No more rooms in the penumbra and sunbeds of Dr. Freud: from Lockdown it is increasingly common to go to analysis by staying at home and connecting with the specialist via computer or telephone. But there are contraindications. And there are those who also make a business.
They go to the psychologist once a weekmostly accommodated in your bedroom with the door closed. The webcam lights up and check that the connection works well, Then you connect for your session. And there, far from the Little of Freudiana Memoria, one tells ourselves. If only five years ago it would have seemed an unthinkable scenario, making psychotherapy remotely is now practice in Italy.
The data is clear: in 2020 there was about ten dedicated platformstoday there are over one hundred, with a market that in 2025 is worth around 830 million euros and which could exceed 4.5 billion by 2035, recording an increase of 448 percent (source Businesscoot). On average, prices for a session of person vary from 55 to 75 euros or more, while online are around 50 euros (about cents). In this world populated by self -employed workers (99.4 percent), the real queens are the digital platforms such as UNBRAVO (77.7 million euros the turnover in 2023) and Serenis (11.8 million in 2023), to which other emerging players such as psychobravic, psychodigital and with you abroad. The main tools used for therapy – often questioned compared to the guarantees of privacy – are Skype (50.6 percent), WhatsApp/Viber (14.4 percent), Facetime (8.8 percent) and the phone (9.8 percent).
But do this solution that more and more Italians choose, does it work? Try to answer Maria del Carmen Rostagno, who has a large community on social media: «In my professional experience, I observed that online therapy can reach levels of efficacy comparable to that in presence for many psychological problems. I do not consider it a simple alternative of fallback, but a therapeutic mode with its own characteristics and specific potential “reflects. “What has struck me over time” continues “is like the therapeutic alliance, a fundamental element for the positive outcome of any intervention, it also manages to develop through a screen. Patients often report similar satisfaction levels and the results in terms of reduction of symptoms are comparable ».
Of course – and most of the specialists agree on thisI – Effectiveness depends on several factors: the nature of the problem treated, the familiarity with patient and therapist technology, the quality of the connection and setting. «For some conditions, such as moderate anxiety disorders or relational problems, online therapy can be equally effective in traditional mode. In other cases, such as acute or high -risk situations, physical presence can offer significant advantages “, concludes Rostagno, recently in the bookstore with the guide Sos toxic love (Fabbri). It clearly emerges how therapeutic approaches must increasingly be updated to the problem to be solved, and the lack of easy physical barrier also the selection by the patient of the psychologist most congenial to him (with the new word of mouth that is equivalent to comments on social media).
«The main limitation I find is the reduction of non -verbal signals. The communication mediated by the screen filters many body shades that I would instinctively grasp in the presence. Technological obstacles are another challenge, not all patients have an adequate private space and then that physical dimension of the study is lacking as a symbolic “container” of therapy, which for some approaches has an important value “adds Rostagno.
For this reason many therapists take care of the “virtual settings”, the environment of the session, – developing lighting And ensuring an optimal audio -video quality to create a professional and welcoming environment -, but also develop small start and end session rituals. “For years we professionals have worked to return to psychotherapy its clinical dignity, to make it recognize not as a simple” talking about their problems “but as a complex health treatment”, reflect the psychologists Ana Maria Sepe and Anna De Simone, who founded the PsychoAdvisor community online that boasts 750 thousand followers. “When the therapy is inserted in the market logic of digital services -fast, economic, accessible to need -, the risk of being underestimated is and with it also increases the risk that it is perceived as an” on demand “service, easily usable, but also easily abandonable, without the attention and continuity worthy of a health treatment. Online platforms certainly have the merit of having normalized the request for help “continue the two psychologists” but although psychotherapy is described as “therapies of the word”, there is not only the word at stake at all. The relationship and the therapeutic alliance are central. And that alliance squeezes when there are communicative limits? ” Sepe and De Simone always wonder, now in the bookstore with The world with your eyes (Rizzoli). «In VideoChiamatus, the paragheal language is completely sacrificed, but also the three -dimensionality of the facial mimic and the channel linked to vocal frequencies. And there is no way to test the patient away from his comfort area ».
However, there is no shortage of shadow areas. There are psychologists – some of which are linked to a well -known platform who built his success through online promotions and on television – which see their halved compensation. They tell it to Panorama asking anonymity. «My hourly rate of person is 70 euros for 50 minutes. With the pandemic I could not find new patients and I enrolled in this platform, which today boasts millions of online sessions and thousands of registered professionals. Initially everything worked discreetly, I recruited numerous patients, but then I got the bill: they wanted almost 40 percent of my performance. A disproportionate figure for what they did ».
Similarly, the accusation of another psychologist, who with the same platform found himself in a dead end: «They ask for criminal percentages, but outside they are cloaked in a degree of availability and kindness that makes you feel thrilled. I let myself be combined because those who founded the platform should belong to the category. In any case, I gave up shortly after, but I still have not received part of the money that should have turned around for my work. The performances are in fact welded by the patient directly to the platform, which then provides with biblical times to pay us professionals who become in all respects only tools to do business. The relationship with the patient is completely inhumanized, but the earnings obviously for the managers are to the stars ».
