Distant and Close: Research Into Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy Online

Abstract In recent years, especially in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have witnessed a partial transition in the field of psychotherapy from in-person settings to remote ones (i.e., online therapy). This trend has raised the question of whether the two settings are interchangeable. With the research described here, the authors explore, within a transactional analysis theoretical framework, whether the therapeutic impact of in-person sessions, assessed by both patients and therapists, is different from that perceived with a remote setting. Using the Session Evaluation Questionnaire (SEQ), 20 transactional analysis psychotherapists and their patients evaluated the impact of two pairs of sessions—one in person and one online—for a total of 160 SEQs. The data were then analyzed through t-tests to verify the research hypotheses. For therapists only, the impact of remote sessions was perceived to be lower than that of in-person sessions. The implications are discussed from a clinical point of view.