Mental Health Match helps more than 500 Houston-area residents find help – Chron

Mental Health Match Founder Ryan Schwartz started his website in late May to help people get connected with therapists that would fit them well and meet their specific needs. Much like a dating site, the five-minute questionnaire matches people with a list of therapists from a pool of more than 200 Houston-area therapists.

Photo: Courtesy By Ryan Schwartz

Mental Health Match helps more than 500 Houston-area residents find help

It took about five years for Founder Ryan Schwartz to start his website Mental Health Match, which uses a short questionnaire to help people in Houston find the right therapists for them.

Since its launch in late May, more than 500 people in the area have been matched to a pool of more than 200 therapists of all kinds.

Five years agoSchwartz mother died suddenly. Struggling with his deep grief and how he would provide for his family, the Meyerland native had a friend who told him he should seek therapy. But it wasnt that easy. He went to several therapists that he said just offered him sympathy. He did not need pity, he said; he needed help. Eventually, he found someone that was the right fit, and he was able to work through a lot of his issues. He held on to that hard experience that seemed to make a very difficult one worse. Later at a coffee shop, Schwartz watched how quickly a friend set up a dating profile, and he considered how maybe that process could be used to assist people in finding therapists.

I watched her, and I was like, in five minutes of opening this thing for the first time, it is telling you who you should spend your life with, right? said Schwartz. And like, I cant just find a therapist, and I started thinking how do we use those tools that have proved so successful matching people up in the dating world and apply that to therapy?

And then I thought, Well, someone will fix this and figure this out. I didnt do anything with it for a couple years.

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Later, he was looking for a therapist again and discovered that nobody had fixed it. Finding someone he could trust and be vulnerable with was the issue, he said. And he began to explore what it would be like to have a service that connected people with those that could potentially improve their lives.

The more people I talked to, the more I heard stories of people who gave up on their search for therapists or search for mental health care because it was too overwhelming to find somebody, Schwartz said. And the stories I heard from therapists about how difficult it is and how they have a hard time connecting with the folks that they want to work with.

After a lot of research and networking with therapists, Schwartz launched Mental Health Match in May 2019. In about five minutes, users can complete a anonymous five-part questionnaire with questions like whether you want to see an in-person or an online therapist and what you wish to discuss and work on. Then, you can select what approach of therapy you want to try, what cultural areas you want to look at or select from and how much you would be willing to pay so that you can find someone that you can forward. (Many therapists operate on a sliding scale, based on what clients can pay.) At the end of their questionnaire, users can see providers that have been matched up with them, complete with their pictures and a detailed profile of what they focus on and offer.

All information on the website is completely anonymous, and the service for users is free. (The providers pay to be on the site.) At the end of the selection process, users do enter their email so that a therapist can contact them. Still, Schwartz said that nobody sees that except that therapist.

While many who have never experienced therapy might consider it lying on a couch while another person listens to them, that is often a lack of understanding, Schwartz said.

The number of folks that I speak who are like, Oh, thats nice. I dont need therapy. Im not crazy. And its like, Hmm, like, you dont get what this is, Schwartz said. And so part of this journey is how weve been developing this service and making it really easy to find a therapist who gets you, that you trust and feel comfortable with, but creating a dialogue about what can happen there and how you can grow.

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The site also has therapists that use different methods than traditional talk therapy. Nina L. Garcia is the founder of Houston Creative Arts Therapy and uses art to work with her clients.

Creative arts therapies, which at present include drama therapy, art therapy, music therapy, poetry therapy and dance/movement therapy, according to the National Coalition of Creative Arts Therapies Associations, allow people to indirectly process a variety of therapeutic goals, leading to greater overall wellness (emotionally, physically, socially, spiritually and so on), said Garcia.

Garcia added that people enter into therapy for a variety of reasons, but sometimes talk therapy alone does not get the whole job done. She cautions those that would say they are not creative that they each make creative decisions in life every day and urges them to give it a try.

Through working on the website, Schwartz said he has learned that going to therapy or finding a great therapist that really works for them is not something many people talk about. So he said promoting therapy is sort of difficult. To help battle that stigma, the website is starting a new social media campaign called #Voicesoftherapy to get people to share about their experiences with therapy and how it has bettered their lives. They published their first story on Wednesday, Dec. 18, and Schwartz shared his own here. The stories can be shared both anonymously or with the authors name. To share your story, visit here.

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Schwartz said there are many excellent mental health and therapy resources across Houston and that he is excited to spread the word so that people can work toward better, fuller lives.

Theres really great support and resources available. There are so many great therapists throughout Houston, I mean, folks who specialize in all sorts of things and can help you with all [types of issues], no matter what, Schwartz said. And on the scale. I mean, people just dont know that that exists, right? And not only that it exists, but that it can be affordable and accessible to them.

To learn more or do a short questionnaire toward finding a therapist who could help you, visit https://mentalhealthmatch.com/. For more information on services Garcia offers, visit https://houstoncreativeartstherapy.com/.

tracy.maness@hcnonline.com

Mental Health Match helps more than 500 Houston-area residents find help – Chron

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