Online psychotherapy during COVID-19 pandemic - experiences of psychotherapists. Research review.

Abstract

In 2019, mass infections caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and the disease caused by it became the reason for global social, economic and health crises. This situation required changes, also in the field of psychotherapeutic practice and the implementation of new solutions. One of the possibilities of continuing services provision was to start the Internet usage Aim: The purpose of this paper is to review the latest research related to the experiences of psychotherapists working online during the pandemic. An additional goal is to present the broadest possible analysis of the literature based on research conducted in various countries around the world. Materials: Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus and PsycNet were searched for a review. From among the search results that met the general criteria, those related to psychotherapeutic practice in the given countries were selected. Conclusions: Online psychotherapy has become a significant component of psychotherapeutic practice during a pandemic. Earlier expectations and concerns could be verified. The presented results of selected studies create a picture of the functioning of psychotherapists in many countries and constitute the basis for future research and forecasts for the development of psychotherapy after the pandemic.

Child therapists’ views and experiences of video conference psychotherapy with children

“…Increased anxiety levels and lockdown policies implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic process increased the need for online psychotherapy services (Wang et al, 2020 ). This condition has affected the spread of professional therapeutic interventions in which the communication between psychotherapists and clients is provided via the internet (García et al, 2022 ; Konieczny, 2021 ; Liu et al, 2020 ). Online therapies spreading with these developments increased the accessibility of therapists and clients from all over the world to each other (García et al, 2022 ; Schuster et al, 2020 ).…”

Understanding psychology students’ perspective on video psychotherapy and their intention to offer it after graduation: a mixed-methods study

“…Since March 2020, when contact restrictions were established in many countries, a dramatic shift from traditional face-to-face psychotherapy sessions to video-delivered sessions was observable ( Buckman et al, 2021 ). Online forms of psychotherapy became an important component of psychotherapy practice during the pandemic ( Konieczny, 2021 ). As a result, VPT gained high attention in many countries ( Zangani et al, 2022 ) and was also accepted by health insurance companies ( KBV, 2022 ).…”