By Becca Dugan
Dr. Jude Black has been in the counseling field for over twenty years and engaged with virtual home-based careers since 2010. As a military spouse, she has always struggled to find a balance between her career and the military life until home-based careers started to thrive. In her almost 25 years of marriage, Dr. Black has moved 17 times, been separated from her husband for military-related activities for over 66 months, and held over 15 different jobs.
Her passion for virtual healing began over 20 years ago on a military base in North Carolina. Dr. Black was a young military spouse, her husband was deployed, and she felt alone. The military used Virtual Tele-Conference to communicate with members stationed all over the world. Her husband’s unit arranged for the family members to speak virtually with their deployed spouse. During that conference, Dr. Black understood the power of technology and connection. For a brief moment, the distance vanished and they were connected.
Dr. Black later worked for a military-focused online therapy platform called Cope Today. She provided real-time online video sessions, instant chats, and virtual journal exchanges with military members across the country and deployed around the world. Her clients were meeting goals, becoming centered, and she knew E-therapy worked.
When CopeToday was acquisitioned by Epiphany in 2013, Dr. Black became more active with her private practice and later, the online counseling start-up featured on ABC’s Shark Tank, In Your Corner (now closed). After a series of disappointments with the company, Dr. Black resigned as Director of Relationships. That opened the door for her to follow her dreams.
E-Therapy Cafe was born both out of frustration and passion. Dr. Black’s passion to be a change catalyst and a desire to matter manifested in bootstrapping the company and launching it within three weeks of inception. With the help of Amanda Rausch, E-Therapy Café’s Director of Relationships and Clinical Enrichment, they created a diversified team of licensed and certified professionals focused on breaking down barriers and providing support professionally, ethically, and affordably. They are one of the few, if not the only, virtual “Boutique” team of Licensed Therapists and Certified Life Coaches leveraging a “more-than-HIPPA Secured” Platform to support, motivate, and encourage people all over the world in real-time.
E-Therapy Café™ is a people-focused, innovative online counseling and coaching platform for individuals, couples, families and corporations. The company’s team are passionate change catalysts, focused on realistic goals in today’s fast-paced world. The headquarters is in Northern VA with a nationwide and global reach. The mission is simple, “Professional, convenient, affordable expert online therapy for all. Anytime. Anywhere.”
Prior to creating E-Therapy Café, Dr. Black was providing virtual and in-person counseling sessions through her private practice, Basic Black Inc. and working remotely as the Client Services Executive with Platinum Luxury Auctions, a Miami-based, market-leading auction firm specializing in the non-distressed sale of multi-million-dollar properties within and beyond the United States. Dr. Black was and is still actively involved in the military culture. She can often be found speaking at the Pentagon about Toxic Leadership and supporting the troops.
“I see E-Therapy Café as a reliable and ethical option for securing support in today’s busy world,” Dr. Black says. With people less connected to family, friends, and other relationships, her company gives people a chance to explore their past, consider their future, and make the changes right now in order to live authentically and thrive. Based on the traction E-Therapy Café is experiencing, the company is on track to grow and continue to provide people with an additional option to deal with stress, seek insight, and facilitate change with a trained expert.
“The company is very new, but the impact of our experts ripples throughout our communities, our relationships, and businesses,” Dr. Black says. E-Therapy Café decided to intentionally make the world a better place, one dollar at a time. So, for every therapy session conducted, they place $1 into their foundation to be distributed amongst several charities. “People love to give and feel like they are doing something that matters—bigger than themselves,” Dr. Black says. “Integrating the charity component into E-Therapy Café’s business model was just a good thing.” Visit www.e-therapycafe.com and www.drjudeblack.com.
