GSS Associate Professor Lauri Goldkind, Ph.D., was quoted in a Tech Monitor article exploring the benefits and downsides of online therapy, specifically as it is offered through for-profit companies such as BetterHelp and Talkspace.
“From the perspective of individuals being matched with care, and making care more accessible, it is a good thing,” says Lauri Goldkind, a professor in social work at Fordham University. “One might argue, however, that it is also a failure of the mental health safety net to give rise to the system to begin with.”
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Platforms like Talkspace and BetterHelp offer to connect individuals with licensed therapists through video sessions or through a dedicated messaging platform. Licensure doesn’t just include qualifications in psychotherapy: therapists can also possess qualifications in social work, for example. This is potentially confusing for patients seeking help, explains Goldkind. “From a consumer’s perspective,” she says, “how do I bet which one of those is the person that I might need?”
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Even so, the method has its advantages, not least in its capacity to radically expand the accessibility of therapy beyond set time slots. In her own survey of therapists working for online therapy platforms, Goldkind found practitioners could develop a rapport with patients through instant messaging, especially those who were comfortable with using the written word to convey their innermost thoughts.
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Even so, says Goldkind, the emergence of for-profit services like Talkspace, BetterHelp and a host of smaller providers is more than just the free market meeting this demand in its own way – it’s also symptomatic of a maturing international conversation about mental health generally.
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The growing chorus of advertisements for talk therapy through accessible online platforms is evidence that the stigma of seeking psychiatric help is diminishing. “That, I think, is not a bad thing,” says Goldkind.
