Internet and the covid pandemic have deeply modified our way of relating to one another and therapeutic work is inevitably influenced by this. The free or low cost worldwide network of human connection allows a person to relate to a therapist in any part of the world either of them may be.
This new technological possibility can be useful in various situations: during covid pandemic in order to be able to work on one’s problems and not succumb to them; for maintaining continuity of therapeutic work should a person have to travel for work needs; for continuing therapy should the patient move to a different city; for making therapy accessible to people who live in areas where this kind of help is not available; for people who live in close-knit realities where they may feel that their privacy is not sufficiently safeguarded; for those who may not be able or do not wish to go to a therapist’s consulting room.
In one way the worldwide network draws therapist and patient nearer but at the same time maintains a distance in their relationship which can be seen as reassuring by a person with feelings of unease. Making an appointment with a psychotherapist and going to his/her consulting room can make a person feel unconfortable as they have to enter a physical and emotional space which is unknown.
Online therapy allows the person to speak about himself whilst remaining in his own environment: this can reassure the individual, making psychological help accessible to him in the measure that is possible for him at that time.