Navigating the Challenges and Coping Strategies of Psychotherapists During the Covid-19 Pandemic: a Qualitative Study

Abstract

With an increase in online psychotherapy applications during the COVID-19 pandemic, widespread challenges have become part of the lives of psychotherapists. Understanding the details of their experiences and how they coped with the adverse effects of the pandemic was crucial. For this purpose, interviews with 11 psychotherapists in private practice focusing on their experiences and coping strategies were conducted. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Themes related to changes in professional life revealed that psychotherapists needed to readjust their work routines and faced increased workloads. Their conduct of psychotherapy changed both from face-to-face to online and in terms of content. Another domain of change was their daily lives. It was understood that psychotherapists' daily struggles were centered around their immediate environment at first, while they gradually became concerned about the pandemic's broader societal consequences over time. Themes about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic indicated that the thoughts and feelings of psychotherapists were predominantly negative. The common ways of overcoming difficulties were psychological resilience, receiving education, supervision, psychotherapy, social support, and staying informed. It was concluded that despite the pandemic-related hardships, navigating through various support systems was helpful. Still, they needed robust and systematic sources of support. The most prominent of those systems were supervision and psychotherapy, especially for effective practice. Based on the limited but detailed experiences that can be generalized to a very special group of psychotherapists, it is advised to ensure the sustainability of support from various sources within the profession in a similar future crisis.