Europe 1 10:32 a.m., March 11, 2022
Cases of depression and anxiety have increased by 25% worldwide: this is what the WHO said on March 2, in its new memoir.
Victim of COVID, mental health looks sad.
Additional observation: access to psychological care is also hampered, reinforcing general malaise and an increase in suicidal behavior.
We have never needed so much therapeutic follow-up and yet, getting an appointment in the office is sometimes an obstacle course.
However, another solution exists: online therapies.
The E-Health Clinic is one of them.
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Between the pandemic and ultra-digitalization, the e-health sector is developing with great fanfare and is finding a special place in the hearts of users: it is no longer imperative to leave home to meet a caregiver and benefit from a consultation.
This is what La Clinique E-Santé offers with its online therapy service: your psychologist is in your pocket!
Burn-out, stress, depressive disorder, hypersensitivity, anxiety, giftedness, eating disorder, emotional dependence, phobias, bereavement, toxic relationships, addictions...: all clinical psychologists at La Clinique E-Santé have expertise in a pathology in particular.
Some of them are also researchers.
Depending on their therapeutic practice (integrative therapy, behavioral and cognitive therapy known as CBT, hypnotherapy, etc.), they follow treatment protocols adapted to patients.
By creating support as effective as in the office, with results that are even faster, Alexandre Chombeau has won the challenge of transforming online therapy.
Combining digital strategy and psychotherapy
Mental health doesn't wait, neither does Alexandre Chombeau.
The General Manager of La Clinique E-Santé has always been part of the digital world.
Avant-garde, in 2006, he developed his first site, quickly monetized, when he was still only a high school student.
Then comes the creation of his web referencing agency, a few years later.
Opportunities are available to him and the growth of his activities explodes: he firmly anchors himself as an expert in digital entrepreneurship.
He says : "
What I like the most is creating a company from scratch, with zero euros, and succeeding just with my hands and my time, to make it a public utility project, certainly profitable, but above all, which people like.
My role is above all to create the strategy that will allow the growth of the company
”.
On the strength of his experiences, he then distills his advice in a few online articles, and finds himself invited to a television show.
It was on this set that he met Christèle Albaret, a renowned psychosociologist.
Together, they decided to pool their expertise and founded La Clinique E-Santé in 2020 in order to offer therapy remotely, through a site and an application.
By eliminating all the constraints linked to traditional psychotherapy (delays, travel, cost, etc.), digital therapy immediately promotes psychological follow-up and its success.
Combine digital strategy and psychology to promote high-end user experience and therapeutic effectiveness?
This application takes the form of a new challenge for Alexandre Chombeau, who says: “
The main difficulty when developing an application in the field of mental health is to make concrete what is abstract.
As technical director, it took me long weeks to perfectly transcribe the functional needs of the clinical psychologists who worked on the application with me
”.
Then specify:
What we must be able to do is to create a common language, from psychology to technical reality, and succeed in adding value to the user experience, the patient experience, while ensuring compliance with the law and the proper functioning of the application at all times
”.
write to heal
La Clinique E-Santé's online psychotherapy is based on the principle of exposure to narrative reality.
Writing is at the heart of the care process, it is about putting words to the ailments.
No appointment to make: immediacy dominates.
By directly transcribing what is experienced by the patient, there is no loss of information, and it becomes easier to understand what is at stake in him, his mechanics, his emotions and his thoughts.
Downloading the application is not mandatory, but offers the advantage of receiving notifications from the assigned psychologist.
The patient can write to him whenever he wishes, day or night.
With the help of digital, this narration is also possible by audio or video messages.
The mode of communication is up to you, the priority being that the patient feels comfortable and free to express himself.
This is also one of the strengths of online therapy: detaching yourself from the gaze of the caregiver to succeed in exteriorizing, which is not possible in the office, and still hinders a large number of people.
With a response time of less than 24 hours, patients can consult their dedicated psychologist every day.
Questioned by Marie France, Christèle Albaret, psychosociologist and founder of La Clinique E-Santé, discusses this therapeutic link: “
I deeply believe in digital therapy, simply because I have been observing its results for over a year.
The patients are delighted and we see it in all the opinions they leave us on the internet.
Some had been followed for months, even years in practice, they were not progressing.
Not because in-office therapies do not work, quite the contrary, but because for some, reinforced daily support is a necessity.
Many people need moral support and strength in this context which is theirs, and digital therapy precisely makes it possible not to put limits on healing: the psychologist is available every day.
Patients can write to him in the middle of the night through the application, they will have an answer in less than 24 hours.
The psychologist is there,
in this ordeal, with them, everywhere and until the end.
It is an exceptional bond that is created
".
The choice of psychologist is made by the patient according to his needs and taking into account the disorder he is facing.
