Huddle.care is the online international community for anxiety and OCD inspired by acceptance-based cognitive behavioral theory. The program includes a weekly lecture for the whole cohort that focuses on education and community building and weekly small groups that focus on applying and practicing the cognitive behavioral treatment skills. The small groups are scheduled flexibly and members can attend as many as they’d like. Each member is also encouraged to commit to daily homework and to report their progress.

At Huddle.care, we’re enthused about leveraging technology to increase connection. We are traditionally trained and licensed psychotherapists who believe in the importance of the therapeutic relationship and recognize the benefits of social support. We seek to use technology to increase the opportunity for human connection, rather than attempting to replace relationships with technology. Our technology-enabled practice streamlines the intake, scheduling, and billing processes while maintaining the quality of care offered by highly trained, licensed psychotherapists.

Transparent consultation

After signing up for a free consultation, you’ll receive an email prompting you to log in to our HIPAA-compliant member portal to tell us more about your anxiety story. We’ll assess what’s happening in your mind and then teach you how to relate differently through education and practice in a group setting. Huddle.care’s assessment is based on the latest advances in CBT and screens for specific thinking patterns that are known to create and maintain anxiety symptoms. We’ll assess what’s happening in your mind and then teach you how to relate differently through education and support in a group setting.

Improved accessibility

Anxiety is common and treatable. Americans don’t have access to a trained behavioral health provider in more than half of the United States. Even in locations with many behavioral health options, providers vary in their skill and effectiveness; choosing a provider can be an expensive leap of faith. At Huddle.care, we’ve pivoted to video-based services to offer equal opportunity to care, regardless of location. We’ve also chosen to hire only trained and licensed psychotherapists in order to take the guesswork out of choosing a good strategy for overcoming your anxiety.

Increased affordability

Anxiety disorders are chronic, episodic disorders. Sufferers will likely need support at more than one time in their lifetime. It can be time-consuming and expensive to seek individual psychotherapy for every anxious episode or on an ongoing basis. Research indicates that group therapy is as effective as individual therapy for anxiety disorders. However, groups are often not the treatment of choice for psychotherapists due to the logistical burden of getting and keeping groups going. Huddle.care leverages technology to streamline group education and support so that highly skilled psychotherapists have the chance to help more people more effectively.

Acceptance-based cognitive behavioral theory is a psychological science that studies the relationship between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. The idea is that feelings influence thinking, thinking influences behavior, and behavior influences feelings. Regardless of why someone is thinking, feeling, or behaving a certain way, they can learn to observe it and choose to respond differently. Flexibility in how you think, feel, and behave creates opportunity to live better.

Many of our members experience a rapid reduction in distress within 1-3 weeks of starting our education and support program. Oftentimes, acknowledging that you need help, describing what you experience, and receiving a helpful and compassionate response will immediately reduce some of your sufferings. In addition, the nature of anxious suffering is that the more that you try to avoid your suffering, the worse it becomes. Accurate information and education about anxiety, which you’ll receive in the first few sessions, will likely decrease that suffering.

That said, individuals’ duration in the program varies. While research indicates that CBT is effective in 6-12 weeks, our experience as psychotherapists taught us that clients do better if they see a reduction in anxiety as an ongoing process of education and support, not a prescription. The format of our education and support groups is based on that concept.

Here are examples of why some individuals stay in treatment longer than others:

• Our education can be a completely new way of thinking about your thoughts, feelings, and sensations that requires practice and ongoing discussion.
• The frequency and intensity of anxiety vary considerably and can relate to variability in outcome.
• Some individuals have more than one anxious triggers or a combination of anxiety and other triggers that require more time.
• Some life circumstances make it hard for clients to practice the new way of thinking and behaving outside of session. The change process is often slower for clients who have less time and opportunity to practice outside of session.

The Huddle.care Program has four components.

Community time

This time offers group members the chance to share their stories with the whole group. This important part of the Huddle.care program increases hope, connection, and motivation.

Education

Community time will include a short 20-30 minute lecture about a different topic each week.

Group sessions

Sessions include 3-6 members each. The format is semi-structured, prompting members to share challenges and learnings from weekly homework as well as discussion about the weekly topic. Members can sign up for up for as many groups as they like.

Homework

Homework is individualized based on members’ diagnosis and treatment plan. At the end of each group, members will be prompted to commit to their specific homework each week.

The format of the group therapy portion of the program is semi-structured. The interventions used will be consistent with acceptance-based CBT principles, without being manualized, productized, or protocol-driven.

In the first group, you should expect to share your anxiety story, explaining what type of anxiety you suffer from, how it has impacted your life, how long you’ve experienced it, and what you’re hoping for from the group. After members share, the psychotherapist will structure the group based on the issues that members share in common. On an ongoing basis, each member will start the group by sharing an anxiety experience (Example: “I noticed that my heart was racing as I tried to get on the bus and I decided to avoid it”) or question about anxiety (Example: “Can we talk more about perfectionism?”). The group leader will then facilitate the group based on the relevant topics for each member that week.

Absolutely! As professional healthcare providers, we respect the services provided by our colleagues, including psychiatrists, physicians, social workers, licensed counselors, and allied health professionals. We’re happy to collaborate with other members of your healthcare team and there is a section of our intake consultation that collects information about the other providers with whom you work.

Your Huddle.care group can be standalone education and support. You can also use it for ongoing education and support for your anxiety disorder while you work on other issues with an individual therapist and/or psychiatrist. The combination of individual and group acceptance-based CBT can be a powerful way to address your anxiety, offering you space to discuss the idiosyncratic aspects of your distress in individual coaching and the opportunity to practice and get support in group sessions.

Anxiety is chronic and episodic. Those with the biological sensitivity to developing anxiety have that sensitivity throughout their lifespans. Other factors such as life circumstance and coping style contribute to the occurrence or lack of an episode. With that in mind, some individuals quickly understand what’s happening, relate to it effectively, and are able to manage anxiety symptoms after only a few weeks of working on it. Others benefit from ongoing guidance, support, and accountability. Huddle.care’s program is flexibly designed to meet the needs of both types of individuals and everyone in between..

Our clinicians are licensed psychotherapists. They have masters degrees and doctorate degrees in clinical or counseling psychology or social work. Training to become a licensed psychotherapist varies slightly by degree. All degrees require two to six years of graduate coursework; over 4,000 hours of supervised clinical work; passing national and state-based exams; and ongoing continuing education to maintain licensure. Many of our clinicians have post-graduate specialty training in anxiety and OCD treatment.

Your consultation is free. If, after the free consultation, you’d like to join the Huddle.care program, it begins on the first day of the month. Learn more about our pricing.

While we choose to maintain the quality of our service by working outside of the constraining requirements of insurance companies, we strive to make our service affordable. The education, support, and coaching provided by Huddle.care are fee-for-service and outside of all insurance networks.

You can join Huddle.care at any time. Once you join, you are billed monthly. Email team@huddle.care at any time to cancel your membership. Please give 48 hours notice before your membership fee will be charge to cancel your membership.

We use HIPAA-compliant video conferencing and electronic health record software. It has multiple layer security with 100% end-to-end encryption. It only transmits encrypted data and never has access to your PHI. Your data is hosted in a Tier 1 secure hosting provider that specializes in helping healthcare organizations achieve and maintain HIPAA and HITRUST security requirements.

Listen to Dr. Maggie Perry describing the Huddle.care approach on a recent episode of the OCD Stories podcast.