An International Survey of the Concept of Effective Psychodynamic Treatment During the Pandemic.
Psychodyn Psychiatry
; 49(3): 453-462, 2021.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1394606
ABSTRACT
Introduction:
Most psychotherapists had no choice during the COVID-19 pandemic but to offer teletherapy in order to provide needed treatment. Several psychoanalytic theorists wondered if the very concept of treatment would change without an embodied relationship in an office setting.Methods:
To attempt to understand the current concept of effective psychodynamic treatment in the new norm of teletherapy, we surveyed practitioners from 56 countries and regions who remotely treated patients psychodynamically during the beginning months of the pandemic. We asked the practitioners to rank six factors felt to be important to psychodynamic treatment use of the couch during sessions, session in-office or via teletherapy, cultural similarity between therapist and patient, number of sessions a week, patient factors (motivation, insightfulness, and high functioning) and therapist factors (empathy, warmth, wisdom, and skillfulness).Results:
We received 1,490 survey responses. As predicted, we found that the therapist and patient variables were considered much more important (both tied as highest rankings) to effective treatment than any of the other variables, including if the therapy was in-office or by teletherapy.Discussion:
Psychodynamic practitioners worldwide confirmed that the empathy, warmth, wisdom, and skillfulness of the therapist and the motivation, insightfulness, and level of functioning of the patient are most important to treatment effectiveness regardless if the treatment is remote or embodied.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Psychoanalytic Therapy
/
Telemedicine
/
Health Care Surveys
/
Internationality
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Adult
/
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Language:
English
Journal:
Psychodyn Psychiatry
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
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