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Quaderni di Psicoterapia Cognitiva - Open Access

Studies and researches

No. 47 (2020)

The new challenge of video psychotherapy on the Internet

Submitted
febbraio 5, 2021
Published
2021-02-05

Abstract

The present article evaluates the impact of the remote setting on the therapeutic relationship. The authors evaluate whether the therapeutic alliance varies depending on the different contexts (remote or face to face) and whether it is a predictor of the therapeutic success even in on-line psychological interventions. Subsequently, the nonverbal and somatic dimension of the remote therapy is considered, defined in this work as Video Psychotherapy on Internet (VPI), further exploring the theme of dyadic tuning and co-regulation, now in front of a screen. Furthermore, the article presents some reflections regarding the attention and the mental representations of the therapist and the patient in the new setting. The literature review carried out by the authors underlines how therapeutic alliance doesn’t vary depending on the on-line setting and the face to face one and how therapeutic alliance is not a predictor of therapeutic success in the on-line setting. The authors also hope for an empirical research progress for the evaluation of bottom-up treatments in the VPI, taking into account the limits of the nonverbal and somatic dimension in this setting.

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