Online therapy is with us to stay, even when the Covid pandemic is over. Where once there was genuine scepticism about its efficacy, the past four months of Zooming has convinced the majority of therapists that it is a workable alternative to in-person sessions.

But, at the same time, a minority crave a return to their consulting rooms, as do many clients. How that will work, when coronavirus infection still involves such high risks, is now evolving, according to a survey of therapists by welldoing.org., distributed through our therapist newsletter and Facebook group.

What therapists have discovered since lockdown: therapy results

95% of those who responded to the survey had worked through the lockdown period, with 92% of them offering video sessions. More than half of the therapists surveyed had never done online sessions before.

However, only 4% of them actually found it difficult; 45% said that online therapy was "better than they had expected", and another 38% found it "acceptable".

Therapists believed their clients were slightly less enthusiastic -  estimating that 17% found online sessions more difficult - though most had accepted it as comparable to in-person.

24% of those surveyed are currently seeing clients in person; 35% are seriously considering returning to in-person work. The remainder want to stay online, at least until they assess the risk of infection has lowered significantly, though a large number of that group intend to stick with online.

Looking to the future, the changes to therapy that were identified by therapists are:

• more therapists offering online work
• more online clients coming from outside their neighbourhood
• more clients seeking private therapy
• fewer therapists continuing to pay for consulting rooms