By Charles Platkin, PhD, JD, MPH

For as long as I can remember, I have felt drawn to pain and pain relief. Life is not always rainbows and unicorns. I deeply believe that understanding and processing our authentic experiences (joy and pain alike) leads to a more fulfilled life and deeper, more meaningful relationships. Coming from a place of privilege as a white woman, woven with a family history very closely tied to the Holocaust, I’ve also always felt drawn to mission-driven work and social justice. In high school, that looked like a lot of volunteering–particularly Habitat for Humanity and babysitting at local women’s shelters with my Mom. I began my college journey as a biomedical engineer and pivoted into psychology and international studies, through which I conducted research on trauma and resilience. After graduating, I worked at Strengthening Chicago’s Youth (SCY), within Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, where I organized community and conducted legal analysis to reduce violence in Chicago and in the United States. I then proceeded to fundraise over $12,000 on Kickstarter to fund a year’s worth of research abroad and ultimately to publish Somehow I am Different, my first award-winning narrative nonfiction book, about identity and resilience among 3rd generation Holocaust survivors in Budapest, Hungary. Finally, I returned to NYC to spend more concentrated time with my family and to become a social worker. Upon my return, I had much to process and I craved a deeper relationship with myself. I took my therapist search more seriously and learned the hard way how many hoops I’d have to jump through just to get in the room with anyone, let alone the right fit. I worked for months with who was the wrong fit, merely because I didn’t have a point of comparison to know any better and I didn’t want to have to re-start the search from scratch. When I began working as a therapist throughout and after graduate school, I heard time and time again from new therapy-seekers how hard a time they were having getting into the room and I thought “enough is enough.” It did not make sense to me that people with the strength and motivation to step up and do the work to better themselves and their relationships should face so much friction in the process. I believe my understanding of both the therapy-seeker and therapy-provider perspectives puts me in a unique position to solve this problem. I’m grateful every day for the privilege to do this work.

A relatively little known fact is that rapport is responsible for over 70% of why therapy works. The relationship between the therapist and the therapy-goer is invaluable. However, connecting with a therapist who you have strong rapport with can feel annoyingly similar to dating: until you feel the right fit, you don’t necessarily know what you’re looking for or what the right fit really feels like. On top of that, we’re flooded with 1,000s of options and are encouraged to choose primarily based on a therapist’s photograph, when the right fit is about so much more than what someone looks like. Our matchmaking and our free phone consultations between therapist and therapy-seeker give people the opportunity, risk-free, to feel what it might be like to work with someone and to gauge their underlying rapport. While it is still sometimes hard to know 100% how that rapport will unfold, our team at My Wellbeing is here to help support and answer questions, and we make the process of getting to that point significantly faster and easier than if you had to search on your own.

A few things we are really proud of at My Wellbeing are our stigma-reducing content, our community building events, and our jargon-free matchmaking, all of which take the shame and stigma out of pursuing therapy and prioritizing your self and your self worth. Our mission with all three is to reduce choice fatigue, remove industry-centric language that induces shame or discourages you from moving forward with your search, and promote community and connection. Our matchmaking in particular breaks down something like “CBT” or “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy” into questions like “Would you like homework between your therapy sessions?” We match you with 3 therapists or coaches based on your answers to the preferences questionnaire, which reduces the burden placed on you to scroll through 1,000s of profiles and choose on your own. We set you up with clinicians whose availability matches yours, who offer you a free phone consultation so that you can talk to them briefly, gauge your fit, and decide whether you’d like to meet them in person to take the next step forward. Every step of the way, our team at My Wellbeing is here, by email, text, or phone, to talk through anything that’s confusing and ensure you’re in good hands. In today’s world, we are inundated with options and facing more and more pressure to “do more” and “be more.” We at My Wellbeing are committed to relieving some of that pressure and stress. We aim to remind you that you are exactly enough just the way you are. We’ll set you up with a therapist — your partner in mental health — who will help you see and believe in yourself more and more every week.

Try walking down the street in NYC and not hearing someone telling their friend about what their therapist told them this week. Beyond its openness to mental health and therapy, NYC is an intoxicating blend of adrenaline and creativity. Every single day, if not multiple times per day, I interact with people who work incredibly hard and take high risks to pursue a path they are passionate about, no matter the cost. I and others like me constantly experience pressure, motivation, insight, learning, inspiration, creativity, fear, opportunity, and growth, all fueled by this incredible city. I can’t imagine a better place to break down barriers to therapy, or a community of people who need it more and will embrace it with as much rigor and intention.

Health tech has an ethical responsibility to amplify voices that are marginalized. For example, particularly relevant to My Wellbeing and mental health, practitioners of color are rare. Due to systemic racism and decades of injustice, people of color have less opportunity to pursue particular career paths, therapy among them. Simultaneously, many therapy-seekers of color want to work with a provider who “gets it,” and gets them. Don’t we all? Platforms like My Wellbeing aim to help people find the particular care they need, faster. We also understand that therapy itself is a privilege. Most mental health providers, particularly in NYC, do not accept insurance in-network. Therapy is an investment and a financial commitment. We believe it’s also our responsibility to create content and community care (live, low-cost events) so that if therapy is not a financial option for someone right now, they can still prioritize their wellbeing and receive access to resources. We aim to use our growing community to amplify all voices, particularly voices that have been marginalized. This absolutely includes communities of color, LGTBQIA+, and more, but it also includes communities diagnosed with mental illness. We have always been deemed “crazy” and written off, but no more. Now more than ever we are recognizing that the human experience is a complicated one. Nearly every single one of us has either experienced mental illness or is very close with a loved one who has. We need to share our stories and we need to listen to each others’.

Yes, I do believe health tech and public health — and policy — need to work more closely together to solve mental health issues. The mental health crisis in our country and beyond is rising to the point that it can no longer be ignored. Part of the reason many therapists do not accept insurance in-network is because reimbursement rates are too low and prohibit providers from paying their living expenses, particularly in large cities where living expenses are exponentially increasing. The paperwork and bureaucracy involved in receiving reimbursement sometimes prevents providers from being paid for their professional time. Then there is the risk of auditing, which can endanger a client’s privacy. Each of these factors is absolutely unacceptable and strips many of the opportunity to go to therapy due to financial cost. We as a society face mounting consequences, financially and culturally, when we hinder access to care that way. I absolutely see the pressure for our system needing to change rising, and ultimately facilitating a new era of care.

No one knows you, or your business, better than you do. Have conviction in all you do.