From Practice to Innovation: Conversations with Mental Health Tech Leaders
An interview with Christine Mason, PhD, DBSM, Associate Director, Mental Health at Goodpath
The integration of technology into mental health care has ushered in a new era of innovation and accessibility. From mobile apps offering mindfulness exercises to virtual therapy platforms connecting individuals with licensed professionals, the landscape of mental health tech is rapidly evolving to meet the diverse needs of users.
The rise of mental health tech companies has allowed licensed clinicians to move from the clinical setting to corporate leadership. In this monthly post, we will chat with professionals from the mental health tech industry to learn more about them, their current job, and the path they took to get where they are now.
Christine Mason, PhD, DBSM is the Associate Director, Mental Health at Goodpath and previously a Consultant and Contractor for Digital Health Tech organizations in the provision of subject matter expertise, evidence-based content, and clinical operations and team leadership. With a background in clinical health psychology, she brings a unique blend of clinical expertise and technological innovation to her roles in the health tech sector. She is an advocate for bridging gaps in mental health care accessibility and committed to integrating evidence-based practices with cutting-edge technology.
Being trained as a clinician has so many skills that are hidden that we don’t realize make us important in being able to talk to others and being able to work both as a good employee and a supervisor... It’s thinking about that not as a lens of clinical work, but a lens of the business industry.
Lindy: Let’s just start with Therapists in Tech. What made you decide to get involved with them?
Christine: So, my background is in clinical health psychology. I’ve worked in outpatient, inpatient, and hospital systems since 2009. In 2021, in the middle of the pandemic, I was a cardiovascular behavioral medicine specialist. I would work with patients who had some form of cardiovascular disease with comorbid anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, and other mental health conditions that they were managing at the same time, and I loved it. It’s a very integrative, very cool, person-focused approach.
My waiting list was five months long. What was so challenging was I was also pregnant with my second child, and I knew I’d be going on parental leave. I had to start thinking about winding down this five-month wait list and making sure that I can give them quality care. If someone’s having a heart attack today, and gets identified as having depression afterwards, they’re not going to see me until six months after this major event, and I’m no longer as immediately helpful as if I were able to see them quickly. It really got me thinking about bigger picture things and how I can influence it in a different way. I did a certificate in public health back in my training too, so I’m always thinking about how we can reach more people.
One of the few positive things that came out of COVID-19 was increasing access to virtual care. I really started getting into questioning, “what are some of the new innovative solutions?” And, I realized that there was a place for me in tech and I started reaching out, networking. I networked with one of my PhD colleagues who was in tech, and she said, “Christine, you need to join Therapists in Tech.” And so I did. Like a lot of people, I kind of lurked in the background for quite some time. I found myself on LinkedIn and Indeed all the time, every day, and I figured that I can be helping others too. So I really started getting to be very active in TNT just in that role. It was really great at the time. I got to meet with the other volunteers. I really got to support connections and meet other people to see what are some of the jobs out there in tech. And I got to help communicate those to others.
Yeah, having this community kind of shows that there’s a place for therapists in the tech industry, especially if there’s a six month waitlist.
I know. And there’s still access barriers in tech too. But I do feel like we’re creating more and more innovative programs that are able to reach more than the traditional approach.
Can you share a brief overview of your career path and how you got to where you are in your current role?
Yes, my parental leave for my second child was really important. During COVID-19, with my first child in daycare, there were over 80 days where we had to find alternative childcare. I was someone who never went to virtual care. So I was at the hospital showing up every day, but at the beginning, even if there was an exposure in the daycare classroom, it was closed for 10 days. It’s like, what do we do now? And so that became unsustainable because I had this waitlist and had to cancel people to stay home. That also felt ethically wrong.
It’s like the whole rest of the world was stopping and health care just kept going on.
Exactly, but I have this little person that I need to protect and take care of too. And it’s nearly impossible to do that while also being needed physically in another space. So when I found out I was expecting my second, I knew I was probably going to find something with a little bit more flexibility.
I created a consulting company where I was the sole person working for myself. I realized I have a subject matter expertise that’s important to people. I think us as mental health clinicians have so much expertise that we don’t realize that expertise because we’re like, “Well, I don’t see how I’m different or more knowledgeable than another mental health professional.” The truth is, we’re all taking in all that information. We have the ability to give our recommendations based on the ethical and evidence-based approaches that we’re trained in. Some of the other skills that we abide by and learn are related to ethics and can be also used in business. We may not be trained how to talk about them in our graduate training programs, but Therapists in Tech has been really helpful in making me understand that the things that I am already doing can be interpreted with a different name and written down as transferable skills.
I had someone that I trust walk me through that. They asked me questions about skills I have and then she challenged me to say, “How do you say this in a different way? How do you say this to someone who’s not in the clinical world?” I learned to apply that to different contexts. I’m able to provide therapy. What does that mean outside of therapy? It means I have great communication and a great ability to listen, respond, and present an alternative solution. A great ability to help working teams. Then, I became able to say it that way, market that for myself, and network.
I was doing all this work for TnT behind the scenes, posting jobs, and then ones that were relevant or interesting to me, I would reach out to the hiring manager and say, “Hey, is this something that I might be a good fit for?” A lot of times they wouldn’t reply, other times, it’d be, “Let’s talk.” And at the same time, if I clicked on that company’s affiliated people, I would look to see if I know anybody there. And if I do know somebody, let’s grab a virtual coffee. So I started to make my network wider. Reaching out to people, letting them know I’m transitioning to tech, letting them know that I’m looking for clients to take on and say I’m building my skills, building my expertise in tech as well. I had a lot of success there.
