Is online treatment as effective as in-person treatment? Psychological change in two relationship skills groups

Outcome study 👥 74 participants ⚖️ vs. in-person group compared with online group (no inactive control) Preliminary ✓ Source-checked 📍 United States

In plain English. Thirty-seven people took an in-person 6-day workshop and another 37 took a 12-week online course, both teaching a set of stress-reduction and relationship skills including Clinical EFT. Both formats improved depression and relationship satisfaction over a year, but only the in-person group showed a significant reduction in anxiety, and improvements were generally sharper in-person. Since this compares two active delivery formats rather than either against no treatment, and other skills (mindfulness, breathwork, qigong) were bundled with EFT, it can't isolate EFT's specific contribution.

What they found

Thirty-seven people took an in-person 6-day workshop and another 37 took a 12-week online course, both teaching a set of stress-reduction and relationship…

Anxiety reduced significantly in the in-person but not the online group; both groups showed significant improvements in depression (p<0.001) and relationship satisfaction (29% improvement, p<0.003), with sharper symptom declines in the in-person group; gains were maintained at 1-year follow-up in both groups.

How the study worked

Who took part participants in a relationship-skills program, delivered either in-person (6-day workshop) or online (12-week course) (n=74)

What they did Participants received tapping and were measured before and after, without a separate comparison group.

Compared with in-person group compared with online group (no inactive control)

Measured with depression, anxiety, and relationship satisfaction measures

💡 Where this could help

If findings like these hold up in larger trials, the promise is simple: a low-cost, self-administered tool that could reach people struggling with anxiety who can't easily access traditional care — at home, between appointments, or where there aren't enough clinicians to go around.

🔬 What to study next

The natural next step: a randomized controlled design.

The full record

Design	Outcome study
Participants	74 people
Population	participants in a relationship-skills program, delivered either in-person (6-day workshop) or online (12-week course)
Comparison group	in-person group compared with online group (no inactive control)
Outcome measures	depression, anxiety, and relationship satisfaction measures
Journal	Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease
Year	2019
Country	United States
Language	English
Method	EFT / Tapping
Publication type	Study / trial
Verification	✓ Confirmed against the primary source

Read the original study →

Cite this study

APA

Church, D., & Clond, M. (2019). Is online treatment as effective as in-person treatment? Psychological change in two relationship skills groups. Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease. https://doi.org/10.1097/NMD.0000000000000975

This record is part of the Tapping Evidence Base — an openly-sourced, fully-referenced directory of the research on EFT/Tapping. Explore more studies on Anxiety · Depression