Online shopping, theater performances and concerts without leaving home, online visits to relatives and friends, classes from a computer, remote work and birthday celebrations using a mobile phone. A lifestyle unknown to most before the pandemic that seems to have left us with a great legacy – according to Forbes, covid-19 has increased internet use by 70%. But which of all this is just a trend, and what will be left here? And how functional is it when the screen interferes with very personal processes or meetings, such as a psychotherapy session? Many have blessed the convenience that technology has brought in a time when you weren’t allowed to leave the house without the infamous text message, seeing it as a necessary but temporary solution. Still others, under the pretext of “I do not have enough time” “arranged” physical and not only “distance”.

“Personally, I did not stop working for life even during the pandemic, since we were considered medical facilities and never closed. I was just doing group treatments online for a while. So most of them kept coming to my office. On the contrary, they also found in it a relief from imprisonment. So, in my experience, online sessions are for special occasions, like people who live outside of Athens or Greece or have mobility issues. There are few patients who choose remote psychotherapy while living in Athens, and mostly they are young people, ”psychotherapist Melita Tsekoura tells K.

Protection in treatment

For experts, physical distance often hides protection in healing and makes it difficult to create an authentic atmosphere to invest in the person being treated. N.S. forced to choose online sessions due to restrictions during the pandemic. But he soon saw that the result was not the same.

“I started psychotherapy about 10 years ago. The sessions were always live, on a specific day and time. But for at least two years of covid-19, I also found myself feeling fearful and insecure, and I cut back on my contacts and movements. So I decided to try online psychotherapy sessions,” he told K.

Although at first the sessions proceeded normally, over time, N.S. began to notice new data.

“Fear began to build up as access to live streaming came with taking the subway and going outside. I started to disconnect more, and while I continued to make good progress in online sessions, I noticed something was missing. Maybe it’s the body language and energy exchanged between two people up close. Maybe this is the limit of a dead screen, possible interruptions in the Internet that interfere with the natural flow of the exchange of emotions, irritants, views,” he adds.

Ensuring privacy

Another disadvantage of online psychotherapy, according to experts, is the guarantee of confidentiality.

“If sessions are done at home, in many cases another person in the environment can overhear or inadvertently influence the treating person in what to say if they feel they have a loved one near them,” explains Ms. Chekoura.

According to Evelina Zeikou, a psychologist-psychotherapist at the Institute of Mental Health. P. Sakellaropoulos for children and adults, “with a screen, you lose a lot from the facial expressions of the treating person, from the posture of the body, from the way he sits. for example, the expressions he receives from the patient do not agree with the words, there may be a delay in speech for the sound to appear, and you hear the words and see a different expression, because either the words come before or the words follow.

Pajama session?

But there are also patients who feel so comfortable in their own space that they do not follow elementary social rules.

“Some patients were in pajamas. Someone else showed up shirtless. Others have had privacy issues. Especially in the pandemic phase, when women, children, grandparents were at home, some did it from the car or from the park,” adds Ms Zeikou.

Video calls deprive the patient of a transitional therapy space that can be used in the context of an internal search.

“Even the process of finding your therapist, reaching out to and leaving him is part of healing. This is the place where the client can think about what to say. I’m leaving to think about the session,” Ms. Zeikou explains.

Patient Characis Theonas argues that online psychotherapy sessions have worked well during the pandemic, but they cannot and should not replace face-to-face sessions. “First of all, when the patient knows that he needs to go to a session on a certain day and time, he is included in the process of getting out of bed early, washing, bathing and generally taking care of his appearance, which this helps. a lot of. If he doesn’t do these things and goes into therapy like that, it means something,” he says.

Especially for those who are depressed, being forced out of the house is beneficial, he adds.

“Perhaps the house he is going to is far away and he needs to walk or use public transport, so he will walk and meet people, which is also good for him, especially during periods of depression when a person does not want to communicate. Finally, body language, which is very important, with the physical presence evident, while the camera shows only the face, and often not even that – I remember that in some sessions, some patients turned the camera to a different place, and not to themselves.

However, the benefits of remote psychotherapy should not be underestimated.

“It often helps to remove any inhibitions that support has to look for if they live, for example, in a “closed” society. Online psychotherapy is clearly preferable to no treatment at all,” says Ms Tsekura.

But when is convenience not abused?

“If the client is aware and honest with himself about the reasons why he decided to meet online, he can simply take advantage of this valuable opportunity. The goal is to prevent flexibility from turning into ease, which can include characteristics with a negative sign, such as laziness, procrastination, fear, insecurity, stagnation,” concludes N.S.