From the Office to the Screen. the Digital Transformation of Psychotherapy in Buenos Aires

In recent decades, social life has become increasingly digitalized. Professional practice was no exception and a growing share of services like legal advice, design, or even religious guidance are now delivered through digital media. By taking the face-to-face interaction between experts and their clients to screens, digitalization has paved the way for the rapid disembedding of professional work from its traditional workplaces. This is not without consequences: as various studies within the sociology of knowledge have emphasized, places are not merely a setting or backdrop, but an agentic player in the production and legitimation of expert practices. In effect, places are endowed with cultural meanings that lend credibility to certain beliefs that are instrumental in the relationship between a professional and their clientele. To address this issue, this paper examines the growing incursion of psychotherapists in Buenos Aires (Argentina) into the digital environment and how these professionals navigate the challenges of working as cloud-based consultants outside the traditional place of therapy, i.e. the office. How do they establish authority or deploy empathy in the digital environment? Ho do they defend their autonomy and build trust? Based on in-depth interviews with practitioners––including individuals who work in different modalities (only online or combining both online and in person) and who work via video-calling software (Zoom, WhatsApp, etc.) or mental health platforms––, the paper explores the challenges of shifting to online work, the practitioners’ thoughts on virtual psychotherapy, and the differences in working conditions associated with using video-calling software versus specific mental health platforms. Buenos Aires offers itself as a compelling case study for exploring this issue: not only is it the city with the highest proportion of psychologists per capita in the world, but it has also traditionally been considered a hotspot for psychotherapy and psychoanalysis in the Spanish-speaking world.