Online couples therapy: what it is and how it works

All love relationships are destined to change over time; it is almost impossible to find a relationship that will stand the test of time and remain as unchanged as the first months of the relationship. But why does this happen? This question often grips the members of the couple to the point of generating moments of crisis, fears, incommunicability and silences. The reason for these changes, however, is very simple: as the two partners get to know each other better, the feelings of the early days also change and become deeper: if at the beginning we talk about falling in love (the so-called “butterflies in the stomach”) and intense emotions dictated by novelty, with the passage of time the initial feelings turn into love, a deeper feeling that brings out the true essence of the other, which slowly takes on a real form, losing any form of initial idealisation. a stable and stable couple, spending time together, goes through important life events that can alter the couple’s balance (such as the birth of a child or economic problems or the management of the family economy). These events can provoke a marriage or couple crisis, even a very strong one, bringing about a series of changes in the relationship that often seem impossible to overcome. Before making the painful decision to separate, however, many couples choose to undertake ‘couples therapy‘ to try to ‘save’ their relationship. However, not everyone knows what couple’s therapy is and how it works, or how the various therapy sessions in front of the specialist take place. Here, then, is some useful information that can help couples experiencing a moment of crisis to make a more informed choice, trying to understand each other’s mistakes and possibly regain harmony as a couple

How does online couples therapy work

Traditional couple’s therapy sessions take place in an office, with both partners present and answering the specialist’s questions.
In recent years, however, due to the limited time available to devote to oneself and an increasingly hectic life, requests to begin “online psychotherapy” with a specialist connected remotely are becoming more frequent. Couple’s therapy can therefore also take place at a distance. This is a very special way of meeting the specialist: patients and therapist connect simultaneously in a ‘virtual room‘ to conduct the therapy session.

This mode of intervention is used by individual patients, but also by groups, couples and families who wish to have counselling and follow a therapeutic pathway using all the advantages of online therapy. Online therapy is useful and advantageous when it is not possible to go in person to the appointment with the specialist, or when, in the case of couples therapy, the two partners are in a long-distance relationship and live in different cities. Online couples therapy is not very different from in-patient therapy, the only thing that changes is the way the patient and therapist interact, which is mediated by a screen.

Many couples today choose this ‘innovative‘ method to find solutions to their relationship problems, mainly because it is a method that allows great flexibility and elasticity. In fact, the members of the coop can also connect from different places, for example one at home and the other at work. This new method of couples therapy is a tool that enables the same results to be achieved as in a couple’s therapy session in the consulting room, while at the same time meeting the needs of both partners. The method of meeting, the timing and the course of action are decided together, based on the needs of the couple and the assessment of the specialist.