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Long‐term psychodynamic psychotherapy in a face‐to‐face versus videoconferencing setting: A single case study
Author(s) -
Andreas Sylke,
Gablonski ThorstenChristian,
Tschacher Wolfgang,
Gebhardt Albrecht,
Rabung Sven,
Schulz Holger,
Kadur Jennifer
Publication year - 2023
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/jclp.23411
Subject(s) - psychology , psychodynamics , nonverbal communication , psychodynamic psychotherapy , psychotherapist , face to face , videoconferencing , face (sociological concept) , multimedia , developmental psychology , computer science , philosophy , social science , epistemology , sociology
Abstract Objective Due to the coronavirus pandemic and crisis, psychotherapists around the world were forced to switch to video‐ or tele‐based treatments overnight. To date, only a few studies on the effectiveness of video‐based psychodynamic psychotherapy via the Internet exist. Therefore, the goal of the present study was to examine symptom improvement, therapeutic relationship, nonverbal synchrony processes, and intersession processes within a systematic single case design and compare face‐to‐face to video‐based approaches in long‐term psychodynamic‐oriented psychotherapy. Methods We examined 85 sessions of a client with major depression whose psychodynamic psychotherapy changed from a face‐to‐face setting to a video‐based setting. Video recordings were analyzed using motion energy analysis, and nonverbal synchrony was computed using a surrogate synchrony approach. Time series analyses were performed to analyze changes in symptom severity, therapeutic relationship, and intersession processes. Results The results showed that symptom severity improved descriptively, but not significantly, across the entire course of psychotherapy. There were significant differences, however, in the therapeutic relationship, intersession experiences, and synchronous behavior between the face‐to‐face and video‐based settings. Conclusion The results indicate that the presented methodology is well situated to investigate the question whether psychodynamic psychotherapy in video‐based setting works in the sameway as in a face‐to‐face setting.