Brief presential and online psychodynamic psychotherapy: patients' perception

In the last decade, different types of online activities have been growing exponentially and online psychotherapy is moving in the same direction. It is crucial to recognize this line of work as a facilitator for people in the contemporary world, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The purpose of this study was to compare the perception of patients who underwent brief face-to-face psychodynamic psychotherapy and online psychotherapy by a single therapist. The study had a quantitative-qualitative approach, exploratory and comparative, which used the clinical methodology. The appointments were systematic and respective, consisting of six daily face-to-face sessions, on consecutive days, except on Sundays; and six online appointments, using the same process for data collection; the extent of each session was between 40 to 50 minutes. For the data collection regarding the perception of patients on the brief psychodynamic psychotherapy care in person versus online, were tested the Inventory of Therapeutic Alliance (Working Alliance Inventory) with questions about the therapeutic relationship, after the end of 6 online sessions, and the Questionnaire Session Evaluation Questionnaire right after the end of each psychotherapeutic session, both in face-to-face and online situations. The results obtained demonstrated that there is equivalence in face-to-face and online care, regarding the therapeutic relationship built in both moments.