Students' Experiences in Clinical Training in Telepsychology: A Multicenter Study in Colombia

For decades, the path to becoming a psychologist has been paved with face-to-face interactions. Students learn to read a room, sense a shift in tone, and build trust by sitting across from a person in a quiet office. This traditional model relies on physical presence to establish what professionals call the therapeutic alliance, the deep connection that allows healing to begin. However, the last few years have forced a rapid shift in how mental health care is delivered. As the world turned to digital screens to stay connected, psychologists and their students had to learn a new way of practicing their craft. This new method, known as telepsychology, involves providing psychological care through video calls and digital platforms. It is not merely a change of location; it requires adapting the same core skills of listening and empathy to a environment where a client might be in a different city, or even a different country, and where the connection depends on the reliability of an internet signal. Understanding how the next generation of therapists navigates this digital landscape is crucial, as it determines whether these remote sessions can offer the same depth of care as those conducted in person.

A large group of researchers in Colombia set out to understand exactly how psychology students experienced this transition. They gathered data from 360 undergraduate and graduate students who had completed their clinical training in nine different university counseling centers across the country. These centers serve a dual purpose: they provide free or low-cost mental health services to the community while simultaneously acting as training grounds for students. The researchers asked these students to reflect on their journey, from their initial fears before they ever logged on to a client, to their feelings after they had conducted dozens of sessions. The goal was not to test the technology itself, but to listen to the human experience of learning to practice psychology through a screen.

Before they began their training, most students approached the idea of telepsychology with a mix of optimism and anxiety. About half of them believed that while technical glitches were likely, the method would still be useful for helping people. However, a significant majority, roughly 70 percent, admitted to having specific worries before their first session. Their fears were not primarily about the technology failing, but about the human connection. They worried that they would struggle to build a warm relationship with a client they could not see in person, that they might miss subtle emotional cues, or that clients would simply stop showing up for their appointments. These concerns mirrored the anxieties many new therapists feel when starting in-person work, suggesting that the fear of the unknown is a universal part of learning to care for others, regardless of the medium.

Once the students began their actual practice, their perspective shifted dramatically. The data revealed that the initial fears largely gave way to a sense of competence and success. More than 93 percent of the students reported that they were able to provide appropriate psychological care, and over 87 percent felt they could conduct thorough assessments and explore the reasons for a client's distress just as effectively as they would in a physical office. They found that they could adapt their techniques to the digital format and that the core of their work—listening, understanding, and guiding—remained intact. The students identified a wide range of situations where this remote care worked well, particularly for adults dealing with emotional struggles, grief, relationship issues, and the stress of adapting to new circumstances. They felt confident in their ability to offer support and counseling to these groups.

Of course, the experience was not without its hurdles. The students reported that the environment itself often presented challenges. The most common interference was a poor internet connection on the client's end, which could break the flow of conversation. Other frequent obstacles included a lack of privacy in the client's home, background noise, or difficulties with the audio and video quality. These issues were not seen as reasons to abandon the method, but rather as practical problems to be managed. The students learned to navigate these disruptions, understanding that while the setting was different, the work could still be done. In fact, nearly 71 percent of the students said they would choose to use telepsychology again in their future professional careers, indicating that the benefits outweighed the technical frustrations.

Perhaps the most significant finding was what the students learned about themselves and their profession. Almost all of them, 96.9 percent, felt that their training in telepsychology helped them develop essential clinical skills. They reported gaining new knowledge about how to protect client privacy in a digital space, how to use technology ethically, and how to adapt their therapeutic approach to fit a virtual environment. They discovered that they could build a strong therapeutic bond even through a screen. However, the study also highlighted areas where they still felt they needed more support. A smaller group of students noted that they found it harder to establish that deep emotional connection or to manage complex crisis situations remotely. This suggests that while the digital modality is a powerful tool, it requires specific training to master the nuances of building trust and handling high-stakes scenarios without the benefit of physical presence.

The study concludes that the experience of learning to practice psychology online has been largely positive for these students. They emerged from their training feeling prepared to offer quality care through digital means, armed with a new set of skills that blend traditional psychological knowledge with digital literacy. The research suggests that incorporating supervised telepsychology into university training programs is not just a temporary fix for a pandemic, but a valuable way to prepare future therapists for a world where mental health care is increasingly hybrid. By facing the challenges of the digital environment during their education, these students learned that the heart of therapy—the human connection—can survive and thrive even when the setting changes.