Online interventions and therapeutic relationship online, experiences from Italian psychologists and psychotherapists during the pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic posed new challenges to clinical practice. The present study aimed to explore the experiences with online interventions during the pandemic, to identify and understand the implications and critical issues of e-interventions in psychological care. 368 professionals completed an online survey between February and July, 2021. Descriptive analyses were performed with Jamovi and thematic analysis with Atlas.ti9. Results pointed out that 62% of the participants had never used online interventions before; 45.3% reported little confidence with online interventions and 77.1% faced software and hardware disruptions. For the 93.6% of professionals it is very important to feel presence during the online session, fostering emotional attunement, acceptance and active listening. The most important aspects of presence reported by professionals are: construing a third space, re-defining the therapeutic setting and emotional resonance. The pandemic allowed a great thrust forward in online interventions, many aspects needs to be properly addressed to guarantee its use in the future. It is of great importance to investigate strategies to create and maintain a satisfying therapeutic relationship in the online setting, fostering the construction of new ways to be present online.