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The Future Of Therapy: $5 Million On Breakthrough

This article is more than 10 years old.

Who says therapy sessions need to be face to face? Online mental health gateway, Breakthrough, is betting that they don’t and just found some generous backers to pay for them to prove it.

The company just raised $5 million in growth capital from The Social+Capital Partnership, First Round Capital and Great Oaks Venture Capital. The company had previously raised about $900,000 from angels last year.

If you ask Breakthrough CEO Mark Goldenson, having a face-to-face with a licensed mental health professional doesn’t necessarily mean that he or she has to be in the room. In fact, it’s quite possible that most future private therapy will be conducted through online video conferencing.

According to Goldenson, studies by Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University and Veterans Affairs have showed that online therapy works just as well as in person, and maybe better. “Potentially, there’s an increase in comfort that people feel when they’re getting care online – when they can find a therapist that really fits them – instead of a therapist they find in the yellow pages, Yelp or that they just happen to get a referral from.”

Breakthrough attacks the problem by providing a secure website where people can find mental health professionals based on specialty, correspond with therapists, schedule appointments and view information on a network of professionals. A live, HD-quality conferencing platform enables online sessions with therapists. Think ZocDoc but with doctor screenings and video introductions, as well as a video-conferencing component; purely for psychiatrists, psychoanalysts and other psychology-related caregivers.

Breakthrough intends to use the $5 million to invest in product development and engineering, as well as marketing. Still in early stages, Breakthrough’s network consists of 30 mental health professionals in California. By year’s end the company expects to expand their database to 100 in at least three other states, Goldenson said.

Breakthrough gets paid through patients’ insurance providers – so far the company is accepted by Blue Shield of California, Magellan, and Western Health Advantage, with more on the way – and from the professionals who make up the company’s database (Goldenson would not disclose how much the company charges them, but did say fees covered credit card processing and insurance claims).

It’s hard to comprehend the need for easy access to mental health professionals without knowing the scope of mental illness in society. That reality can remain hidden from those whose lives are not touched by someone in treatment. “Honestly, America has a mental health epidemic,” Goldenson said. “26% of Americans have a diagnosable mental illness—depression, anxiety, PTSD, ADHD, eating disorders. It’s the highest incidence in any modern country. Over half of people don’t get any treatment.”

Though treatment can bring improvement to 70% of cases, many go undiagnosed because the stigma of mental illness prevents troubled minds from seeking therapy. “There are more people that admit to having rectal cancer than having mental illness,” said Goldenson. Other road bumps to improving statistics include a lack of psychologists, analysts and psychiatrists, as well as finding one that suits a patient.

Goldenson’s previous venture was PlayCafe—an internet TV network for games. Launched in 2006, the service did not reach enough users and remaining startup capital was returned to investors.

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