Lost in the mental health maze? What you actually need is the right guide
My Triage Network founder Dr Patapia Tzotzoli on why finding help shouldn't feel harder than asking for it - and why the answer isn't another app
Sally Saunders
ADVERTORIAL PROMOTION
Search for an assessment or therapy today and you won’t struggle to find options. You’ll struggle to find your way out of them.
Numerous associates in private clinics. Hundreds of independent practitioners. A dozen offers or therapeutic models with names you half-recognise. Apps promising to “match” you in minutes. Web platforms, directories, AI chatbots – each claiming to have solved access to care, each operating in its own disconnected corner of it.
For someone already anxious, low, or in crisis, that isn’t choice. It’s one more obstacle standing between them and help.
Dr Patapia Tzotzoli has spent more than 20 years inside that landscape as an HCPC-registered clinical psychologist trained at King’s College London, practising across the UK. What she kept seeing wasn’t a shortage of good practitioners – it was a system so fragmented that even good practitioners couldn’t find the right clients, nor clients the right professionals. So she built My Triage Network (MTN): an expert-led triage and matching service that puts a real clinical psychologist – a human compass, not an algorithm – between the person asking for help and the professional best placed to give it.
We asked her to explain what My Triage Network actually does, and why she believes the answer to a broken system is a human one.
What problem is My Triage Network really solving?
“It’s not just the fragmentation – it’s what’s filled the gap it has left behind. Much of what claims to fix access to care today is still just filtering: an algorithm sorting profiles, a chatbot asking questions, or unqualified staff making a best guess. None of that is clinical decision-making, and none carries the accountability of a registered professional. There are too many clinics, practitioners, specialties and therapeutic models, and now too many ‘AI-powered’ solutions layered on top – all disconnected from one another. Whether you’re an individual, a third-party referrer, or an organisation seeking the right mental health services, you’re handed an impossible map and told to find your own way. MTN exists to be the guide and the intelligence behind the guidance.”
How is this different from a therapist-matching app, another mental health platform, or a directory?
“An algorithm can sort by variables such as postcode, price and availability. It can’t sit with someone’s history, hear what they’re not quite saying, and make a clinical judgement about fit – the therapeutic approach, the practitioner’s style, the level of expertise a particular presentation actually needs. That’s clinical decision-making, built on years of training. I triage every person myself. It’s a hands-on, in-depth, premium standard of matching.”
Who is MTN actually built for?
“Everyone who has to navigate this landscape. Individuals, couples and families come to MTN directly, as do third-party referrers – solicitors, case managers or other mental health professionals among them – and businesses needing the right support for an employee fast, without guessing their way to an answer. On the other side, MTN works with a carefully vetted network of practitioners and clinics whom I know personally as well as professionally, and with whom I have built trusted relationships over many years.”
You’ve described My Triage Network as an “ecosystem.” What do you mean by that?
“Aan app, a directory or a platform simply lists names in a database. An ecosystem is different: every practitioner is connected through one central point – me – so a client’s journey is guided through it seamlessly, rather than being handed off and left to find their own way. The network includes psychologists, psychotherapists and counsellors, alongside allied professionals such as psychiatrists, nutritionists, health coaches, personal trainers and others, so a multidisciplinary team can be assembled around the client when needed, quickly and efficiently. I hold the whole map, so no one has to become an expert in a system that even professionals can find confusing. And if someone finishes with one practitioner and needs another, I help them move on quickly and smoothly, without disruption to their journey.”
To anyone currently stuck trying to find the right person to talk to, Dr Tzotzoli is clear: “It isn’t a failure of effort on your part – the system genuinely is this complicated, and you shouldn’t have to solve it alone before you’ve even started getting help. Mental health services only work when there’s a good fit. My job is to give you the best possible recommendation from the outset, rather than leaving you to trial-and-error your way there.”
My Triage Network offers two ways to get triaged. The free route gives you Dr Tzotzoli’s own personal review and recommendations, for anyone who isn’t in a rush. The Priority Triage Consultation adds faster turnaround, a one-to-one consultation, and priority matching, for when things feel complex, unclear, or time-sensitive. Both rest on the same principle – a human compass, not an algorithm, personally reviewing your situation – the difference is only speed and depth of support.
Ready to stop guessing and find the right mental health support? Get Triaged today at mytriagenetwork.com/triage.
Dr Patapia Tzotzoli is an HCPC-registered clinical psychologist and founder of My Triage Network – winner of Most Trusted Mental Health Concierge 2026 (UK) at the GHP Mental Health Awards – and My Psychology Clinic.
