Therapy Needs to Get Help

The essay argues that while therapy demand has surged—helped by shifting attitudes, media such as “Shrinking” and “Couples Therapy,” and growing social isolation—the practice itself is being undervalued. It criticizes companies like BetterHelp for repackaging psychotherapy as low-paid gig work and highlights how AI start-ups are raising money to build “therapy-adjacent” chatbots. The author says the field remains fragmented: hundreds of approaches, few shared criteria for what outcomes count as “good,” and major differences among the main camps. Those include psychodynamic, existential-humanist, and cognitive behavioral therapy, plus approaches shaped by TikTok.