Italian adolescents’ perception of tele-psychodrama treatment during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: Psychodrama is an experiential group psychotherapy that is used to enhance adolescents’ wellbeing. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the adaptation of this method to an online setting Objective: This qualitative study investigated whether and how tele-psychodrama provides psychological support to adolescents, in order to better understand its strengths and weaknesses Participants: 14 adolescents from Northern and Central Italy Method: 14 interviews were conducted at the end of group tele-psychodrama treatment and were analysed with qualitative thematic analysis Results: Three themes were identified: (1) contribution of tele-psychodrama to adolescents’ well-being; (2) implementation of psychodrama to the online setting; and (3) (the) shortcomings of tele-psychodrama Conclusions: Despite the differences between online and in-person psychodrama, all the participants expressed their appreciation of group tele-psychodrama, which contributed to their overall psychological wellbeing and helped them process difficulties that emerged during the lockdowns.