Background Millions of people worldwide are underserved by the mental health care system. Indeed, most mental health problems go untreated, often because of resource constraints (eg, limited provider availability and cost) or lack of interest or faith in professional help. Furthermore, subclinical symptoms and chronic stress in the absence of a mental illness diagnosis often go unaddressed, despite their substantial health impact. Innovative and scalable treatment delivery methods are needed to supplement traditional therapies to fill these gaps in the mental health care system. Objective This study aims to investigate whether a self-guided web-based course can teach pairs of nonprofessional peers to deliver psychological support to each other. Methods In this experimental study, a community sample of 30 dyads (60 participants, mostly friends), many of whom presented with mild to moderate psychological distress, were recruited to complete a web-based counseling skills course. Dyads were randomized to either immediate or delayed access to training. Before and after training, dyads were recorded taking turns discussing stressors. Participants’ skills in the helper role were assessed before and after taking the course: the first author and a team of trained research assistants coded recordings for the presence of specific counseling behaviors. When in the client role, participants rated the session on helpfulness in resolving their stressors and supportiveness of their peers. We hypothesized that participants would increase the use of skills taught by the course and decrease the use of skills discouraged by the course, would increase their overall adherence to the guidelines taught in the course, and would perceive posttraining counseling sessions as more helpful and their peers as more supportive. Results The course had large effects on most helper-role speech behaviors: helpers decreased total speaking time, used more restatements, made fewer efforts to influence the speaker, and decreased self-focused and off-topic utterances (ds=0.8-1.6). When rating the portion of the session in which they served as clients, participants indicated that they made more progress in addressing their stressors during posttraining counseling sessions compared with pretraining sessions (d=1.1), but they did not report substantive changes in feelings of closeness and supportiveness of their peers (d=0.3). Conclusions The results provide proof of concept that nonprofessionals can learn basic counseling skills from a scalable web-based course. The course serves as a promising model for the development of web-based counseling skills training, which could provide accessible mental health support to some of those underserved by traditional psychotherapy.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) youth continue to be disproportionately at risk for depression. During COVID-19 social distancing, LGBQ youth who live with family may be more consistently exposed to potentially discriminatory family situations, and may receive reduced community and mental health support. However, the Internet offers opportunities to interact with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities by watching videos of, and developing one-way relationships-or parasocial relationships-with, LGBTQ media personalities on platforms such as YouTube. The current study explored how parasocial relationships with LGBTQ YouTubers may moderate the links between family support, loneliness, and depression symptoms among LGBQ emerging adults living with their parents during the COVID-19 pandemic. A sample of 183 LGBQ emerging adults (age 18 -23) was recruited from the United States in mid-July 2020. Results of a moderated mediation regression indicated that parasocial relationship strength moderated the links between family support and loneliness, and loneliness and depression symptoms. The associations between family support and loneliness, and between loneliness and depression symptoms, were weakened by high parasocial relationship strength. These findings contribute to understanding parasocial relationships' connections to well-being among marginalized groups during a crisis and highlight the potential of online solutions to emerging mental health disparities being experienced by LGBQ youth disproportionally affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Public Significance StatementParasocial relationships are one-way relationships with media personalities that may have associations with well-being for socially marginalized groups. In our study, high parasocial relationship strength weakened the associations between family support and loneliness, and between loneliness and depression, among LGBQ emerging adults living with their parents during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The benefits of self‐compassion interventions have been well documented in the counseling literature. Despite these benefits, access to such interventions remains a considerable barrier for a range of populations. We addressed the issue of limited access by using a randomized controlled trial to evaluate an online, self‐guided course on self‐compassion specifically targeted toward women. Fifty‐seven women were randomly assigned to receive immediate or delayed access to a 10‐week course designed to increase self‐compassion and reduce self‐judgment, shame, and perfectionism. Analysis of the data revealed that participants in the treatment condition experienced significant increases in self‐compassion and decreases in self‐judgment, shame, and perfectionism compared with participants in the wait‐list group. Results provide evidence that self‐compassion can be fostered in a nonclinical population of women through participation in a self‐paced online course. Related findings and potential implications, including the use of such interventions to address accessibility concerns, are discussed within the existing literature.

PurposeWorkplace mindfulness training has many benefits, but designing programs to reach a wide audience effectively and efficiently remains a challenge. The purpose of this study is to assess the effects of a widely adopted workplace mindfulness program on the mindfulness, active listening skill, emotional intelligence, and burnout of employees in a large, multinational internet company.Design/methodology/approachThe study sample included 123 employees across three company offices who completed the two‐day Search Inside Yourself (SIY) program. Data were collected using self‐report measures pre‐, post‐, and four‐weeks post‐intervention and were analyzed using paired samples t-tests.FindingsSignificant increases were detected in mindfulness and the “awareness of emotion” components of emotional intelligence four weeks post-course. No significant changes were found in participants' self-reported levels of burnout, active listening skill or the “management of emotion” components of emotional intelligence.Practical implicationsTeaching workplace mindfulness and emotional intelligence skills through a highly applied, condensed course format may be effective for increasing mindfulness and the “awareness” components of emotional intelligence. Longer courses with more applied practice may be necessary to help participants build emotional management and listening skills and to reduce burnout.Originality/valueThe present study is, to the authors’ knowledge, the first academic, peer-reviewed assessment of SIY, a workplace mindfulness training program that has been taught to over 50,000 people worldwide.

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