Victoria mental-health experts want more people to be able to access therapy—and they’re beginning with the biggest hurdle: getting started with therapy.

Let’s Talk Access is a Victoria-founded podcast project that is now expanding across the country, with a goal of teaching people how therapy works. 

In 2022, Christa Martel launched Let’s Talk Access after a conversation with a friend, who was seeking therapy and didn’t know where to begin. It got Martel thinking about how common this problem is.

“She didn't know where to start, so we spent about three hours on the phone going through different types of modalities, the things that were coming up from her, where her family was from, what her early childhood was like,” Martel said.

“It hit me that I found that hard, and I didn't think that there was anything service-wise that taught people how to sort out for themselves what might be a good fit.”

Martel came up with an idea for a short podcast series that helped people navigate the mental-health support system. According to her research, podcasts are one of the most popular sources for education in Canada, after formal schooling.

She got funding from Storyhive—a community-powered funding program from Telus—found three people in Victoria who were seeking therapy for the first time, and made three episodes chronicling their journeys. From overwhelming Google responses to high-cost counselling and insurance barriers, the podcast captures the many reasons people give up on therapy before they even start.

“If you go to, like, Google looking for a therapist, you'll get a bunch of different things that therapists are able to help with, like anxiety, depression—they'll make a list,” said Martel. “But it doesn't necessarily mean that what they do is really well explained, or that somebody who's reading that knows what would be a good fit for them.”

One issue Martel flagged was the nebulous definition of therapy in BC. 

“Right now, anybody can call themselves a counsellor and not actually have any training, which is a little bit scary—it doesn't mean they'll be covered by insurance, right?”

She says Health BC is currently looking into regulating who can and can’t call themselves a therapist. She hopes that, as regulations are made, there will be more health coverage to ease the costs that come with therapy. Regulations for psychotherapists are slated to come into effect next year.

The first season is available now to listen to on Spotify and YouTube. Spoiler alert: by the end of the season, every participant was in therapy. 

After wrapping Season 1, Martel said she wanted to scale up the project and create a clear guide for people to understand the different forms of therapy available. In order to provide a well-informed resource, she decided to go back to school to get a master’s degree in counselling.

Four years on from that first season, Martel says Season 2 is underway and soon to be released (Martel expects episodes to be released May through August). This time, though, Martel and her team are helping more than just Victoria locals. 

Over the span of 24 episodes—expected to be released in three parts—a group of eight people will set out to find therapy in Victoria, other areas of BC, Central and Eastern Canada, and the US.

Listeners will follow in real time as the group learns in real time how to access therapy in their location. Let’s Talk Access has a volunteer advisory board of 16 mental-health professionals to help support group members.

Part 1 will explore understanding yourself, your needs, and the system. Part 2 will look at individual needs, how to interview a therapist, and navigating biases. Part 3 captures what happens once you’ve found a therapist—how to build a relationship, maintain consistency, and see progress.

Group members will also create a guide for each episode, based on their experiences, for listeners to follow along with.

“It's a written summary of stuff that we've talked about,” explained Martel. “Along with questions, so anybody who's listening can follow along and start to explore the process for themselves.”

Martel says she hopes the resource will help fill what she calls the “pre-therapy literacy gap.”

“The hope was to create, like, a free access foundational resource, because there is nothing like this in Canada.”

Click here to find more information or donate to the Let’s Talk Access project.