By Pranav Talati, Founder of Vtalix
If you booked a therapy session in the last year and then quietly let it slide off your calendar, you’re in far more company than it feels like. A new analysis of over 6,000 corporate counselling sessions across India — the “From Silence to Signal” report by workplace wellness platform ekincare, published in May 2026 — found that 26.6% of employees who book a counselling session never attend one, and 58% of those who do show up stop after a single session. Booking therapy and actually going are turning out to be two very different steps, and the gap between them is bigger than most people assume.
The numbers behind the drop-off
The same report found that counselling utilisation across Indian workplaces has grown 44% since 2023, driven mostly by employees aged 20–25, whose usage jumped 203% in two years — compared to just 18% growth among the 31–35 age group. High-pressure sectors are leading the shift: BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) saw a 408% rise in counselling sessions, followed by healthcare and pharma at 122%. Among employees 35 and older, 44% of the sessions booked were specifically to talk through anxiety, low mood, or stress. So more people than ever are willing to book that first session. What the data shows is that the harder part isn’t deciding to try therapy — it’s actually walking through the (virtual) door.
Why the gap happens
None of this means people change their minds because therapy doesn’t work. In our own experience talking to people before they book, the reasons are almost always practical or emotional, not a verdict on therapy itself: a wave of second-guessing right before the call (“what if I don’t know what to say”), a work deadline that eats the time slot, or a quiet worry about who might find out. If privacy is part of what’s holding you back, this is exactly what we tell people who ask before they book — it’s a more common question than you’d think, and usually the biggest thing standing between “I booked it” and “I showed up.”
What a good first session is actually supposed to feel like
Part of the drop-off also comes from not knowing what to expect, which makes it easy to talk yourself out of showing up. A first session isn’t a test you can fail — there’s no clinical checklist, no pressure to have your problem neatly defined before you start. It’s mostly your therapist getting a sense of what’s going on and what you want out of it, at whatever pace you’re comfortable with. We’ve laid out exactly what happens in a first online therapy session so there are no surprises walking in. And if you’re wondering whether a video call can really do what an in-person session does, the research on that is worth a look too — short version: for most concerns, it holds up well.
Small things that make it easier to actually show up
A few patterns tend to separate people who stick with it from people who don’t, and none of them require willpower so much as a bit of planning:
Treat the first session as low-stakes. You’re not committing to years of therapy by showing up once — you’re finding out if it’s useful, and you can stop or switch anytime. Block the actual calendar time the way you would a doctor’s appointment, not a “if I have time” task, since that’s usually where sessions quietly disappear. And if the first therapist doesn’t feel like the right fit, that’s normal and worth saying out loud rather than treating it as a reason to give up on the whole idea — a mismatch with one person isn’t a verdict on therapy itself.
If today’s the day you’re finally going
If you’ve had a session sitting unbooked — or booked and then quietly cancelled — you’re not behind, and you’re not the only one. The data suggests you’re one of roughly one in four. The only real difference between the people who follow through and the people who don’t seems to be showing up once, without overthinking what it’s supposed to look like.
If you’re ready to take that step, you can browse more on what to expect and get started at Vtalix.
Related reading
- What happens in your first online therapy session
- How to tell your family you’re starting therapy
- Psychologist, psychiatrist or counsellor: who to see first
This article is part of our complete guide to online therapy in India.