists at a time and led by two of the training faculty. Each therapist will attend 10 of these posttraining consultation sessions.

Training as Usual

Therapists randomized to this condition will receive the professional development training via a 3-day synchronous workshop delivered via video conference covering the same didactic content as the virtual training course. The workshop will include lectures, written material, videos, and live role play activities. Therapists will complete 6 study-related sessions with 3 new patients. After therapists receive the professional development through Training as Usual and after they enroll their first patient, therapists will attend bi-weekly 1-hour online consultation meetings that include up to 6 therapists at a time and led by two of the training faculty. Each therapist will attend 10 of these posttraining consultation sessions.

No Training

Therapists randomized to this control condition will provide psychotherapy via the study video conference platform to 3 new enrolled patients in their typical manner except that they and their patients will also complete the assessments necessary for the study. After study completion, the investigators will provide therapists in the control condition with access to virtual training.

Primary outcome measure

  • Working Alliance Inventory (WAI) therapist or patient short form [ Time Frame: Patients and therapists will complete it after each of 6 consecutive study psychotherapy session (frequency will range from once a week to once a month depending on the client's typical session interval). ]
  • Ruptures Resolution Rating System (3RS) [ Time Frame: Sessions will be coded by trained raters after all session recordings have been collected. ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Giorgio A Tasca, PhD

1-613-562-5800gtasca@uottawa.ca

Stephanie Baker, PhD

1-613-562-5800stephanie.baker@uottawa.ca

Locations

University of Ottawa

Recruiting

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1N 6N5

Contacts

Stephanie B, PhD

6135625800sbake3@uottawa.ca

More Information

Sponsor

University of Ottawa

Last update posted

Jul 28, 2025

Last verified

Jul, 2025

Keywords

  • Psychotherapists
  • Psychotherapy
  • Outcome Assessment, Healthcare
  • Cultural Diversity
  • Humans
  • Mental Disorders
  • Telemedicine

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by University of Ottawa on 2025-07-28.