
Show HN: Free Service to Find a Therapist - dhruvmanchala
http://www.neb.health
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dhruvmanchala
Hi everyone,

Our company, Neb, offers a free service to help you find a mental healthcare
provider. You can submit a form or schedule a phone call to explain your needs
and we come back to you with a few available matches within a week.

* we personally call all providers first to ensure they're available and a fit

* therapists and providers who can prescribe medication

* specialty, availability, culture, and other factors are taken into account

* in-network or affordable options if needed

* we can call your insurance on your behalf to help you understand your coverage

* based in San Jose, available anywhere in California

We formed our company in January and launched with another idea in mental
health in June. We just finished Startup School, and launched this service
last month. We’ve had 20 users for this service so far.

We did a lot of user interviews and found that the process of finding a mental
healthcare provider is really complicated. You have to reach out to a lot of
providers, it takes time, you have to call people, information online is
outdated, and people don’t know what to look for.

If you want help looking for a therapist, please check out our website
(www.neb.health). Otherwise, feel free to ask us any questions. Thanks!

~~~
csunbird
What is your source of revenue? How do you make money from this ?

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jaysh
Curious to know this too. It doesn't seem unreasonable to grow the service to
a model eventually where e.g. you charge a fixed price and get an initial
consultation with a therapist + their research and setup as a single fee.

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dhruvmanchala
We aren't planning to charge users at the moment, actually, that's too much
friction. We would charge mental healthcare providers.

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frereubu
I think this should have "in California" at the end of the title for clarity.

~~~
dhruvmanchala
Ya, I should have done that. I don't know how to edit it now though.

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jimmyvalmer
The site appeared as "Find the right rapist, free" because the width of my
browser cut off the static text in the splash graphic. Not a joke, not an
exaggeration. My browser width is fairly standard.

~~~
dhruvmanchala
...I see what you mean. Changed the copy for now, and we have to fix the
wrapping later. Thanks!

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brookside
There are similar services/startups in NYC i've interacted with.

My experience was it is fruitless endeavor trying to find a therapist that
_actually_ practices CBT for less than 200/hr.

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skinnymuch
How are the therapists at the lower rates otherwise?

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brookside
In my experience, bad.

For me, it seems crazy in the year 2020 that a therapist wouldn't introduce
basic analytics into the process with something like a brief mood survey after
each session to know if therapy is ...for lack of a better term..."working".

Zero therapists I've found via the NYC therapist-finder sites do this.

[https://feelinggood.com/tag/evaluation-of-
therapy/](https://feelinggood.com/tag/evaluation-of-therapy/)

~~~
dhruvmanchala
Yup, we agree user feedback and monitoring are really helpful - hopefully the
profession gets to that point.

~~~
brookside
Not to sound too frustrated here, but these CBT techniques are now 40 years
old. So hoping the profession slowly comes around seems too mild of a take for
me.

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vwcx
Honest questions:

-why should I use your service when most therapists will still want to talk with me before taking me on as a patient, repeating the same problems I am facing and evaluating whether we make a good fit?

-In my experience, a service like Psychology Today is good for narrowing certain qualitatives about a therapist. The challenge isn’t finding a therapist practicing CBT or Gestalt techniques, it’s finding someone I connect with human to human. Is this something your service makes easier?

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dhruvmanchala
Thanks for asking!

It sounds like you are a lot more informed about mental healthcare than a lot
of people, which is great. Generally, most people don't know what to look for
in terms of style or fit, and we're a lot more robust with our search.

To answer your questions:

1\. We almost always have to reach out to 20+ therapists, and routinely reach
out to 30, 40, 50 to find someone with availability and a couple of criteria
the user specifies (e.g. good with immigrants, or available Tuesday mornings).
Also if someone wants an in-network provider.

2\. This would be great, and are thinking about asking providers and users
what their communication styles are as a first step. How would you like us to
address this? What questions about the therapist would you like answered
upfront?

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Descartes1
This is a crowded space with A-list players like Psychology Today.

How do you differentiate yourselves?

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dhruvmanchala
The process of finding a mental healthcare provider is time-consuming and
overwhelming, and directories like Psychology Today are just a starting point.

You have to reach out to 15-20 therapists to find an available match, and
Psychology Today doesn't help you with that. We will reach out to 20+
therapists for you.

Also, we have a phone call with each therapist before we recommend them to you
to ensure they're available and meet your criteria as best as possible.

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m3tr0s
Great service, I advice you to take a look on your page from an iPad, about
the whole left half of the landing page's top area is out of the viewport by
default.

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dhruvmanchala
Thanks, we need to fix that.

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throw_away_8080
I can't help but mention the word "neb" is used as slang for this
[https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nebach](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nebach)
in a some Jewish communities.

~~~
dhruvmanchala
Haha, didn't know that.