Each of them masters specific areas of expertise and different therapeutic approaches.
Alexandre Chombeau then specifies: “
Patients can choose the therapy they want to follow: art therapy, CBT, hypnosis… The psychologists who work with us are the best: it is not enough to be a psychologist and to hold an ADELI number. to work at La Clinique E-Santé.
The psychologists are rigorously selected, but also according to their appetite for digital technology.
»
The subscription formula varies: monthly or quarterly, again it's up to the person to decide.
A short therapy can be relevant for support on specific issues.
To treat a disorder, however, long-term therapy seems more appropriate.
With a decreasing rate, the week of consultation is at 37 euros in the event of quarterly subscription: in the office, the sessions fluctuate between 60 and 120 euros, depending on the city, the reputation of the practitioner and his specialty.
Finally, it is possible to change psychologist, free of charge, if it is not suitable, regardless of the reason.
On these points, Christèle Albaret explains: "
I am proud to say today that a week of therapy at La Clinique E-santé costs less than a single session in the office without affecting the quality of the follow-up, and that in addition, if ever the feeling does not pass, it is possible to change psychologists without having to pay a penny more.
It is very important for our team, mental health must be accessible to all
.
»
Exercises, workshops and social networks
All the exchanges carried out with the psychologist are recorded in the patient's space, allowing him to observe his evolution and to strengthen the therapeutic link.
Beyond that, the current application offers individual exercises, but also tests.
One of the added values of La Clinique E-Santé is being able to observe its therapeutic progress directly, thanks to indicators.
The general manager then notes: “
Many clinics say they do online therapy, but do teleconsultation, without close follow-up.
With La Clinique E-Santé, there is a gain in time and efficiency which means that the patient quickly feels the evolution and abandons his therapy much less.
In addition, he sees his evolution graphically, through multi-step protocols
.
Therapeutic workshops, in the form of videoconferences, take place every two weeks, on a specific theme, letting go for example.
Close to what can be called "groups of words", it is Christèle Albaret who is responsible for their animation.
Patients are then free to actively participate or simply listen.
Beyond the advice given, these exchanges make it possible to recreate social ties, to communicate about their respective troubles and to take a step back from themselves.
Former patients are sometimes invited: a saving moment in the therapeutic process, because when one suffers, one almost forgets, in certain cases, the healing to come.
Some patients go so far as to form relationships and become real supporters for each other.
An actor in mental health and working to lift taboos around mental disorders, La Clinique E-Santé is full of quality content accessible free of charge: videos by Christèle Albaret are published daily on the YouTube channel, articles and files are uploaded online several times a week on the site's blog, tests provide initial diagnostic information and, for fans of the audio format, there is even a podcast!
Sometimes, people call customer service to subscribe, explaining to the adviser: “
I saw this video of Christèle and that's exactly what is happening to me!
".
Beyond accompanying and curing, it is also a question of offering visibility to pathologies that are still too often overlooked.
Thanks to its lives dedicated to subjects that are sometimes little discussed (for example, endometriosis and its psychological consequences) and strong social networks, La Clinique E-Santé has built up a curious and invested community, which openly discusses its ailments.
Alexandre Chombeau reacts: “
I don't know of any other community where people dare to speak publicly, under YouTube videos, of their psychological disorders.
There is clearly an effect in people realizing that they are not alone.
Let's not forget that there is still this very strong dogma, present in our society, on the fact that therapy is reserved for "crazy people"...
»
The E-Health Clinic 2.0
Finally, the strong point of La Clinique E-Santé is to make therapy accessible and fun to everyone: the results are indeed there.
However, Alexandre Chombeau intends to go even further by proposing a new application within a few months in order to guarantee an ever more qualitative and participative user experience: "
This year, we are going to release a new application that is much more intuitive and even more fluid, with more free content, guides, sheets, tests.
Everything will be in digital format, zero PDF.
We will develop interactive exercises and intensity scales to encourage participation.
We plan to work on programs independently, without a psychologist, with videos, in an interactive way
”.
With 300,000 readers on the blog each month, 1,500 people carrying out the tests each day and hundreds of satisfied patients, La Clinique E-Santé seems to define itself as the French nugget of online psychotherapy.
With the upcoming prospect of deploying its services outside France, Alexandre Chombeau concludes: “
There is an in-depth transformation of morals and we want to support it by making our mental health tool available.
Today, we are in a messaging space, but in the long term we would like to develop therapy in autonomy, that is to say, arrive at a guided therapy that will include artificial intelligence, allowing us to know the protocols that work best. according to age, sex… The foundations of this artificial intelligence are also currently being laid”
.
Autonomous therapy, artificial intelligence: exceptional possibilities are emerging for the future of La Clinique E-Santé.
More than a transformation, online therapy is experiencing a revolution!