Signing up is simple: I just had to click on any of the many yellow “Get Started” buttons that pepper the Joon website. That sent me to a page that asked who I was seeking treatment for: myself or my child. It then asked what state we reside in and my child’s age. Joon only serves teenagers and young adults, ages 13 to 26. Next, I was asked to indicate the attributes of someone my child feels comfortable with: calming versus enthusiastic, humorous versus serious, and direct versus gentle. It also asked if my child would prefer a male, female, or nonbinary therapist.
I then indicated which issues my child has been experiencing by checking as many boxes as necessary from a list that included anxiety, depression, anger, body image, stress, grief, trauma, disordered eating, feeling unmotivated, LGBTQ+ identity, family issues, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts.
Joon asserts that it can assist youth with:
- Academic problems
- Anger and aggressive behaviors
- Anxiety and worry
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image
- Coping with medical conditions
- Depression or feeling sad
- Disordered eating
- Family and relationships
- Gender identity
- Grief and loss
- LGBTQ+ identity
- Life transitions
- Feeling unmotivated or lost
- Neurodivergent identity
- OCD
- Psychotic disorders
- Racial identity
- Self-esteem
- Self-harm
- Sleep trouble
- Social and communication skills
- Stress management
- Substance use
- Suicidality
- Trauma and PTSD
Next, I was told our care coordinator would be in touch with a therapist who they felt would be a good fit for my child. At that point, the site also noted that our details wouldn’t be shared with the therapist yet, and that we were under no obligation to schedule with them. I was then asked to indicate when my child would be available for therapy appointments, with options from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Sunday.
Finally, I was asked whether my child is on board with the idea of therapy, and whether we have health insurance that we plan to use. The site then outlined how financial assistance might be available through the nonprofit Joon partners with, Emotional Relief Fund. A contact number for Joon’s care coordinators was also listed.
Therapist Matching
I immediately received an email explaining that one of Joon’s care coordinators would review our information and “hand-select” a therapist. It stated that once we were matched, our therapist would have appointment availability within one business day.
Later that day, a care coordinator reached out to say that Joon did not have any male therapists available in our state, which I had indicated was our preference, and asked whether we would be open to a female therapist instead. We could be matched with a female therapist right away or be put on a waiting list for a male therapist. I responded that a female therapist was fine. Two days later, we were matched with a therapist. If the available therapists were so limited in our state that we would not be able to have our gender preferences honored, I was curious as to why I wasn’t notified of this when signing up.
The therapist was a licensed clinical social worker, and while the email didn’t provide a link to a provider bio, we were given our therapist’s full name, provider type, and a quote from the therapist about working with kids. We were offered two intake appointment slots: one five days later (three business days) or one just over a week later. This was longer than the “one business day” we were promised when signing up. I didn’t mind, but if you’re in a situation where you’d like to be seen as soon as possible, this may not be the platform for you. I booked the appointment and was charged for it right away. Payment was made via Stripe, a third-party payment processing platform, which I found unusual, but which was not necessarily a red flag.
I was then prompted to complete my son’s intake form and told that this would need to be done within 48 hours of the appointment. I kept forgetting to do this, so I received many emails and texts reminding me over the coming days. A care coordinator also personally reached out to remind me three days before the appointment, stressing that action needed to be taken ASAP.
No provider bios are available to view on Joon. Toward the bottom of the “Meet our therapists” page, a scrolling feature displays a selection of five providers, including their photo, name, provider type, and a short quote. These therapists included two licensed professional counselors, a licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT), an LMFT associate, and a licensed psychological associate. The company asserts: “Our licensed therapists are experts in evidence-based methods and come from a wide variety of backgrounds and identities, helping them understand and relate to the teens they support.”
Intake Form
The intake form had optional questions about my child’s race, gender (girl, boy, nonbinary, transgender, prefer to self-describe, or prefer not to say), and identity (LGBTQ+; transgender; Black, Indigenous, and People of Color; Asian American and Pacific Islander; neurodivergent; other). It then asked if we were comfortable receiving therapy in English and if we spoke any other languages fluently. The form then asked if my child is enrolled in school, and if so, the name of the school. Answering questions about their grade level, whether they have a job, who lives in the household, and whether there are any legal situations affecting your family are optional.
Next in the intake were questions about my child’s mental health. It asked if my child had seen a mental health professional before and whether they had ever been hospitalized for mental health reasons. Optional questions included open-ended opportunities to describe my child’s past mental health treatment and concerns, as well as anything else I thought would be helpful for the therapist to know, in text boxes.
I was then asked to provide an emergency contact and complete a mental health screener on my child’s behalf. This screener also gets sent to the child, but Joon notes that the guardian’s perspective is very helpful. This is a standard depression screener, where you indicate whether you’ve experienced things like feeling depressed or hopeless, having little interest in doing things, feeling tired, having trouble falling asleep or sleeping too much, having no appetite or eating too much, having trouble concentrating, or feeling bad about yourself, “not at all,” “several days,” “more than half the days,” or “nearly every day” over the past few weeks.
It felt very odd to be filling out a depression screener for someone other than myself, especially an older kid whom I don’t see or interact with as much as I did when he was younger. That is, I could imagine filling out a screener for my younger child, for instance, with whom I spend many more hours in the day. For my teen, I would’ve preferred a less official questionnaire that asked about behaviors I’d observed over the last few weeks, my sense of his mood, anything he’d mentioned in conversation that concerned me, and any out-of-character or generally concerning behavior. The depression screener really seems to have been created to be filled out by the patient themself, as you’d need to have a solid idea of what’s happening inside their head to be able to answer it.
Finally, I was prompted to read and agree to Joon’s cancellation and billing policies, asked who to send bills to, and again asked about insurance.
I also received reminder texts and emails about my son’s appointment the day before the appointment and again a few hours beforehand.
