Finding The One is Hard

In the last year, I observed that more and more people around me have been trying to see a therapist. But mainly it’s a big struggle to find one with free slots. If some of my friends found a therapist, they weren’t necessarily content with the match. So basically, the riddle goes on and the search continues. What I’ve heard from my one friend which I interviewed is that it’s just tiring and that she can’t go on looking for the One like this anymore. When you’re already struggling with a few things in life, finding the right therapist shouldn’t be an additional issue to worry about. “Finding the One for therapy is just as hard as finding the One when you’re dating!”, proclaimed my friend C. while we were talking over coffee. You need to find someone you feel comfortable with to share your deepest thoughts and emotions. You want to spend a long time talking with that person without feeling judged or misunderstood. None of these aspects were fulfilled by the therapist my friend C. is seeing right now. “The last time I went to my therapist, we were discussing about when the next session could take place. I told my therapist that I can’t come during my working hours. I mean, I have to work as well?! But the only thing my therapist said in that moment was that it shows, that therapy and getting back on track isn’t my first priority and thus I should just leave it if I don’t really care.” My friend was absolutely shocked and that showed her, once again, she should immediately stop seeing that therapist. “How insensitive can someone be?”. I just nodded and just couldn’t believe that something like that came out of a therapists’ mouth. C. doesn’t want to invest the time again, next to her work, to look for another therapist again. She would as well just live with it, because it takes too much time until she finds the right one.

In the last month, I came across an app called “Better Health”, which was founded in the United States. Lots of adds on social media have popped up and of course, I was wondering what kind of concept is behind. Better Health proclaims to be the world’s largest therapy platform with the mission of making professional therapy accessible, affordable and convenient, so anyone who struggles with life’s challenges can get help, anytime and anywhere. Every service can be online, either by video, call, chat or messaging. You can narrow down your search of the “matching therapist” by considering what type of counseling you’d like to pursue. You need to take a few minutes to read through some therapist profiles to see their different areas of expertise and their philosophies on therapy. If you feel like your matched therapist isn’t the right one for you, you can choose to match with a different therapist at any time. After taking a short questionnaire, you can instantly message the therapist that you’ve been matched to and schedule a time with them for a live therapy session. You can message your therapist as often as you would like, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. “Online therapy typically allows you to connect with a therapist more often than in-person therapy does.”, a quote from the Better Health website.

I showed this whole concept to my friend and asked her about her opinion. “Well, that sounds too good to be true.”, she said. To recap the sentence “Online therapy typically allows you to connect with a therapist more often than in-person therapy does.”, according to my friend C. it’s one of the most important things to sit face to face in front of your therapist. Building a relationship depends on the interaction in real life, and not via video, call or especially chat. Talking about your issues and emotions takes lot of guts for C., which leads to the point that she needs to see the person and to see his or her gestures as well. Communication and especially in therapy’s, need to be in real time – in real life. But on the other hand, she really liked the aspect of the “match-making” of therapists and clients. “Imagine they would implement an algorithm that matches the right One for you who is available! Can’t you do that for your bachelor thesis?”, C. asked. With a laugh I answered, “no, unfortunately this doesn’t belong into my skillset. But I see some potential there.”