“When the first session may be the last!”: A case report of the implementation of “rapid tele-psychotherapy” with single-session music therapy in the COVID-19 outbreak

Situmorang, Dominikus David Biondi

OBJECTIVE: Conventional psychotherapy with a lengthy and regular number of meetings is no longer relevant in the case of COVID-19, when persons with psychiatric problems, especially COVID-19 patients/clients, really require immediate psychological assistance. It is recognized as a “rapid test” in the field of body health to rapidly decide whether or not a person is affected by COVID-19. So, we should now be able to use the term “rapid tele-psychotherapy” with Single-Session Music Therapy (SSMT) in the field of mental health to characterize the mechanism of assistance provided to persons who seek therapeutic assistance virtually during this COVID-19 outbreak, so that they will easily and reliably be freed from troubling psychiatric issues. METHOD: The author reports the case of a 33-year-old widow with asymptomatic COVID-19 who was admitted to her own home. RESULTS: The author describes the effectiveness of the implementation of rapid tele-psychotherapy with SSMT in reducing the scale of anxiety, panic, fear, depression, acute stress, insomnia, and delusions of death. SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS: This case can provide new inputs or ideas for counselors/psychologists/psychiatrists/therapists who work in hospitals/institutions to provide rapid tele-psychotherapy with SSMT as therapeutic assistance for individuals who need psychotherapy in this COVID-19 outbreak, especially for COVID-19 patients/clients. Besides that, this concept is not only suitable for rapidly screening individuals that may face psychological problems and helping them better seek therapeutic assistance, but can also be used as an adjuvant therapy for psychiatric patients.