Empathy - not academic training - is what makes a mental health provider effective. Therefore, empathy should be the primary qualification for any mental health provider. At Peer Collective, we’ve developed a quantifiable method for assessing empathy, and we’re using it to create an entirely new category of mental health provider. Our mission is to reduce the cost of counseling by 80%, increase the number of providers by 10 times, and make care accessible to everyone in the world.

Empathy - not academic training - is what makes a mental health provider effective. Therefore, empathy should be the primary qualification for any mental health provider. At Peer Collective, we’ve developed a quantifiable method for assessing empathy, and we’re using it to create an entirely new category of mental health provider. Our mission is to reduce the cost of counseling by 80%, increase the number of providers by 10 times, and make care accessible to everyone in the world.

Peer counseling helps you to:

What makes someone an excellent mental health provider is who they are as a person, not their diploma. Peer counselors are highly empathetic people who create helping relationships based on shared experiences. Our peer counselors are chosen for their empathy and are trained by experts in providing support, resources, perspective, and connection to their peers.

Peer counseling is a helping relationship based on shared experiences. It’s different from traditional therapy, because therapy is a helping relationship based on diagnosing and treating a mental disorder. Some people use peer counseling as a supplement to traditional therapy because it’s an affordable way to receive more support. Others prefer peer counseling to traditional therapy because they believe that feeling understood and supported is more important than being diagnosed.

If there’s anything about your life that you want to change, or if you’re looking to understand yourself better, peer counseling can be a great option. While the nature of the relationship is different in peer counseling compared to traditional therapy, the benefits are very similar. In fact, research suggests people with any type of challenge might benefit from peer counseling as much as therapy. The question is about the type of relationship you prefer. If you prefer an informal, non-clinical relationship, then peer counseling might be the choice for you.

In your first session, your peer counselor will seek to understand the challenges you’re facing, the change you’re hoping to see, and the type of support you need to get you there.

Some people want to feel heard and understood. If that’s you, your peer counselor will empathize with you and give you the space to find your own clarity. Other people want new resources and tools for dealing with life challenges. In that case, your peer counselor will share mental health resources that they’ve learned (and most likely used personally) until you find something that works for you. Your peer counselor will work with you to understand the type of support you want.

The chosen few who pass our simulator meet with our expert Counseling Faculty, and receive training in crisis management, privacy, ethics, and counseling techniques. After completing their training, they continue to have 24/7 access to their Counseling Faculty for support and guidance.

Our Counseling Faculty are led by our CEO and Founder, Tim Desmond. Tim is a licensed therapist, bestselling author, and Distinguished Faculty Scholar in Counseling Psychology at Antioch University-New England. All of our Counseling Faculty are licensed therapists who have taught counseling at a graduate level.

At Peer Collective, we’ve rigorously vetted all of our peer counselors for emotional intelligence, empathy, and alliance. If someone is on our platform, you can trust they are a special person. However, even the best counselors aren’t the perfect match for everyone.

Research shows that the best way to choose any mental health provider is to learn about them and trust your intuition. After 1 or 2 sessions, you will know if that person is a great match for you. If not, Peer Collective makes it easy to try a different peer counselor. In fact, many Peer Collective users have ongoing relationships with several peer counselors.

All Peer Collective sessions are over the phone or Zoom. If you’d prefer to text message instead of talking on the phone, that’s possible, but we encourage you to try phone or Zoom.

To be chosen for Peer Collective, you must complete a series of extremely challenging video simulations—tough situations you might face as a peer counselor. We record video of your responses, and they’re graded based on all the qualities & behaviors that we know create positive mental health outcomes. These include empathy, warmth, and alliance. You must score in the “excellent” range in all 7 simulations to be invited onto the platform, which is why only the top 3% are selected. That’s why you know everyone here is exceptional. But don’t believe us—try for yourself.