Do psychotherapy by telephone, in Paris or elsewher

Do psychotherapy by telephone, in Paris or elsewhere

How to do psychotherapy by telephone? Can we do psychotherapy online? Can we do psychotherapy over the internet? When and how to do psychotherapy by telephone? Find a psychologist online or a psychologist by phone?

Given that psychotherapy with a psychoanalyst is based on the use of words, it does not seem impossible to carry out a psychotherapeutic treatment by telephone. Conversely, online psychotherapy who would not use speech seems more problematic. Whether it then consists of an email exchange or a “chat” – to use the current term – the term psychotherapy seems more difficult to support here. Not only does psychotherapy work thanks to words well said, but it should be noted that it is not a discussion or an exchange of opinions and opinions. A psychotherapy worthy of the name supports its effectiveness thanks to the free associations of the patient, i.e. the fact that the latter can say, without censoring, each of his thoughts. From the emptiest to the fullest, from the most innocuous to the most shameful and painful thoughts, it is by speaking freely that the patient gradually succeeds in identifying the conflict that manifests itself in his symptoms. Far from a discussion forum, speech in the therapeutic context has an essential transformative function.

By allowing the patient to access a certain knowledge about what makes him suffer, psychotherapy allows the patient to build a more peaceful relationship with himself and the world. If it is not a sinecure, psychoanalytic work is more comparable to childbirth, both in terms of the pain and difficulty it can cause and in terms of the relief and joy it brings. can cause.

Can this subjective delivery that psychotherapy aims for take place over the telephone?

This question is worth asking. It highlights the essential function of the clinician in the psychotherapeutic treatment. By encouraging the patient's speech through his silence and his presence, the psychoanalyst ensures through his interventions that the method of free associations is respected. In doing so, he accompanies the patient throughout a journey which is not always easy. Faced with the difficulty of the task, the patient can easily abandon the treatment and remain, despite his suffering (and/or that which he causes to those around him), in symptomatic complacency. It is then the responsibility of the clinician not to support this compromise formation. Indeed, by remaining in ignorance, or by avoiding confronting the truth that their symptom conceals,

By specifying the psychotherapeutic method and the function of the clinician in the operation, we can then ask ourselves what telephone psychotherapy really consists of.

In our practice, it is not uncommon for patients engaged in their treatment to leave the Paris region. When this is not a form of acting out by which the patient avoids the difficulties of treatment, when it is not a new form of illusion in which the grass suddenly appears greener elsewhere, it often happens that the patient voluntarily offers to continue the treatment by telephone. What we can say is that the

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treatment can progress very well by telephone, whether or not the patient has the opportunity to come and visit us occasionally.

Thus, the clinic leads us to temper the assertions of certain analysts who maintain that it is impossible to provide a cure by telephone and we can even wonder if these kinds of “principles” do not form fixed ideas. The fact that the therapeutic framework is not optimal without the real presence of the clinician does not seem to prevent the implementation of serious work either. With regular sessions by telephone, the smooth running of the treatment also involves the responsibility of the clinician in his way of ensuring the framework of the treatment, in particular respecting the fundamental rule of free associations.

Thus, psychotherapy by telephone does not seem to us to be an aberration, at least as long as the framework of free associations is respected. This form of clinical practice seems recommendable for patients who have already started psychotherapeutic treatment with their psychoanalyst and who have the opportunity to move. Likewise, doing psychotherapy by telephone also seems appropriate for people who cannot find psychoanalysts in their city or region.

Psychologist for telephone therapy in Paris
Do psychotherapy by telephone, in Paris or elsewhere

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