Work with emotions in remote psychotherapy in the time of Covid-19: a clinical experience

ABSTRACT

Objective: Face-to-face experiential work with emotions is effective, but it remains unclear what the feasibility of teletherapeutic work with emotions is. The current Covid-19 worldwide situation represents an opportunity for psychotherapists to test new ways of working with clients, including from an emotion-focused and emotionally focused perspective.

Methods: The present brief report describes a clinical experience based on 6 weeks, so far, of telepsychotherapeutic work focused on emotions via online tools, during the Covid-19 partial confinement in Switzerland.

Results: We found a certain feasibility of remote work with emotions in psychotherapy, for individual clients, and for couples. Specific challenges represent relationship and contextual factors (clear communication, using tone of voice, regular check ins, setting up a clear frame, technical aspects of communication, the Self of the therapist), accessing and deepening emotions and managing dysregulated experience and interpersonal escalation.

Discussion: Based on this initial clinical experience, we propose that integrative experiential practice partially delivered via a computer screen be studied in controlled settings by psychotherapy research in the future.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotion
• psychotherapy integration
• Covid-19
• teletherapy
• emotionally-focused therapy
• emotion-focused therapy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alexine Thompson-de Benoit

Alexine Thompson-de benoit holds a Masters in Psychology from the University of Geneva,  Switzerland, and a Masters of  Science in Marriage and Family Therapy for Fuller Graduate School of Psychology, in Pasadena,  CA, USA. She is a California licensed MFT, an ICEEFT certified therapist,  supervisor and trainer in Emotionally Focused Couple  Therapy and has over 14 years of experience working with couples in private practice, both in California and in Switzerland. She currently lives and practices in Switzerland, where she returned in 2013 after 12 years in California. She currently serves on the board of the Swiss Society for Emotion-Focused Therapies (EFT-CH).

Ueli Kramer

Ueli Kramer, PhD, is Privat-Docent at the Faculty of Biology and Medicine of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, affiliated with the Institute of Psychotherapy and the General Psychiatry Service of the Department of Psychiatry,  and at the Department of Psychology, University of Windsor, Canada. Ueli Kramer is psychotherapist and supervisor recognized on the federal level and by several forms of psychotherapy, including emotion-focused therapy (isEFT). Dr.  Kramer's research focuses on process and outcome in psychotherapy, as well as processes of change in psychotherapy for personality disorders. His research was funded by numerous grants, and recognized by five competitive awards. From 2015 to 2019, he was president of the Swiss Society for Emotion-Focused Therapies (EFT-CH).