Reflections on Working with Defenses and Resistances in the Context of Teletherapy

Authors

  • Louise Fréchette

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30820/0743-4804-2021-31-23

Keywords:

teletherapy, face-to-face therapy, resistances, capacities and limitations, research

Abstract

This article focuses on the challenges we face as bioenergetic therapists when doing teletherapy. It addresses the difficulty of working with defenses and resistances in a context where the client is not physically present and where we only see part of the body through a screen, in a two-dimensional representation (sessions on video) or not at all (phone sessions). It offers practical suggestions to compensate for what cannot be apprehended directly due to distant communication. It also offers some research data on the level of efficacy and on the quality of the relationship, when teletherapy is compared with face-to-face therapy. Finally, it offers practical suggestions with regards to visual fatigue and as well as some elements of understanding Zoom fatigue.

Author Biography

Louise Fréchette

Louise Fréchette is a clinical psychologist, bioenergetic analyst and member of the IIBA Faculty. She is in private practice in Montreal, Canada. Louise has taught as a Faculty member in Canada, USA, France, Belgium, Spain, Russia, Argentina, Brazil and New Zealand, and has been a keynote speaker and panellist at IIBA Conferences. She has also trained in Psychosynthesis and in Eriksonian hypnosis.
023-037 36002

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Published

2021-05-18

How to Cite

Fréchette, L. (2021). Reflections on Working with Defenses and Resistances in the Context of Teletherapy. Bioenergetic Analysis, 31(1), 23–37. https://doi.org/10.30820/0743-4804-2021-31-23

Issue

Vol. 31 No. 1 (2021)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2021 Louise Fréchette

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This license allows private use and unmodified distribution, but prohibits editing and commercial use (further information can be found at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). The terms of the Creative Commons licence only apply to the original material. The reuse of material from other sources (marked with a reference) such as charts, illustrations, photos and text extracts may require further permission for use from the respective copyrights holder.