Modifications of the therapeutic setting during the Covid-19 pandemic: thoughts based on the Greek experience with latency children and adolescents

ABSTRACT

The paper reflects on the authors’ observations regarding the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic within the context of child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapy in Greece. The specific conditions in Greece during the first general lockdown are described, and the necessary modifications to the therapeutic framework with latency children and adolescents are discussed. During the lockdown, the authors continued to meet with their patients online, a framework that had both advantages and limitations. The authors share their thoughts about the ways they tried to keep the connection with their patients alive, in the face of the first wave of the coronavirus crisis.

KEYWORDS:

• Online psychotherapy
• teletherapy
• therapeutic framework
• lockdown
• coronavirus

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alexandra Zaharia

Alexandra Zaharia is a child psychiatrist and a chilld and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapist, full member and member of the Supervisors’ Committee of the Hellenic Association of Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. Her research interests include the setting in the child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapy, trauma and parent-child separation.

Lida Anagnostaki

Lida Anagnostaki is an Associate Professor in Psychodynamic Perspectives in Developmental Psychology, Department of Early Childhood Education, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and a full member of the Hellenic Association of Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. Her research interests include psychoanalysis and education, trauma, and parent-child separation.