Why Your Shrink Wasn’t Offering Virtual Therapy Until Now

There was a moment a couple of years ago when I realized it was time for an intervention. While on a particularly stressful reporting trip, I picked at my cuticle so intensely that my thumb got infected.

I signed up for an app called Joyable, which is meant to help with social anxiety—the closest approximation of what I thought I was struggling with. The app had me set goals and do activities that were likely to provoke anxiety, so that I could practice managing the anxiety in the Joyable-approved way.

The app came with a counselor who, she was quick to note, was not a licensed therapist. (In my book, when I talk about using the app, I call her “Chloe” for confidentiality purposes.) Over regular phone calls, Chloe’s role was to cheer me on, help me through the activities, and, broadly, “check in with me,” whatever that was supposed to mean.