Before I became a therapist, I was a journalist.
I spent decades learning to follow the story — to ask who benefits, who profits, and who gets hurt.
Now I’m watching that same story unfold in my current field of mental health — and it’s sickening.
Big Tech has its claws in mental health — companies like Grow Therapy, Brightside, BetterHelp, Talkspace, Rula Health, Alma, and Headway.
As far as I can tell, the folks running these so-called “mental health service provider” platforms are not licensed therapists. They can’t be — because no licensed professional could do what they’re doing without breaking both the law and every ethical standard in this field.
They’re venture-funded tech operators who’ve discovered that human suffering is a scalable business model.
And here’s the part that keeps me up at night:
The entire sacred foundation of therapy — the promise that what’s said in the room stays in the room — is being obliterated.
Confidentiality isn’t just an ethical principle; it’s the oxygen therapy breathes. And these companies are suffocating it for profit.
The roots of why this matters to me
My mother, now 87, is a Jungian analyst and licensed professional counselor who still sees clients. Over the past 35 + years since she began her practice, she’s subscribed to Psychology Today — back when it was a print magazine that respected the profession, not an online directory turned data funnel.
I grew up absorbing her values: confidentiality, presence, and the sacredness of the therapeutic space. Long before I earned my own license in 2019, I understood that therapy is built on a single fragile premise — trust.
Now, that trust is being gutted.
And I’m watching it happen in real time.
What’s happening to us right now
Not long ago, I discovered that the phone number listed on my Psychology Today profile no longer connected callers to me — it connected them to Grow Therapy, a company that I do not work with and certainly never gave my Psychology Today password to.
Potential clients seeking help were unknowingly being routed through a corporate gatekeeper. I didn’t sign up for this “partnership.” I didn’t authorize Grow Therapy to intercept calls or misrepresent my practice.
But they did.
I’m an experienced, trauma-focused EMDR therapist — intelligent, seasoned, and fucking excellent at what I do. Like so many therapists and mental-health clinicians, I entered this field to help people heal — not to fight algorithms for visibility or defend my practice from corporate interference.
Not every platform is predatory. When I was struggling to restart my practice after moving back from Arizona, being able to get credentialed quickly through Alma was a godsend. Headway, too, made it easier to accept insurance and build stability again. And importantly, neither company forces therapists to use every part of their platform — their AI note tools, scheduling systems, or data storage — or punishes those of us who prefer to maintain a higher degree of autonomy over our work.
But that’s what makes what’s happening with other platforms — like Grow Therapy — even more alarming.
They’re not just “helping” therapists practice; they’re taking over our practices.
Independent clinicians — those who’ve built their reputations and livelihoods one client at a time — are being quietly squeezed out, replaced by middlemen who control visibility, data, and the first point of contact.
We’re watching the soul of our profession being sold — and it’s happening in real time.
This isn’t “access.” It’s extraction.
Companies like Grow Therapy, Rula Health (formerly Path), BetterHelp, and Talkspace have built billion-dollar empires by inserting themselves between therapists and clients — and calling it progress.
They promise convenience and affordability. What they’re really doing is siphoning power, data, and money out of the therapeutic relationship.
Together, they now reach tens of millions of Americans — including people struggling with trauma, anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. And that’s exactly what makes this next part so infuriating.
�� By the Numbers (2024)
| Company | Valuation / Revenue | # of Providers | Approx # of Clients |
| Headway | $2.3 billion | 34 000 | data not publicly available |
| BetterHelp | $1.03 billion | 30 000 | 400 000 |
| Alma | $1.00 billion | 20 000 | 450 000 |
| Grow Therapy | $1.00 billion | 12 000 | 250 000 |
| Rula Health (formerly Path) | $500 million | 8 000 | 300 000 |
| Talkspace | $218 million | 5 000 | 200 000 |
| �� Total (approx.) | $6.05 billion + | 109 000 + | 1 600 000 + |
Notes: Figures reflect 2024 public estimates from business press, investor updates, and major health-tech outlets. Some companies do not publish complete data; actual numbers may be higher.
Let’s talk about what they’re actually doing
Rula Health (formerly Path) was accused by the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) of performing “Clinical Care Reviews” for Kaiser patients — deciding whether clients still met “medical necessity” after twelve sessions. These reviews weren’t done by treating therapists but by an internal “Quality Team.” If Rula decided care wasn’t “necessary,” Kaiser could refuse payment. That’s utilization management disguised as compassion.
BetterHelp was fined $7.8 million by the FTC for sharing sensitive client data — including mental-health histories — with Facebook and Snapchat for ad targeting. Then, in 2024, a class action alleged BetterHelp matched clients with unlicensed or unqualified therapists.
Talkspace settled an $8.5 million investor suit after shareholders accused it of misrepresenting growth, leadership, and retention rates. Spring Health was fined $1 million for operating in California without a required state license.
Every one of these cases tells the same story: A profit-driven system hiding behind mental-health buzzwords while quietly dismantling the ethics of our profession.
If you’re a client, ask questions — real ones
If you’re looking for therapy, ask during your consultation whether your therapist uses their own platform or a corporate one.
Many “service providers” require therapists to run all business through the company’s systems — including AI-generated progress notes, corporate scheduling, and the company’s Electronic Health Record (EHR) platform.
The EHR is where every intimate detail lives — your address, credit-card information, emergency contacts, diagnosis, trauma history, gender identity, sexual orientation, and progress notes — everything.
Think about the information you give before you’re even matched with a therapist: your name, phone, email, reason for seeking help — maybe more. All of it captured, stored, analyzed, and often shared.
BetterHelp literally sold the private pain of millions of clients to advertisers. That’s not innovation. That’s betrayal — and it’s illegal.
So if you’re a client, ask your therapist whether everything said in the room stays in the room.
I can tell you that in my practice, it does. My EHR is under lock and key, and I’m the only person with access to it.
Your story isn’t a commodity.
Your pain isn’t a data point.
And your healing should never be for sale.
Why I won’t shut up about this
I used to believe journalism and therapy were worlds apart.
Now I see they’re the same battlefield — truth versus spin.
When I became a therapist, I thought I was entering a profession built on human connection. I didn’t expect to find it hijacked by algorithms and ad trackers.
If you’re a therapist: guard your autonomy like your license depends on it — because it does.
If you’re a client: ask where your data goes.
If you’re a policymaker: understand this isn’t a tech revolution — it’s a human-rights crisis in disguise.
Because the work of healing has always depended on something Big Tech can’t code, monetize, or own:
trust.