Mental health has more visibility than ever before! A lot of startups in this space are making use of various technologies to help consumers, doctors, and others to improve everything from clinical trials to diagnostics.
Right from connecting people with mental health professionals to using AI and deep tech to cure disease, startups are taking a holistic view of health and wellness. One such startup leading the charge in the mental health sector is ‘My Online Therapy.’
UK’s first virtual psychology clinic
For the uninitiated, My Online Therapy is the UK’s first virtual psychology clinic that provides easy access to evidence-based psychological therapies by connecting people with psychologists via video or online webchat.
In the latest development, the company has secured £4.2 million (approx €5 million) in funding from the Lighthouse Investment Group. The London-based startup will use the funding to support its next phase of rapid growth.
It includes enhancing its customer operations, expanding its product and engineering teams to build in-app self-help therapy tools and psychological well-being skills, and expanding its B2C and B2B marketing.
Vasileios Touronis, Chief Operating Officer & Co-founder of My Online Therapy added:
Raising £4.2 million and reaching a post-money valuation of £18 million is a testament to 18 months of efforts and resources invested to build and design the infrastructure and industry-leading therapeutic approaches needed to offer unprecedented access to psychological wellness solutions. Global health and wellness is a £3.2 trillion industry[2], and we believe that with this cash injection, we can build a leading company in this rapidly growing space, which will change the way people think about their psychological health and dramatically improve their quality of life.
Offers evidence-based therapies
Founded by siblings Dr. Elena Touroni and Vasileios Touronis, as well as Dr. Tom Pennybacker and Elettra Bianchi Dennerlein in 2018, this platform provides a range of evidence-based therapies based on the client’s needs, such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy, and Schema Therapy.
Furthermore, it also allows people to access a psychologist from the comfort of their own home and enable them to fit therapy sessions around work, home, and family life.
How does it work?
Upon completing a free online assessment, the platform matches you to the best psychologist for your situation. You can choose to follow this recommendation, or you can choose from any of the psychologist profiles.
Next, the user will select the way they want to connect with the psychologist and receive therapy. In this case, users are provided with three options – by video, live chat, or daily messaging.
The latter is a weekly subscription service, which allows you to send unlimited messages to your psychologist, and they will respond once a day with support and guidance. All psychologists who work for My Online Therapy have been hand-picked, ensuring that clients have access to the very best HCPC (Health & Care Professions Council) registered psychologists.
Coming to the prices, the video option range from £49 to £99 (approx €58 to €117), live chat costs a fixed fee of £49 (approx €58) and daily messaging costs £75 (approx €89) for a full week.
Elettra Bianchi Dennerlein, co-CEO, and co-founder of My Online Therapy said:
With psychological issues impacting so many people’s lives, My Online Therapy was established to provide easier access to mental health services. This £4.2 million in funding will accelerate our mission to provide convenient, reasonably priced, high quality care at the click of a button to those in the UK and beyond. By applying groundbreaking technologies, we plan to revolutionise the mental health space for those who have previously been restricted by salient barriers, such as cost, access, and stigma, and we are excited to have the support of an incredible partner in the Lighthouse Investment Group.
Main image credits: My Online Therapy
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