Several therapists not involved in the app told Business Insider that CBT might lend itself to being administered online, to a variety of types of people.
"CBT skills are skills everyone can use," Nancy Liu, an assistant clinical professor of clinical psychology at the University of California at Berkeley, told Business Insider.
A recent review of studies published in the journal World Psychiatry compared people who received CBT treatment online with those who received it in person. The two settings were shown to be equally effective.
Darcy said one reason for this could be that CBT focuses on the present instead of the past. Rather than talking to Woebot about your relationship with a parent, you might chat about a recent conflict at work or an argument with a friend.
"A premise of CBT is it's not the things that happen to us — it's how we react to them," Darcy said.