Two years ago, I gave up on therapy.

I had a therapist appointment scheduled that slipped my mind because mind was so overwhelmed by life. I was devastated that I didn't receive a call or a text message from my therapist at the time checking in on me. My world was already feeling like it was falling apart and feeling abandoned like that poured salt into my open wounds. Mind you, it wasn't like I enjoyed our sessions. I would spend the sessions constantly crying out of sheer frustration because I continuously felt misunderstood by her and like she didn't care. Prior to the missed visit, I continued attending sessions with her because I was in such a hopeless place that I did not have the energy to start the search over again so I thought i could make it work. This wasn't my first rodeo. She was my sixth therapist over six years of on and off therapy with each therapist leaving me more disillusioned than the last.

The sad part is that the people in the position to fix it don’t actually care whether it gets fixed. It feels like all they care about is keeping you in therapy so they can benefit by charging our insurance or taking a cut of the therapists’ wages to make money off of us.

This awful experience sparked the fuse that birthed Across Bridges.

I know that I am not alone in the dissatisfaction that I felt across therapists. Who genuinely has the time to "interview" multiple therapists when you barely have the energy to even call the first one? Not I. Not then and not now.

That's why I'm building an app to make it easy to find the right therapist. We shouldn't have to search for a therapist in the same cold, detached, and clinical way that we search for a PCP. The emotional connection and the vulnerability we share with our therapist is truly comparable, if not deeper, to an intimate relationship. Across Bridges is built to encourage you to sample therapists before you make a commitment to one. Like dating someone before you ask them to be your boyfriend or girlfriend.

Instead of the administrative nature of 15 minute consultation calls, I'm introducing short sessions where you get to try the therapist out in real time. If you don't vibe with the therapist that you just tried, if you opt in, all the information from that session will be shared with the next therapist until you find a therapist that you would like to commit to.

The Ask

I need your help in raising $450,000 to build Across Bridges so that this vision comes true. I currently have working prototype of an earlier version with therapists onboard. My mission is to change the way we search for a therapist. From a clinical routine task we check off our to do list to a similar approach we approach choosing the close people in our lives.

Join me in making sure that no one has to settle for the wrong therapist, like I did far too many times.

You can subscribe to the Substack I recently started to watch the Across Bridges' progress in real time.

Here's a link to the use of funds: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_NMB-gvl1GNrDN70B8sOfTtZPVq7RgMJc3Pp-Km8tBk/edit?usp=sharing