PSYCHOLOGISTS AND CLIENTS IN ONLINE INTERVENTIONS: NEW TOOLS AND RESOURCES TO PROMOTE WELL-BEING

The use of online interventions in psychological care has been increasing over the past ten years, providing professionals and clients with innovative and flexible solutions, opening new possibilities of practice. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the worldwide panorama of psychological interventions faced a forced transition to the online setting to adapt to the challenges and disruptions posed by such unprecedented situation. The pandemic acted as an evolutionary catalyst in Italy and worldwide, enabling the extensive experience of online psychological interventions, allowing for the identification of resources and difficulties connected, opening new possibilities to determine an important step forward in this area. In this sense, such unprecedented situation allowed both psychologists and clients to change their attitudes and perspectives on online interventions by extensively experiencing it. Starting from the opportunity of evolution provided by this unprecedented circumstances, the present thesis investigated the use of online interventions in psychological care with a contested perspective focused on the current challenges. First, by exploring the experiences of Italian psychologists’ and psychotherapists’ with online interventions, Study 1 investigated their experiences during the pandemic, trying to gain a comprehensive understanding of their needs and concerns, with a specific focus on the strategies they used to create and maintain a satisfactory therapeutic relationship with their clients online. Second, by exploring the impact of the pandemic on the mental health and well-being of the vulnerable population of young adults, Study 2 investigated the current challenges and needs to be addressed in psychological care. Third, by developing and carrying out an intervention study to tackle the current challenges in vulnerable populations, Study 3 investigated the perspectives of clients involved in a blended pilot intervention (online and offline) aimed at supporting their well-being and social connectedness, while testing its feasibility and relevance. Comprehensively discussed the results of the present thesis provide knowledge about the specific situation lived through the pandemic in the psychological area and remark the importance of developing and elaborating further a critical approach towards the use of online interventions in psychological care. A perspective that represents a fundamental step to respond to the current challenges and to work back-to-back with professionals, clients and institutions, tackling the contemporary and future challenges of mental health and well-being in the general population.