Finding a good therapist is like finding good Thai food
Your in a new city, don’t know anyone or any neighborhoods, and have a craving for Thai food.
Yelp doesn’t exist, all you can do is pull up a list of all Thai food places in the city…oh yeah, there are thousands of options and the potential of picking the wrong restaurant could mean you never eat Thai food again.
If the dish ordered ends up being mediocre, perhaps Thai food is forever written off, never to be tasted again because it’s just not ‘worth it’ anymore.
If the dish is downright bad, perhaps it’s discouraging enough to burrow deeper in despair and move closer to whatever edge remains between harm or suicide.
Finding a good therapist, psychologist, or mental health professional today though is not that different. There is no “try before you buy,” uniform standard of quality, or way to know how it worked for someone else in a similar situation.
Avalo (www.avalo.app) iOS and android apps are changing that by creating a free mental health support market place. Users anonymously login to the mobile phone apps and can chat with peers and professionals about whatever is on their mind.
It’s available 24/7 and mental health professionals (“experts”) can log in and chat with at-risk individuals in their market.
Experts create an individual and organizational profile and log into the web portal at www.expert.avalo.app
See the video below for more information.
Experts create organizations and profiles similar to yelp which allows users to leave recommendations and build social proof surrounding their services.
This will reduce people’s fear of reaching out for mental health services and improves access to diverse mental health professionals for all people.