Some insights for people solving for mental health!

Rainmatter Health
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These insights come from personal experience, coupled with conversations with a ton of psychologists (yes, for real) and people going through mental health disorders.
Note: This is human generated, AI just to spell check and grammar check :slight_smile:

  1. The Indian Government’s Recognition of Psychologists:
    The Indian government officially recognizes Clinical Psychologists through the Rehabilitation Council of India. To become a licensed Clinical Psychologist, one must complete a 5-year academic path (BA/B.Sc. + MA/M.Sc.) followed by a 2-year M.Phil. in Clinical Psychology from an RCI approved institution.

But here’s the catch, the term “therapist” or “counsellor” is not legally protected in India.
This means someone can call themselves a therapist even after just a 3-month crash course or a basic certification.
How many people are actually aware of this?
While a licensed Clinical Psychologist may charge ₹800–₹3,000 per session, someone without an RCI license but calling themselves a therapist might charge just ₹500. That seems more affordable to the masses.

But this is exactly why so many people end up seeing underqualified practitioners, have a poor experience, and lose hope in therapy. Without ever having met a properly trained psychologist.

  1. Lack of Patience and Money:

After speaking with countless psychologists, most say that the first 3 to 5 sessions are just for history-taking. The psychologist needs to thoroughly understand the patient’s background before starting actual therapy.

There are two problems here:
a) A patient might say: “I’ve attended 5 sessions. That’s one per week, which means 5 weeks, and I still don’t feel better.” So they give up on therapy.

b) Affordability: The patient may have spent Rs. 2,400–5,000 just on history-taking sessions, without seeing any major benefit. So they quit because they can’t afford to continue.

Solution:
Most mental health disorders involve loneliness as a component. Simply replacing therapists with AI chatbots wouldn’t make sense.

But what if an AI-powered history-taking system existed?
Imagine this: A patient fills out a detailed form about their personal history, childhood, family, relationships, habits, diet, friends, and a typical day in their life. This data is then passed to the therapist to review it. The first session is used just to verify these details and add if any.

This allows actual therapy whether it’s Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Exposure Therapy or any other form of therapy to begin from Session 2.

The result?
A patient who lacks patience sees faster progress and a patient who lacks money also benefits as the effective therapy starts earlier.

Even if the person doesn’t like the therapist and wants to switch to another one, maybe someone more affordable, they don’t have to start from scratch. Their history is already documented.

These are my insights and opinions. Hope this helps :slight_smile:

@kvsingh

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What if the other key aspects of initial sessions is also ‘building the trust’ and lack of human interaction deprives them of that trust?

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Agree that’s important too. Therapy needs to be adopted as normal at an early age because its usually hard to adopt it when you’re older. Eg: My cousins from the US go to therapy once or twice a year even if they don’t feel the need. Its like a routine check up for the mind. But here, there is still some amount of stigma especially in 30+ age group.

When young people(best TG), students need it. Affordability plays a key role is what I feel. My opinion.

What are your thoughts?

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Many people still struggle to openly accept mental health challenges. Even when they do seek help, they prefer to confide in someone they trust—especially a knowledgeable, compassionate physician—because they are sharing deeply personal, often sensitive issues. These conversations are not just clinical transactions; they carry emotional weight.

Listening—truly listening—with patience can itself be therapeutic. Often, when a person talks to someone who offers undivided attention and empathy, they begin to feel better, even without formal treatment.

Mental health support is not just about gathering information. It’s about understanding human experience, showing empathy, and sometimes even sympathy. What might look like “lifestyle data” to a healthcare system or a digital platform is actually a window into someone’s lived reality.

If healthcare providers, digital platforms, or data-driven systems can acknowledge this emotional context—treating data as a representation of human life rather than numbers—they stand a better chance of achieving their goals: better outcomes for patients, trust-building, and possibly lowering costs through preventive, personalized support.

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Hey Prerith I came across your post and found your perspective incredibly sharp especially around the structural gaps in therapy access and the idea of pre-session data collection.

I’m currently building a behavior-first product (not in the therapy space, but focused on emotional alignment), and I’m looking to involve a psychologist or behavioral science expert in our founding advisory circle to help shape things responsibly.

If you happen to know someone from your conversations who’s credible and open to such collaboration (even advisory capacity), I’d be grateful if you could connect us even one strong lead would go a long way.

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I’d love to help you with this. Have messaged you.
All the very best!!