Vibrant Screens : Remote therapy and counselling through the lens of digital materiality

: Kolehmainen Marjo

Publisher: Sage

: 2024

: Health

: 1461-7196

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/13634593241234491

: https://doi.org/10.1177/13634593241234491

: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/387384109

This article analyses the digital screen as a health technology. In particular, the article asks how screens as a part of therapy settings or counselling practices materialise – or fail to materialise – care. The empirical data comprise interviews with therapy and counselling professionals, whose experiences with technology during the COVID-19 pandemic were my original interest. Adopting a sociomaterial approach to technology use, it scrutinises not only how screens are used, but also how screens themselves act and operate. This approach foregrounds the screen as ‘multiple’, complicating a dichotomous understanding between in-person therapy and remote therapy. The article argues that the screen operates in a variety of ways that might either facilitate or degrade care and is an essential part of more-than-human care in digitalised societies. Acknowledging the agential capacities of all matter, the article also conceptualises screens as ‘vibrant matter’.

kolehmainen-2024-vibrant-screens-remote-therapy-and-counselling-through-the-lens-of-digital-materiality.pdf