For several years, the China American Psychoanalytic Alliance (CAPA) has provided treatment, training, and supervision to Chinese mental health professionals over the Internet. The lack of Chinese analysts and mentors has created an intense demand for psychodynamic psychotherapy training and treatment that CAPA is addressing using Skype™ and other distance communication technologies. This article describes the project, its history, scope, and activities, and the experiences of CAPA teachers and clinicians in exploring and developing the usefulness and power of this very new teaching method. Some particular characteristics of Chinese culture have become apparent as a result of the teaching experience. Aspects of the transference and countertransference that are shaped by the virtual nature of the technology are discussed, using case material. Our hope is that, in helping to train our Chinese students in psychodynamic psychotherapy, they will go on to train future generations of clinicians. This model of teaching and training could also be applied in other underserved areas.

Introduction The China American Psychoanalytic Alliance (CAPA) has been offering psychoanalytic psychotherapy training and treatment to Chinese mental health professionals entirely over the Internet since 2006. When the COVID‐19 pandemic began, most practitioners worldwide had to turn to teletherapy. US psychoanalytic practitioners were more negative towards teletherapy than those from other theoretical orientations. We predicted that CAPA practitioners as compared to US psychoanalytic practitioners would be more prepared for teletherapy services during the pandemic, since they their training and treatment had been on‐line. Method We compared survey results from 164 CAPA practitioners with 165 US psychoanalytic practitioners (matched for age) who had recently psychoanalytically treated a patient on‐line. CAPA participants were recruited from CAPA email lists and the US sample were recruited from the Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychoanalytic Association and International Psychotherapy Institute. Results CAPA practitioners as compared to US psychoanalytic practitioners had more positive opinions about teletherapy before the pandemic; had more positive opinions about teletherapy during the pandemic; and had more positive opinions about the effectiveness of teletherapy in working with transference, relational issues and resistance. The CAPA practitioners were more prepared to do psychoanalytic psychotherapy during the pandemic than the US psychoanalytic practitioners. Discussion Xiubing Wang discusses these findings in terms of her own experience as a CAPA graduate and treater before, during and after the COVID‐19 pandemic in China.

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It should be noted that wars and natural disasters have traumatized many people in these areas.3 APsaA was the only organization from whom I could get this information.

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