The rapid rise of e-therapy
With new online platforms, people are finding creative ways to get counseling
When Dana Marino felt her mental health was in crisis, she pulled her car off Lancaster Avenue and into the nearest gas station.
It was a Monday morning, and on her way to her job in Ardmore, distressing thoughts became too much to handle alone – it was time to meet with a therapist.
Marino, a West Chester native, had been to counseling in the past. She knew finding the right therapist with immediate availability for new patients took time and a bit of luck. So instead, she went to the app store on her iPhone and downloaded BetterHelp. The fully-online mental health service promises to connect users with a trained therapist within a day – in Marino’s case, it only took one hour.