Online but in the studio: working with a 'distributed' team'

Abstract

This article explores a new modality of co-conducting family and couple sessions, involving a therapist in the room and one connected remotely. As with initial experimentations with online therapy, the idea of this unusual setting arose from the pragmatic need to ensure the continuation of ongoing therapies in a difficult circumstance.

The authors illustrate their considerations, deriving from an initial experimentation of this organization of the therapeutic setting. They describe its characteristics, point out opportunities and limits, and compare them with those of a similar setup —the room with the one-way mirror. They proceed to highlight similarities between the two setups, as well as the peculiarities that set the new one apart.

The new setting is described in its technical aspects, and the choice of tools and the motivations for its development are also discussed.

Through brief accounts of clinical cases, the authors show how this mixed modality, with a team member occupying an "in-out" position, illuminates issues of therapy itself. These are the "rhythmic" aspects of the conversation and the conduction of the team with a female therapist and a male therapist.