The treatment for mental health issues often involves particular difficulties we rarely hear about, and a Toronto-based startup called TranQool is hoping it’s found a way to alleviate them.

Just finding the right therapist is a challenge, and the need for complete confidentiality complicates matters further. It’s hard to meet a therapist during business hours without colleagues knowing why you’re leaving work. Even meeting a therapist can be treacherous because someone may see you entering or leaving a clinic.

That’s why TranQool Co-Founder and CEO Chakameh Shafii and her team are developing an online platform that helps people with mental health issues find and work with the best therapist possible.

“We connect people with mental health professionals and we facilitate a secure video therapy session on the platform,” she said in an interview in the Communitech hub, where TranQool is now being mentored. “You don’t have to leave your house to use it, so it reduces the stigma. Everything in it is about convenience.”

Like many of the best startups, TranQool grew out of a difficulty that Shafii herself was going through. Having a Masters degree in mechanical engineering from University of Toronto, Shafii last year was working for a Fortune 500 company when she began to feel confused and anxious. She wanted to talk to a professional about her anxiety, but couldn’t find the right person.

“I just needed to talk to someone and that’s when I started looking for a therapist -- someone I was comfortable with and fit around my schedule,” she said.

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What she found was that it’s hard for people in her position to find a therapist to talk to. Shafii and her co-founders are working on improving the treatment of mental health. She believes it’s a huge problem given that one in five Canadians have a mental health problem and anxiety and stress are the most common health problems among young people in the country.

The TranQool platform allows the users to search a database of therapists to try to find the right one. All are licenced social workers and are trained in cognitive behavioural therapy.  Once the patient and therapist are matched, they can book a video session, often outside office hours. It means the patients can fit the sessions into their schedule and is assured complete privacy.

Each session costs the user $60, which is an attractive rate given that therapists generally charge $120 to $400 per session. The therapists like the program because it allows them to work outside their normal hours and make extra income.

Tranquool plans to launch its product on Jan. 22 and is hoping for about 1,000 beta users. It already has a stable of 60 therapists. The initial market for the product is restricted to Ontario because it must adhere to provincial health regulations.

Shafii and her co-founder do eventually want to take the product across Canada. They hope to expand into Nova Scotia in late 2016 and then move into other provinces.

“I’m trying to solve a problem that I personally had,” she said. “This was a problem that faced me and a lot of my friends. Our mission is to make therapy affordable for Canadians.”