Online therapeutic groups

possibility of emotional support to university students.

Abstract

In the context of one of the biggest pandemics in history with the emergence of COVID-19, which brought epidemiological, financial, social and psychological consequences, academicals were directly affected by changes in remote teaching-learning processes. The objective of the study was to understand how an online therapy group strengthened bonds between participants and favored awareness and the process of change in the face of the psychological suffering experienced during this period. The intervention research with a qualitative method was epistemologically based on thinking about therapeutic groups from the perspective of Gestalt therapy, in which the experiences of these students were analyzed regarding the changes linked to the moment experienced by COVID-19 and to understand the process of identifying the participants and how this contributes to psychological changes. Thus, this study included reflection on the functioning of two online therapeutic groups carried out by the researcher together with students of the Psychology course. As a data analysis method, the Sense Analytics proposed by Critelli was used. In this article, it was noticed that the role of group identification promotes a space for acceptance and awareness for situations of suffering experienced in the university context. Therefore, the online therapeutic group proved to be a powerful tool to be used in the context of a pandemic for the university population as a space for promoting health and quality of life.