We started out trying to solve our own problem

It started at a monthly networking breakfast for independent mental health practitioners on Chicago’s North Shore. Originally a support group, we often talked about the challenges of running a practice and the issues around marketing. We were trained to help people, not to promote ourselves, but attracting clients was a reluctant necessity.

At one breakfast, a psychiatrist confronted that tension, pointing out that providing mental health care is both a profession and a business, and that the two need not be in conflict. We can be deeply committed to our clients and still be savvy business professionals

A few of us decided to meet separately to focus on the business side of our work. Marketing was one of our biggest challenges. We clarified that successful businesses start by clearly communicating their value to the people they want to serve, which for us meant communicating what made each of us the right person to help someone with a particular problem.

More and more, people were searching online, but what they found were directories filled with headshots, credentials, and perhaps a few paragraphs of biography. We weren't giving prospective clients much of a way to understand who we were or what made us a good fit for them. No wonder so many of our new clients still came through word-of-mouth referrals, an inefficient and unpredictable way to build a practice

We had a marketing problem. But the more we thought about it, the more we realized it wasn’t ours alone.

Then we looked at it from the other side of the office door

Choosing a therapist is a deeply personal decision. Yet the information available online is often surprisingly impersonal. Page after page of names, credentials, headshots, and brief bios tell them very little about what it might actually be like to work with them. It’s little wonder that people still turn to friends and family for recommendations. 

We called this the front door problem. Taking the first step into therapy is hard enough. Yet the way we presented ourselves online gave prospective clients too little information to feel confident taking it.

It turned out to be the same problem

We had started out trying to solve a business problem: how to help good therapists reach the people who need them. We discovered a related problem on the other side: how to help people find a therapist they feel confident reaching out to.

Therapists needed a better way to communicate who they are, what they offer, and whom they help. Prospective clients needed a better way to recognize the people who might be right for them. We couldn't solve one problem without solving the other. 

So we built a marketplace to bridge that gap.

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Why “Agora”?

We chose the name “AGORA” to reflect the open marketplace of ancient Greece, where people met, exchanged ideas, and decided whom to trust. It captures the human interplay between provider and consumer, which is what we set out to build.

Where we are now

I'm James Dod, Ph.D., a psychologist and President of AgoraMHN. I spent nearly 20 years practicing within a major hospital system and have been in private practice for more than 22 years. Word-of-mouth referrals have fortunately sustained my practice, but I've watched brilliant colleagues struggle to build a stable client base without an established network. I've also seen how difficult it can be for people seeking help to find a therapist who feels right for them.

I believe both sides deserve better. Therapists should have a meaningful way to communicate who they are and whom they can help. People seeking care should have the information they need to make their own informed choices.

AgoraMHN is new. We don’t have thousands of success stories, yet. What we have is a clear understanding of the problem, a platform to solve it, and a commitment to building something better for therapists and the people looking for them.