*3.2. Results of Qualitative Analysis*

The analysis resulted in seven main categories, which each comprise several subcategories. Figure 1 represents the main categories and their frequency in relation to the number of respondents. We chose not to report the number of coded text passages but always reported the number of respondents per category. Some respondents commented more often on a topic. These responses are reported descriptively but are not reflected in the frequencies. The order of the categories is not based on the frequency of the categories but was chosen so that the presentation of the contents of the subcategories builds on each other as coherently as possible.

**Figure 1.** Main categories of the qualitative content analysis and the percentage of respondents reporting one or more experiences in each of the main categories. The percentages of the main categories may differ from the sum of the percentages in the individual subcategories (Figures 2–8) because it may be that a respondent reported experiences in several subcategories (e.g., technical problems and distraction) within one main category (e.g., drawbacks) and thus appears in each of these subcategories but is only counted once per main category.

**Figure 2.** Percentage of respondents who experienced various benefits of remote psychotherapy. The number in parentheses after the subcategory name indicates the number of coded text passages.

**Figure 3.** Percentage of respondents who experienced various drawbacks of remote psychotherapy. The number in parentheses after the subcategory name indicates the number of coded text passages.

Differences in the frequencies of two main categories emerged between female and male psychotherapists (Table 1): female psychotherapists reported difficulties more often (38%) compared to their male colleagues (20%; *p* = 0.02). Additionally, more female psychotherapists expressed experiences related to the therapeutic relationship (79% vs. 52%; *p* < 0.001).

Frequencies of all investigated main categories did not differ among age groups (*p* ≥ 0.08), groups of professional experience (*p* ≥ 009) and among the four therapeutic orientations (*p* ≥ 0.06).

Female psychotherapists provided longer comments (mean number of characters (M) = 932.6, SD = 751.0) than male psychotherapists (M = 595.8, SD = 630.1), *t* (94.5) = 3.116; *p* = 0.002. The length of the text answers was neither associated with the age, the professional experience, nor the therapeutic orientation of the participating psychotherapists (*p* ≥ 0.11).
