What makes mental illness more painful is it being considered as a stigma that should not be discussed with anybody. But the past few months when the world was under a complete lockdown due to the pandemic, it saw an increasing number of cases across ages, especially those who were dealing with life all alone. Apart from the common man, the frontline warriors including healthcare professionals, administrative personnel, police and others too had to deal with another level of stress that added up to their mental illness.

Such people were left with no one to their rescue, even doctors weren't available for long to help their patients with medicines and counselling. While we normally understand the stress level of these people, we miss one of the most nimble and highly impacted class of people ­ our kids ­ who were subjected to complete confinement of the house, with no space for physical activities. Adding to the woes are the online classes that created another level of stress for them who now spend hours on the small screens of mobile reading and submitting their assignments. But again technology came to their rescue. Many doctors opted to provide online counselling services to help their patients and even the frontline warriors to deal with the stress and empower them to offer the best of their service.

In our current edition of siliconindia Healthcare Magazine, we bring to you the story of such online counselling providers in our `10 Most Promising Online Psychological Counselling Providers ­ 2020' listing. We along with industry experts studied the market and the providers and shortlisted the featured companies to bring to you their story of strength, offerings, USP and others. Read to know more about them.

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