What is PsyDesk.org?

Psydesk.org was the first purely social initiative in the field of mental health to offer the free CBTWebHelper service. It was an interactive online platform that facilitates collaboration between psychotherapists and clients, assists mental health professionals in their day-to-day practice, and promotes Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and research. It operated from 2014 until 2022.

Our aim was for 95 per cent of the costs of maintaining and expanding the service to be covered exclusively by donations and grants from the community of mental health professionals and related educational services.

Up until then, the platform supported Greek, English and German.

Through the app, the therapist could:

Create accounts for his patients, ensuring their anonymity for greater security (data storage on secure servers, encrypted and anonymous). Only the psychotherapist's email and name are mandatory to open a free account (the rest of the professional details are optional). For each new patient/client that he enters, only the registration number from his Patient Book that he keeps in his office (on physical or electronic media) is required.
Conduct, in combination, remote sessions via the internet (redirecting to talky.io) while taking notes that are considered important for the successful outcome of the treatment.
Create dynamic Dysfunctional Thought Diaries (DDD) based on the course of the treatment, adding, removing and changing the order of the columns. This feature is very useful, as the DDD is constantly evolving depending on the course of the treatment.
To create a library of psycho-educational material with material from the internet (image, video, text), to import PDF documents, images and jpg/png diagrams that he has created in order to assign them to patients on a case-by-case basis with the aim of providing knowledge that facilitates the self-management of the problem he is facing.
To use psychometric tests for the quantitative assessment of patients, to compare the course of treatment statistically and with graphs.
To facilitate the formulation of the case and the patient's treatment plan with coded elements of CBT.
To schedule sessions on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
To conduct research work based on anonymous psychometric data created by the users of the platform.
Create and print reusable CBT measurement sheets regarding the problem faced by each patient
Schedule daily SMS notification of the day's obligations (sessions, actions, etc.) that have been entered in their personal calendar.
Connect via mobile device to review work with a selected patient (currently only view Patient Dysfunctional Thoughts Diary, patient notes, appointment management)

Through the app, the recipient of psychotherapy services could also:

To log in to the system at any time and complete his/her own Dysfunctional Thoughts Diary.
To utilize the psycho-educational material assigned to him/her by the therapist.
To complete assessment questionnaires assigned to him/her by the therapist.
To plan activities (behavioral activation, behavioral experiments) in his/her own diary in collaboration with the therapist.
To enrich parts of his/her history that emerge during therapy.
To create notes (flash cards) that promote the progress of his/her therapy.
To connect via a mobile device in order to update his/her Dysfunctional Thoughts Diary, his/her session notes, and his/her activity diary.

CBTWebHelper was supported by two regional applications from psydesk.org. One offered free and anonymous, valid psychometric tests that helped you gain self-awareness. It also offered the option to contact (always anonymously, without having to provide an email address) specialists using the platform, for initial advice regarding the problem faced by the anonymous user. The other feature allowed users to find an available specialist via Google Maps, in various cities across Greece and Europe more generally.