The experience of working via tele video in Australia during the Covid-19 pandemic

This paper examines some of the challenges involved in working via tele video in Melbourne Australia during the Covid-19 pandemic. Several factors are identified that contribute to the success of tele video with patients. These include the maintenance of a clinical stance that enables a direct managing of the issues of boundaries and space in the tele video setting. Despite the author's earlier reservations, the tele video experience has identified how powerfully transference issues are communicated and how these appear to transcend what we may have assumed to be the limitations of the tele video setting. Attention is paid to what is seen, revealed, and recognised during the tele video sessions and how these elements contribute to creating a three-dimensional experience within a two-dimensional space. The question of carrying out assessment and diagnosis online is discussed in the context of work with adolescents to clearly delineate between ordinary transient reactions and pathological or prodromal reactions in the adolescent.