Frame Online Therapy Review | POPSUGAR Fitness

January 7, 2022

5 minutes read

I do not know what your path to remedy regarded like, however mine began with plenty of procrastination. “I ought to in all probability strive remedy,” I believed to myself for a couple of yr, however I had no concept the place to begin. I received so far as googling “therapists in San Francisco” earlier than getting overwhelmed by the quantity of outcomes that turned up and promptly placing it out of my thoughts for an additional three months.

So once I was approached to check out Frame Online Therapy Platform, it felt like an indication. Frame matches you with therapists based mostly in your wants and communication model, so in different phrases, it does one of many arduous elements for you: filtering your choices. Frame can also be completely free; you do not begin paying anybody till you really begin remedy. (Note that Frame is presently solely accessible in California, although the positioning has plans to expand to different states.)

I attempted Frame over the course of some weeks in 2021 and finally matched up with a therapist I’ve been seeing ever since. Here’s what my expertise was like.

How to Use Frame

As somebody who will get overwhelmed simply (see the anecdote above), one factor I favored about Frame was how easy the method was. Signing up was fast and simple, and it is not lengthy earlier than you are viewing your therapist matches.

Create an account along with your e-mail. You can enroll on Frame’s website.

Complete the consumption type. As quickly as you create your account, you are taken to a three-part consumption type. Some of it’s logistical, reminiscent of specifying for those who’re on the lookout for couple or particular person remedy and offering your normal location (zip code). Then Frame asks you to pick out the explanation why you are looking for remedy and the communication model that works greatest for you, like whether or not you favor structured or free-flowing periods, or an lively therapist versus one who’s extra passive.

Browse your therapist matches. After you fill out your consumption type, Frame sends you the highest six therapists that match most intently along with your wants. You can examine their specialties, pursuits, and method to remedy on their profiles.

Message as many therapists as you need. Once you’ve got recognized the therapists you are serious about, you may join with them on Frame’s chat platform. This half could be nerve-wracking, however as quickly as you open up the chat, there is a Frame message telling you what to do. In my messages, I simply instructed the therapist I used to be serious about establishing an intro name with them and requested them once they had been accessible to speak. I messaged six therapists and received responses from 4 of them.

Set up intro calls. Intro calls are like a 20-minute get-to-know-you speak with a therapist to see if they will meet your wants. I arrange calls with three therapists and, in all honesty, was extraordinarily anxious about each, however Frame gives tips on what to anticipate in an intro name that will help you really feel extra comfy.

Choose your therapist. Frame makes it simple to show down the therapists you are not serious about by merely checking a “Not a Fit” field within the chat. I took just a few days to consider it, then messaged the therapist that I needed to maneuver ahead with. We then moved off Frame to arrange an appointment on her private web site. (Frame would not provide remedy straight by way of its web site, so when you select a therapist, you progress to their platform, whether or not teletherapy or in-person.)

What I Liked About Frame

Frame did not utterly alleviate my anxiousness about discovering a therapist (and I did not anticipate it to), but it surely undoubtedly helped. This platform did plenty of the scary work for me and supplied suggestions and steering for the duties it could not full, like doing intro calls or messaging with therapists. Here’s what I favored about my expertise with Frame:

Frame streamlines what’s normally an advanced and intimidating course of. Frame took an enormous and scary process — discovering a therapist — and broke it down right into a collection of easy ones: fill out the questionnaire, browse therapists, begin messaging, do an intro name. Instead of finding therapists by myself and establishing calls by way of separate web sites — which is plenty of anxiety-inducing work — I solely had to make use of one platform and acquired steering by way of every step.
It has useful articles and recommendation for elements I used to be anxious about. In addition to the matching and messaging platform, Frame affords articles on the extra nerve-wracking elements of beginning remedy, like tips on how to put together for an intro name and what to anticipate throughout your first remedy session. These articles are sometimes written by or embrace interviews with therapists, and it was handy that they had been featured proper on the platform.
You’re not ranging from scratch. Finding a therapist is tough, and an algorithm will not have the ability to inform you how your character will mesh with another person’s (it doesn’t matter what the relationship apps inform you). But I favored that Frame did the preliminary sorting for me, as a result of I knew that the therapists I used to be contemplating had been not less than able to addressing my wants, even when our personalities did not find yourself meshing. It gave me a verified and extra personalised record of choices than I’d discover on Google.
Frame is free. It’s free to join Frame, message with therapists, and do your intro calls. You do not pay for something till you really begin remedy (once you pay the therapist straight).

Did Frame Work For Me?

I related with my therapist on Frame and have already had a number of periods together with her, and thus far, it is going nicely. I selected her out of the three intro calls I had, and whereas I really feel like our communication types matched up one of the best, it is a testomony to Frame’s matching system that I might’ve seen myself with any of the three therapists I spoke to.

Before making an attempt Frame, I used to be so anxious in regards to the technique of discovering a therapist that I’d been placing it off for months. I’d constructed it up in my head to be this lengthy, unimaginable factor that I did not even know tips on how to begin, which is why Frame’s method labored nicely for me. Every step was small, easy, and low-stakes: if I made a decision I did not like a therapist, I might finish the dialog at any level, earlier than or after an intro name. And it did not really feel like I used to be doing this all by myself, making an attempt to determine this course of on my own. There was at all times a set of directions or an article to information me by way of the following step, providing additional assist with out being overwhelming.