Therapy

Time - More than a decade ago, Thomas Derrick Hull, a clinical psychologist who researches digital health, had what felt like a wild thought. What if therapists, who can’t keep up with demand for mental-health care in the U.S., started texting their patients instead of making them come into the office?

Back then, it seemed unlikely even to Hull that patients and providers could use a screen to forge the bonds and meaningful conversations that blossom face-to-face. But the benefits were appealing: texting is cheap, fast, accessible, and easy to do on the fly, potentially allowing therapists to have regular interactions with their patients rather than waiting for a weekly session. So Hull began studying the efficacy of text-based care, eventually doing so as an executive at the online therapy provider Talkspace. (He left the company in 2020 and now works for a digital wellness startup.)...

 Recent research—some of it funded by text therapy providers like Talkspace—continues to suggest that texting is a legitimate and effective way to deliver mental-health care to people of all ages. In a study published in July, for example, Hull and other researchers found that therapy by text or voice note is just as good as teletherapy—which has itself been shown to be roughly as effective as face-to-face therapy—at relieving symptoms of anxiety and depression over the course of three months.