Front. Psychol., 21 October 2020 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.591170

Psychotherapy During COVID-19: How the Clinical Practice of Italian Psychotherapists Changed During the Pandemic

Tommaso Boldrini1, Arianna Schiano Lomoriello1,2, Franco Del Corno3, Vittorio Lingiardi4 and Silvia Salcuni1

1) Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
2) Department of Cognitive System, Denmark Technical University (DTU), Copenhagen, Denmark
3) Association for Research in Clinical Psychology (ARP), Milan, Italy
4) Department of Dynamic and Clinic Psychology, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

Aims: Italy was one of the first countries to be significantly affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, determining a unique scenario for Italian psychotherapists to consider changing the modality in which they deliver treatment. The present study aimed at studying which factors related to psychotherapists and their clinical practice had a major role in predicting two main outcomes: (1) the rate of interrupted treatments during lockdown and (2) psychotherapists’ satisfaction with the telepsychotherapy modality.

Methods: An online survey was administered to licensed psychotherapists (n = 306), who worked mainly as private practitioners, between April 5 and May 10, 2020 (i.e., the peak of the pandemic in Italy).

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