During and since the COVID-19 pandemic, more people have become interested in therapy.
A recent study published in JAMA Network found that between 2019 and 2022, therapy visits went up around 40% for commercially insured adults nationwide. Spending on mental health care also increased.
Two Bloomington counselors said what they’ve seen seems to match this trend. Jacob Register and Sehar Reshamwala both work at LifeStance Health in Bloomington. LifeStance is a national counseling group rooted in hybrid therapy.
Register and Reshamwala didn’t have any data to indicate their clientele increased, but Register estimated he has 25% more patients since the start of the pandemic.
Reshamwala said she always has a full schedule.
“There's never a time where I'm like, ‘Oh, I have no clients,’” she said. “Whenever I have an opening filled straightaway.”
To explain the increase, Reshamwala pointed to the stress that occurred during quarantine.
“A lot of people were struggling not just with the isolation but with major life changes and losses,” she said. “And I think there was also just an increased acceptance of therapy because people realized like ‘Man, we do need somebody to talk to.’”
Reshamwala added she thinks this mindset has continued “post-pandemic” or “as things have started to open up.”
Register said he thinks interest in telehealth specifically has decreased. He said people will use it when they can’t make a session in person, but more people want to meet face to face.
This is not the case for everyone, though.
“A lot of my clients have just, you know, they just tell me they kind of got uncomfortable going out in public, and it's kind of stuck around, so telehealth kind of provides an opportunity to kind of meet in the middle,” he said.
He'll start patients out online, then warm them up to in-person appointments and eventually acclimate them to going out in public for daily life.
Virtual counseling is also convenient. It means a person can fit in their session during a busy week or when the weather is bad. It also helps Reshamwala said telehealth comes in handy as a post-COVID option also because people who are under the weather can still get therapeutic services.
Register said he can stay connected with college student clients who move out of Bloomington-Normal.
“I've had clients graduate and go back home to the suburbs are into southern Illinois, you know, they don't want to have to restart and start from scratch with a therapist,” he said.
He said they transitioned to virtual sessions.
Regardless of the platform, Register said what he sees in the therapy room — the types of mood disorders or reasons people are coming to therapy — has been trending in a certain direction too. While anecdotal, Register said he thinks the number of his clients with anxiety disorders has gone up.
He estimates that around 50% of his clients have anxiety. This matches a national trend. During the first year of the pandemic, the World Health Organization said the global prevalence of anxiety and depression was up 25%.
Reshamwala said there could be a few reasons for this shift.
“Things that are going on societally definitely come into the therapy room with us,” she said. “I do also see, you know, plenty of people that have like health anxiety. And I do think that COVID had a big part to play in that as well.”
