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Jeff Perron wants to help more people than he ever could all by himself.

The Ottawa man finished an undergrad in psychology, earned a master’s in business administration and found work in human resources. He thought that would be his career.

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But he felt like he wasn’t doing enough.

“I want to do something that helps people,” said Perron, 29. “It was a good job, I enjoyed it, but at the end of the day I felt like I was a middleman between actually getting people some kind of help.”

So, he returned to school for a PhD in clinical psychology so he could work face-to-face with patients coping with depression, anxiety and other mental health problems.

Then, frustrated by a lack of accessible services for depression and anxiety patients and spurred by years’ worth of existing research in web-based education in cognitive behavioural therapy, Perron started working on an app called TruReach Health — now set for release on Apple and Android devices on Sept. 9 — which gives patients a way to take on-the-spot psychotherapy lessons wherever they are.