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The right therapist can change your life. Finding them shouldn't be so hard.

The Indigo Project

PRESS RELEASE:
The right therapist can change your life. Finding them shouldn’t be so hard.

For Immediate Release

Sydney, 8 September 2026

Australian online therapy practice The Indigo Project and Sydney digital product studio Nightjar have launched a new client-therapist matching platform designed to lighten the burden of choosing a therapist, focusing on the human connection that makes therapy work.

For many Australians, deciding to reach out for help is the hardest step. What comes next can be harder than it should be.

Faced with a directory of names, headshots, qualifications and appointment times, someone who has just worked up the courage to seek help is asked to make a deeply personal decision on very little information.

The Indigo Project believes it can do better.

Research consistently identifies the relationship between client and therapist as one of the most reliable predictors of therapy outcomes, while research also suggests that accommodating client preferences can improve outcomes and reduce dropout.

After more than 14 years matching clients and therapists by hand, The Indigo Project has partnered with Sydney digital product studio Nightjar to translate that experience into The Indigo Matchmaker - Australia’s first trauma-informed client-therapist matching platform.

Following a public beta that began in March 2026, the platform officially launches today.

Rather than asking people to browse a marketplace and decide for themselves, or answer a handful of questions and hope for the best, The Indigo Matchmaker asks clients what actually matters to them in therapy.

The platform draws on more than 300 matching inputs, spanning areas of focus, therapeutic approaches, practitioner personality, identity, preferences, availability and even how someone wants therapy to feel.

The journey adapts to each person’s responses, showing only questions relevant to them before producing a personalised shortlist from The Indigo Project’s curated roster of practitioners.

“Finding a good therapist can be like dating - you want someone you feel connected with, who speaks your language and understands the vision you have for your life. It can be disheartening not finding the right fit, and people often give up.

Like any relationship, the best chance of success in therapy comes when there’s trust, safety and connection.

Through The Indigo Matchmaker, clients get to express what they really need - and be heard. We’ve spent 14 years fine-tuning the art of matching clients with therapists, and we’ve built that experience into our platform to give people the best possible chance of finding someone they genuinely gel with.

From there, the magic of therapy can truly begin.”

Mary Hoang, Founder, The Indigo Project

More choice isn’t always better choice

The rise of telehealth has radically expanded access to therapy. Geography is no longer the constraint it once was, and Australians can now choose from thousands of practitioners across the country.

But that creates another problem: the burden of sorting through those choices often lands on someone at the exact moment they may be least equipped to do so.

The Indigo Matchmaker was designed to lighten that load.

Unlike an open therapist marketplace, practitioners cannot simply upload a profile and appear in Indigo’s results. Every practitioner recommended through the platform has been carefully selected and vetted through Indigo’s strict multi-step process.

In effect, Indigo has already done much of the searching before a client begins their match.

Designed around the experience of seeking help

The Indigo Matchmaker has also been designed around recognised trauma-informed principles, with a focus on client empowerment, emotional safety, choice and control.

The platform assesses risk in real time from the first question of the enquiry journey. Where someone’s responses indicate they may need crisis support, they are directed to appropriate services immediately.

Other sensitive or complex presentations can be escalated to Indigo’s human Therapy Matchmaker team for expedited review, and clients can choose to speak to a human Matchmaker at any point in the journey.

The practice has also made a deliberate decision not to use AI to generate therapist matches.

Instead, the system structures more than a decade of human matching judgement while retaining human oversight and clear points at which technology steps aside.

“Nightjar has partnered with Indigo for several years, setting the technical foundations for their booking experience as the practice has grown. The Matchmaker was a unique opportunity - distilling years of client-therapist matching expertise into an intelligent, data-powered system without losing what makes Indigo special.

The best digital experiences are the ones that connect on a human level. That’s what we set out to build.”
Ahmed Meer, Chief Product Officer, Nightjar

And if the match isn’t right?

Even a sophisticated matching system cannot guarantee chemistry between two people.

The platform also incorporates The Indigo Project’s Perfect Match Promise. If a client doesn’t connect with their Indigo therapist after the first or second session, Indigo will find them a new therapist and cover the cost of their first session together (T&Cs apply).

The Indigo Project was founded in Sydney in 2012 and provides online therapy Australia-wide.

The Indigo Matchmaker is available now at: book.theindigoproject.com.au/match

- ENDS -

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Notes to editors

Australia’s first: The Indigo Project conducted a formal review of the publicly available matching processes of leading Australian online therapy services during the development of The Indigo Matchmaker. The review did not identify another Australian platform publicly documenting a matching system designed around trauma-informed principles and incorporating real-time risk assessment, appropriate support pathways, responsive questioning, meaningful client choice, detailed fit-based matching and human oversight.

Research: Research supporting the importance of the therapeutic alliance and accommodating client preferences includes Flückiger et al. (2018), Norcross & Lambert (2018), Swift et al. (2011) and Swift et al. (2018).

Trauma-informed principles: Blue Knot Foundation

For further information contact:

Rich Lucano

Director of Strategy, The Indigo Project

0419 202 139

[email protected]

 

About The Indigo Project

Founded in Sydney in 2012, The Indigo Project is an Australian online therapy practice built around a simple belief: the right therapist can change your life.

Known for thinking creatively about mental health, its progressive, inclusive approach to therapy brings together a carefully curated team of psychologists and counsellors, with a highly personalised approach to client-therapist matching.

In 2026, The Indigo Project launched The Indigo Matchmaker, Australia’s first trauma-informed client-therapist matching platform, translating more than 14 years of human matching expertise into a personalised digital experience.

About Nightjar

Nightjar is a globally recognised brand and digital product studio based in Sydney. They deliver transformative results for ambitious brands - at velocity. Seamlessly fusing design and technology, they craft brand identities and digital products that are a joy to use, constantly setting new standards to drive industries forward.

Clients include Salter Brothers Hospitality, Guide Dogs NSW, Destination NSW, National Dental Care, Lifeline, Two Good Co., Pernod Ricard, the United States Studies Centre, ZETR, Sonoma Bakery and House of Heat.