Creating Transparency into the Therapist Experience at Digital Health Companies
By Hannah Weisman, PhD & Dave Cooper, PsyD
Therapists in Tech (TnT) is a non-profit community of more than 3000 mental health professionals and students who work in, or are interested in, applying their background and knowledge to digital health. Together, we work to foster inclusive, authentic connections, amplify marginalized voices and support mental health professionals in tech roles to promote their clinical values, mental health, and ability to advocate for patient-consumers.
Why We Took This Project On
As the largest community of therapists in digital mental health, we at Therapists in Tech have taken it upon ourselves to tackle some of the most pressing questions facing us as a community. In October 2021, that question was “What should I expect to get paid as a therapist in tech?” We surveyed our members to help therapists — and the field as a whole — develop a set of benchmarks for specific titles for companies at various stages. (We have also recently updated that project with new data.)
Another common theme we see in our community is curiosity around the culture of tech and startup companies. Questions come up in mentoring conversations and our #ask channel like:
- “What is the ‘inside scoop’ on what it’s like to work at [company name]?”
- “Which companies are toxic?”
- “What are the companies where therapists are valued?”
- “What are the companies other therapists would recommend I work at?
The most unsettling theme we see is therapists posting about how burned out they have become providing clinical services at various tech/startup companies, and wanting guidance to get a non-clinical position because they can’t imagine continuing to provide clinical services in the current atmosphere. While TnT can and does help these therapists use their skills to alter their career path, we are worried about the pattern of therapists getting burned out by high caseloads and toxic cultures.
Currently, the only consolidated source of information on company cultures and experiences are websites like Glassdoor, Blind, and Elpha, which can contain planted reviews by company HR departments and do not have aggregated information specific to the clinician experience. This puts therapists at a disadvantage as they navigate employment offers.
And because information on those sites is not specific to clinicians and combined in a single place, it also does not incentivize employers to improve the clinician experience — because many clinicians don’t know whether a better option exists.
Sadly, this can lead to a system in which employers do not appropriately value clinicians and clinical care or offer fair and equitable salaries to clinicians — leading to high levels of churn and burnout, resulting in compromised patient care, an endemic issue in digital health.
So again, we felt compelled to conduct a survey to find out the answer. We wanted to create a trustworthy database where therapists can compare clinical roles, compensation, benefits, promotion and career development opportunities, use of technology as it relates to clinical care, and cultural factors across companies to better inform their employment decisions.
Our Process
To accomplish this goal, we wanted to get some information directly from companies– allowing them to tell their own story and highlight why therapists may want to join. We want this project to benefit companies as well as therapists by providing them with more transparency in how their offerings line up with the rest of the field.
We reached out to any and all tech and startup companies working in digital mental health by posting on LinkedIn and tapping our own networks to let us know:
- What services do therapists provide at this company?
- How are therapists compensated and what benefits do they have access to?
- Are therapists able to get promoted or have professional growth at this company?
- How diverse is the leadership and how does this company think about DEIB?
- What would draw therapists to this company over other companies?
At the same time, we reached out to therapists and got their take on their current or recent places of employment:
- To what degree is the clinical perspective/voice valued at this company?
- Is this a place you’d recommend others work at?
- What is your overall satisfaction with company leadership? Clinical leadership? The technology? (And more)
Our Results
We had a low company participation rate, which could be related to the newness of this project and the right people not hearing about it. We asked therapists to anonymously supplement as much company information as they could, and want to thank each therapist that helped us gather this information in addition to filling out the clinician survey.
Major kudos and gratitude to Antelope Recovery, AugMend, Manatee, mpathic, Meru Health, and Sesh, the companies who had a representative fill out our company survey! This on its own suggests that these companies value transparency and the therapist experience.
We have collected the responses in an easy to browse format on our website. We are planning on collating and summarizing the company information and therapist reviews in a more formal report, but we wanted to get the information we’ve collected out to our community as quickly as possible. In the meantime, here are some highlights:
- We had nearly 100 surveys completed by company representatives and therapists
- Most companies had a mix of positive and negative reviews, suggesting that what’s a good fit for one therapist might not be a good fit for another
- Therapists did not hold back on providing critical reviews of companies where they did not feel valued
If you’re a therapist, we encourage you to browse our site while we are drafting the report. Pro tip: make sure you scroll down to see the therapist reviews, even if the company overview information is missing. You can also join the #company-reviews channel in the TnT slack community to give us feedback or fill out a clinician survey.
If you’re a digital health company wanting your perspective to be represented, you can still fill out the company survey anytime and we will update the website within a week. If you are wondering about how you can do better for your clinicians, please reach out to us at info@therapistsintech.com or keep an eye on our socials. We’re working on a project especially for you.
