How we rank the professionals we suggest

When you finish your conversation, we suggest a few professionals in a set order. This page shows what decides that order and what never does.

What has to fit

A few things have to fit before we suggest a professional.

• We have checked their registration, and their insurance is current.
• Their ViaCara account is active and can take a new introduction.
• They offer the type of service you chose, such as therapy or coaching.
• They see the people the sessions are for: you alone, a couple, a family or a group.
• You share a language.
• They work in a format you chose: online, by phone or in person.
• Their lowest fee for a single session is within your budget or up to 15% above it. A reduced rate counts when you said you can use one.
• For times you said are fixed, their times overlap yours.
• For sessions in person, they work close enough to you.

Everything else sets the order. So a suggestion can be a close fit rather than a full one, and its explanation shows where.

What sets the order

Among the professionals who fit, these things decide who comes first. How they work counts most. Their areas of focus count next.

• How they work: how warm, structured and direct they are, against what you said you prefer.
• Their areas of focus, against what you raised.
• The approaches you asked for, and how well their record backs each one.
• How fully you share a language.
• How near they are, for sessions in person.
• Their identity, background and affinities, against preferences drawn from what you said.
• Their lived experience of what you raised, or of a related condition.
• Their booking and response history, which the section on newer professionals explains.

Smaller things also count: your first choice of format and times that overlap yours. A fee above your budget lowers their place a little. When you ask for more than one type of service, the top professional for each type moves up a little.

What we never use

• Payment. Nobody can pay to appear higher, and a professional's plan never changes their place.
• How you rated a session. Your rating stays out of the order.
• Guesses about who you are. Identity preferences come only from what you say in the conversation.
• A machine-learning model. A language model helps us understand what you said, but it does not set the order.

Newer professionals

A professional's booking and response history has two parts. The first is how often a first call with a client led to a booked first session. The second is how often they answered our availability requests in time, and declining counts as an answer.

Until a professional has had five introductions, their history sits at the middle. It neither helps nor harms them.

From then on their history counts, but a few early results move it only a little. This history describes how a professional uses ViaCara. It says nothing about how therapy went.

What the explanation shows

Every suggestion has an explanation called "How we connected you". It rates each part that counted for you against what you told us, on four levels and never in numbers. Booking and response history is about the professional alone, so it stays off the explanation.

When it does not feel right

• Open "How we connected you" on any suggestion to see the main reasons for it.
• Choose "Not quite right" to tell us what feels off. A person reads every message and replies within 2 working days.
• To ask a person to review how we connected you, email dataprotection@viacara.com.

UK data protection law gives you these rights over a decision made by automated means. Our privacy notice sets out the legal detail.