My team and I have developed an app to provide mental health counseling services to anyone who wants them. We see a few big barriers to entry to therapy today:

• Cost: if you don't have insurance, therapy is extremely expensive. Even if you do, therapy may not be covered (or only a certain number of sessions will be covered)
• Availability: good therapists are booked up weeks, sometimes months, in advance.
• Scheduling: if you are able to find a therapist, availability is often in the middle of the working day and the vast majority of folks have inflexible work schedules. There are some solutions (like BetterHelp) that are quite flexible, but those platforms do not accept insurance.
• Stigma: while a lot of the stigma has been eroded related to therapy and mental health in general, some still exists. Often times this impacts young adults who may still be dependent on families that do not approve of therapy the most.
• Trust: many people find it intimidating to trust another human with their most intimate thoughts.