John M. Grohol, Psy.D. is a human behavior, psychology, and senior technology executive. He is a psychologist, researcher, and the co-author of Self-Help That Works (Oxford University Press, 2013), as well as the author of The Insider’s Guide to Mental Health Resources Online (Guilford, 1996-2003).
Dr. Grohol has a proven track record of establishing first-of-their-kind safety frameworks for online communities and digital platforms. He developed the first online automated diagnostic screening systems in 1995. His work has been invaluable in identifying platform misuse, misinformation, and harm in high-stakes environments with vulnerable populations.
After receiving his graduate training in clinical psychology from Nova Southeastern University in 1995, Dr. Grohol focused on the internet’s ability to bring information, change, and social connectivity to people’s lives. He founded and was the CEO and Editor-in-Chief of the world’s largest and oldest mental health resource online, Psych Central. During his time at Psych Central, he created the first set of interactive online assessments for mental health concerns such as depression, ADHD, and bipolar disorder. He also developed the safety framework for these interactive, automated online assessments for mental disorders. Psych Central was named one of the Top 50 Websites in 2008 by TIME.com and in 2020 was enjoying over 7 million unique visitors/month. He oversaw and negotiated the successful sale of Psych Central to Healthline (Red Ventures) in August 2020. During its life, Psych Central served over 1 billion users.
Wanting to leverage the social power of online communication learned from his time spent on BBSs in the 1980s and Usenet in the early 1990s, he started the first large-scale online mental health self-help support community online in 1996. He developed numerous open-source programs in the 1990s, including the Open Journal blog software. In 2001, he began one of the world’s largest self-help support group communities, My Support Forums (originally associated with Psych Central), and later, NeuroTalk. Both are still active, thriving online self-help communities with over 600,000 active users.
During his career, Dr. Grohol designed and successfully implemented integrated sites and technologies for multiple industries (including mental health, transportation, utilities, non-profits, museums, and others). As the behavioral healthcare industry’s youngest COO in 2000, he managed the operations and development of secure records management and billing systems for the first large, commercial online psychotherapy service, eventually negotiating the successful acquisition of the company in 2006.
In 2009, he co-founded the non-profit Society for Participatory Medicine to help advance the cause of participatory medicine — helping patients become equal partners in their healthcare journey. That same year he also founded the Help & Heal Mental Health Fund, a non-profit that provides small personal grants to individuals to help them with their financial and mental health treatment needs.
Over his extensive 30+ year career, Dr. Grohol has chaired, keynoted, and presented at dozens of symposia about online mental health and psychology at meetings throughout the world, including SXSW, the American Psychological Association, Psychotherapy Networker, and others.
He has worked with dozens of health and behavioral health technology companies since the 1990s through his consulting firm, Liviant. He currently owns and oversees This Emotional Life‘s website and is the publisher of New England Psychologist, a 33-year-old professional publication for clinical psychologists in the New England region.
Contact Dr. Grohol today to get in touch.