Psychology and business – text-based Psychological Help

WeTalk.pl is one of the first companies in Poland offering psychological and psychotherapeutic support online and the only one offering such help in text form?

BM: Yes. We have been operating on the market since 2019. The pandemic caused a change in the approach of representatives of the psychological and psychotherapy industry. The belief that the only method of therapeutic interaction is a face-to-face conversation in the office turned out to be wrong. Help can be successfully provided via instant messaging, and the distance between the specialist and the client or patient is no longer important. However, forms of online psychological interactions based on instant messaging require both parties to book a date, a camera, and a quiet, intimate place for the conversation. Our proposal – text help and online psychologist meets the needs of people who need other solutions. We turn a weekly session with a specialist into a daily exchange of information without the need to arrange a day and time.

Contact with a psychologist without a meeting? Psychotherapy without a therapeutic session?

GD: Exactly. In the virtual office, to which only the client and the specialist chosen by him have access, there is a daily exchange of messages – descriptions, questions, comments, impressions and feelings. The client can write whenever and as much as he wants, and the specialist is obliged to reply once a day, on every working day. In this method, there is no need to synchronize the meetings because it is not a chat with a specialist. The intensity of the daily exchange of important content corresponds to the regularity of traditional forms of assistance.

Could this be effective?

GD: After a few years, the answer is no longer our beliefs, but the huge number of customers who encourage others. We learn from many people that they would not have the courage to say in a live meeting what they managed to write and what became the beginning of their long psychotherapy. The text form allows some people to pursue real and effective psychotherapy based on a deep therapeutic relationship. This is a way to receive regular support and help that would not be possible in a traditional form. Disability, caring for a small child or a sick family member, single parenthood, distance from stationary facilities, shift work – these are insurmountable obstacles for some people in our country.

Speaking of work, you suggest companies take care of their employees' mental health. Is it really worth getting involved in providing employees with help from psychologists or psychotherapists? Isn't this interfering in a too personal, intimate sphere of life?

BM: We offer companies not only the support of psychologists or psychotherapists. We offer sexologists, addiction therapists, coaches and many other specialists. And we don't think it's too personal. This would be the case if the employer forced employees to seek such help or directed people of their choice to seek it. Experience as a psychologist shows that many people consider contacting a specialist for a long time and postpone such a decision for an equally long time. A huge number of people go to the office when difficulties and with them mental suffering are very strong. The same experience shows that small events and impulses can help, thanks to which the use of a specialist consultation becomes a fact. Such an impulse may be a benefit offered by the employer: “If I can use it for free, then maybe…?”, “Since I don't have to go anywhere, maybe I can talk about something that has been bothering me for a long time?”

Can an employer benefit from providing specialist help for the mental health of its employees?

GD: Of course. Reducing the level of stress, tension, anxiety, the risk of neurotic and anxiety disorders, depression, improving well-being translates measurably into a sense of security, improved work quality, and reduced layoffs. Research has shown: 50% fewer lost work hours, 36% increase in productivity and 39% better work-life balance.

Psychology in business or business from psychology?

GD: Both. WeTalk is a company, a business. But it's a business with a mission. We want to bring psychology and psychotherapy to people who would not start looking for them on their own: because of shame, because of the distance, because what will others say when they find out that I go to a psychologist… Such beliefs still live in people's heads. We know how much change psychotherapy brings to the lives of people and their loved ones. We would like them to be widely available, ordinary and obvious, like seeking medical help for bodily ailments.

Where did you get the idea for text help?

BM: WeTalk is the vision and idea of ​​Grzegorz, who loves observing and being inspired by various solutions proposed by various industries. It was created from the combination of the dreams of a visionary businessman with a psychotherapeutic flair and a practicing psychologist who loves his work. I do what I like the most – psychology and working with people. I gained my experience in a psychological clinic, the Addiction Prevention and Therapy Center and the Psychiatric Department.

Shouldn't such help be free then? Helping by talking – why pay for it?

BM: Because it's a difficult job. Wonderful, but difficult. Help, support and psychotherapy are based on conversation, but it is not the same as talking to a friend. Opposite the suffering, sometimes broken and traumatized person is a specialist who is qualified to accompany the process of change, self-understanding, and building ways of coping with the future. The tool is not only knowledge, but – and above all – our personality and experience (not only professional, but also life). We work with ourselves, so caring for professional development, supervising work, undergoing self-therapy, and also resting is caring for the client. We create a relationship with him, we have to be intellectually and emotionally available and bear his emotions before he does it himself.

Do specialists engage less in text help?

GD: No. After all, the trauma, unpleasant emotions and suffering of the person they have contact with do not become less significant if they read about them rather than hear about them. If they take their profession seriously, they take up work and, above all, build a relationship with a real person, regardless of the method of contact with them. It's easy to imagine: if a loved one writes to us about their sadness and pain, we won't empathize with them or worry less than if they tell us about it over the phone or via instant messenger. It's not about the form of the message, but about what a person important to us says.

Is text help for everyone?

BM: It is an important complement to available forms of psychological assistance, direct meetings in the office and via instant messengers. WeTalk offers the enrichment of text messages with video meetings. It is liked by young people for whom writing is a natural form of sharing themselves, but it also gains recognition in other age groups.

Bibianna Muszyńska – psychologist, co-owner of WeTalk.pl. Psychologist – graduate of the University of A. Mickiewicza in Poznań, specialist in clinical psychology, court expert. She completed the Basic Course in Systemic Psychotherapy, the Intensive Course in Crisis Intervention, and diagnosis training. He has 17 years of experience working in a psychological clinic, 5 years of work in the Addiction Prevention and Therapy Center and 13 years of work in the Psychiatric Department. He cooperates with hospice, units for people with somatic illnesses and a support group for parents after the loss of a child.

Grzegorz Dąbrowski – psychologist, co-owner of WeTalk.pl, graduate of SWPS University and Warsaw School of Economics. He completed Psychotherapy Studies at the Psychoeducation Laboratory in Warsaw. She has experience in working in a Psychological Clinic, providing individual psychological assistance and co-providing psychological assistance to couples and families in private practice. She provides support for people after loss and in crisis, reporting problems in communication and relationships with others, reporting difficulties in coping with stress, as well as low self-esteem.

More at: https://wetalk.pl/