Practitioner perspectives on the use of experience sampling software in counselling and clinical psychology

Facilitating the uptake and making better use of technological advances will be pivotal for counseling and clinical psychology to respond to the rising call for more community-based and person-centered care. While the Experience Sampling Method (ESM), a structured self-report digital diary, could help facilitate this transition, it is currently unclear how practitioners envision using ESM in clinical practice. Focus groups were organized with 36 mental health practitioners (Mage = 39.37, SDage = 12.18, 58.33% female) across Flanders (Belgium). Four broad topics were discussed: (1) how to use ESM, (2) how to visualize clinically relevant information, (3) the software requirements thereof, and (4) barriers and facilitators for implementing ESM in clinical practice. Thematic analysis was conducted and Cohen's Kappa was calculated to measure inter-rater reliability. Cohen's Kappa was .79, indicating good inter-rater reliability. Different clinical applications emerged (e.g., screening, evaluation of treatment). Practitioners expressed difficulty determining how to visualize ESM data, and novel features for use emerged (e.g., integration with electronic health records). Various barriers (e.g., lack of best-practice guidelines) and facilitators (e.g., simplicity) to clinical implementation were identified. Implications for clinical implementation and future software development work are discussed.