"Virtual talking therapy didn't feel user-friendly"

Frankly the whole experience working through Dr Julian has been really unpleasant and not very helpful. I think that the operation, messaging, branding, the portal etc. are all presented in an extremely commercial, contractual and transactional way that isn't user-friendly at all.

I have portals to use for work, ordering medication, ordering specialist medication from the hospital, booking appointments, viewing test results, logging symptoms - all different systems entirely. I don't understand what's wrong with Zoom/Teams and what the benefit is of hosting Dr Julian on its own platform aside from a boost to the brand.

Auto-generated messages sent immediately after a missed appointment are not what anybody who has issues with anxiety needs to see or be told at that precise moment. I was quite shocked when I saw the time it had been sent. Even a basic delayed send on that message might be an obvious step to an organisation that should understand mental health, to prevent further (unnecessary) distress.

People with chronic illnesses can have unpredictable symptoms (I don't have to tell you that) so messaging with phrases like "cancelled without notice" make me want to throw my phone at the wall! Wouldn't it be nice if I had some notice of my symptoms?! I appreciate it's probably lifted from the Dr Julian T&Cs, but again... there's obviously a human aspect to bear in mind that requires some nuance and that just isn't there.

I feel there's a distinct lack of care in the messaging and branding. Even the name Dr Julian (having mentioned to a few friends who work in healthcare) has a slightly sinister sound to it, in my view. If someone thought it sounded friendly and welcoming to name it that, I can't think where they were coming from.

At the invitation stage I was sent repeated reminders to select a therapist before the referral expired. At that time there was only one therapist of the hundreds on the portal who claimed to have experience supporting people with long term illnesses but was only available first thing in the mornings. Although I do tend to struggle more in the mornings, I thought it made sense given that what I need help with is managing negative thoughts when symptoms like spasticity issues, dexterity and forgetfulness pop up and cause accidents or pain.

In terms of our sessions together, I felt I made my expectations and wishes around what I wanted to work on very clear. I felt like we spent far too long discussing their style of therapy and what CBT is despite me mentioning that I'd had 2 courses of CBT already - one from MS UK after diagnosis and then sessions last year with an NHS therapist. I understand everyone's approaches are different but I don't remember spending more than 10-15 mins on the subject last time and that definitely felt like enough.

To be honest, the sessions felt more like talking therapy and I was very aware that of the 6 sessions I was offered at the start, we'd already spent 2 exploring and we were going to continue that in session 3.

I requested therapy through IAPT at the recommendation of my MS nurse, precisely to work on learning techniques to deal with those very specific moments of hopelessness that send my mood plummeting, usually then incapacitating me for the rest of the day. I felt I made that very clear in our first session so I didn't see how delving into my childhood and issues around self esteem was going to help me practice and integrate those coping techniques with such a limited number of sessions.

I would like to send feedback about my experience with Dr Julian to IAPT and will ask if they'll consider reviewing the terms of the contract as I don't feel it meets the needs of people with unpredictable illnesses like MS, Parkinson's, FM, MND, chronic fatigue etc.