Scared of Therapy? Meet The App That Makes Talking to a Therapist Relaxing and Easy
By Richard Carlson, mental health advocate and author
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This is a sponsored post. We do independently research, test, and recommend products. We receive commissions on purchases made from our chosen links.
Have you thought about talking to a therapist but decided against it because you didn’t feel comfortable opening up?
The anticipation of that first therapy session can be overwhelming. It’s scary taking that first step. What if you choose the wrong therapist? What if they don’t relate to you? It’s tough putting yourself in such a vulnerable situation.
This apprehension around therapy is the reason so many who need it end up avoiding it. An American Psychological Association study recently found that only 13% of adults who could benefit from therapy actually seek it out.
Not seeking help can further ravage your mental health. This is why more adults than ever are reporting:
- Feeling like they've lost everything and have nowhere to go
- Having no interest in doing anything, even simple things like scrolling on their phone or watching TV
- Having to force themselves to eat at least once a day, or unable to stop themselves from eating all the time
- Moving or speaking so slowly that their friends and family start to talk about it
- Wanting to sleep for 12+ hours a night and feeling exhausted if they get any less, or finding themselves wide awake in the middle of the night and unable to get back to sleep
- Feeling restless, fidgety, twitchy and "scratchy"
- An inability to focus and concentrate, almost like life is a series of extremely short but unrelated films that they have trouble connecting
The team behind San Francisco-based BetterHelp wants to change this. They developed an app to make the process of finding and talking to a therapist easier and more relaxing. They do this by:
- 1) Their app will learn more about you and assess what you are struggling with. They will use this info to identify the therapist best suited to help you. Then you decide if you want to keep the therapist or be matched with another.
- 2) You choose how you feel most comfortable communicating with the therapist: text, phone call or video chat. Then you can conduct sessions using their app wherever you feel most at ease.
Over 1 million people have chosen BetterHelp help them push past their fear of starting therapy.
If you want to find a therapist you’ll be comfortable and compatible with, click here to take BetterHelp’s assessment and see who they match you with.