Online life-review in groepsverband : een onderzoek naar de ervaringen van cursisten met depressieve klachten

Background: It has been demonstrated that life-review interventions are effective in reducing symptoms of depression. With the goal to reduce these symptoms, the University of Twente developed the online course ' Op Verhaal Komen'. This course was designed specifically for people over 40. This study has been developed to determine what the experience of the participants of the online review group course ‘Op Verhaal Komen’ was. Method: The qualitative analysis of 17 interviews was performed by using the bottom-up method. Results: In this study, participants have evaluated the group-aspects mostly negative. The majority of the participants would have preferred to take the course individually as apposed to a group course. On the other hand, the online aspects of the course were evaluated mostly positive. Conclusion: The research shows that the preferences of participants are important to motivate them to take an active role in a group intervention. The investigation concludes various suggestions to improve an online life-review group course. Among others, there is a proposition to include a counsellor to stimulate communication in the online group forum.