One of my biggest successes was networking with an old colleague. She gave me an amazing connection, one that ended up being my biggest client across the last two years. It was a telemedicine company focusing on sleep health. I got to get exposure to a small startup and gain a lot of really exciting skills. I started as a provider, and also worked on small projects related to onboarding and training. I then was able to assist in fractional roles that increased my responsibilities. Interestingly, I realized I already had all the skills from being a clinician and learning about health tech. I was just putting them in different roles and titles. That’s what I mean by transferable skills. I was able to transfer my skills to new roles. Sure, the content would change, but that’s what we have been doing with each therapy patient or client we see. We take the skills we’ve learned and apply them to a new presenting complaint. At the same time, I was able to do some other projects that build skills in other areas. Now that I know what my skills are and what my interests are, the most important thing for me has become: What are the companies that I am ethically aligned with? Who’s taking care of their patients, who’s taking care of their providers, who’s delivering high quality care based off of research and clinical outcomes and not just giving something that they’re calling therapy? And that’s exactly where I am now.
What inspired you to get into tech versus staying with a clinical focus? Did this start during COVID?
No, it was much earlier. Back in 2015, I was living in Chicago, and I was helping as a clinical research coordinator getting ready for my residency in Clinical Psychology. One of the projects that was happening in our lab was working with digital therapeutics. And this was 2015, I don’t even know if digital therapeutics was a word that was being used. It was something that was so foreign that I was like, “I love this.” It’s bringing something that is based on evidence. It’s created by an expert in partnership with a business person, and they’re creating this product that is allowing individuals to get help via an app. I still had to finish my residency, I still had to do my postdoc. And it was also before COVID-19. So my only option to get involved with this company, or a similar company at that time, was really to move to New York or San Francisco, both cities that I love, but they weren’t the right fit for me. So I was like, “Oh, maybe in the future.” And that’s really where I got my start. I really got this interest piqued and then I got to see how it grew over the years and created so many opportunities to do things virtually — now from anywhere.
It’s interesting how new telehealth and virtual therapy is. I mean we can’t even imagine this 20 years ago.
It’s incredible, and it’s really cool to see that a lot of outcomes are similar compared to in-person.
Are there any other education or certifications that helped you get into your roles in consulting and the mental health tech industry?
Great question. I haven’t done any additional certifications. What I have done is I’ve taken a lot of LinkedIn Learning courses that have been very helpful. When I started to look at tech, first I would look at the roles and see what it takes to be in that position. Two areas I found were very aligned with the roles. One was being a clinical lead. That one really takes management skills, so I started looking online to see what are some of the management courses and skills that I can learn. How do I take my experience as a clinical supervisor and turn that into the language that makes me a manager? The other area I’m very interested in and so excited by is product. I love seeing what tech is building and putting out there that people can use. How can I integrate what I know to be part of that?
Fortunately, my partner is a product manager, and he led me to some courses that he thought would be really beneficial without me having to go get a full certification. So then I got to learn the language. I learned the language of business, of creating a roadmap, of being able to show the business cases behind the clinical idea that we want to put out there. I’ll be honest, Chat GPT is great. I asked, what is this job or job desciption, and what are the skills needed for this and it tells me, and I’m like, “Oh, this is really helpful.” Now you’ve got to use it within a certain lens, but it does really create a lot of opportunity to take out some of the hard research and put it into language that is more understandable.
What skills or qualities do you think have been most important to your success?
I think first and foremost, just being trained as a clinician has so many skills that are hidden that we don’t realize make us important in being able to talk to others and being able to work both as a good employee and a supervisor. I think most of us have that experience through our clinical training or working alongside others who are also training clinically. It’s thinking about that not as a lens of clinical work, but a lens of the business industry. Okay, this is my manager, we’re just using a different name for it. And this is my colleague, not my fellow intern. These are ways we work together. We also have the skills to be very good colleagues and managers. Empathy. Genuineness. Unconditional positive regard. These are so ingrained into our therapeutic relationships, and they contribute to healthier work cultures.
I think we’re also really creative as clinicians. I didn’t realize it was creativity. Others would tell me, “Well, that’s really innovative.” For me, it just feels like me thinking through a challenging patient, and finding another way to reach this person? To try the skill that I’m teaching them or to get them to have the exposure to something that might make them overcome their anxiety. The creativity you develop as therapists to challenge our patients to help them adapt skills that are meaningful to them, based on the training that we have. I think that has been something that’s been really, really important.
Every client’s a little different. So we are patient and just have to be creative and think, “How do we reach this person?”
Exactly. How do I help this person with depression? I’m trying to help them with scheduling activities and they’re like, “I don’t like anything.” I’ll say, “I bet you like some things.” So let’s get a little creative about what things that you used to like when you were little or that you wish you could do. You — as a clinician — have really strong skills in asking questions and in asking the right questions. And, I think we bring that to industry, and I think that’s something that I’ve been able to bring: the asking the questions.
Another thing is listening. I think listening is a very powerful tool in industry, and it’s often the case that people are talking over each other. I find that I sit back and listen at the beginning. I think I listened too much and was a little nervous to speak up at first. But now I try to synthesize the things that I’m hearing. Another thing that we’re good at is case conceptualization. We’re good at taking in all the information from an intake, putting it through our training lens and saying, “Okay, here’s your treatment plan.” I find that I do that a lot in meetings, particularly with meetings with multiple different backgrounds of people. I’m able to listen to the tech team. I’m able to listen to the product team. I’m able to listen to the leaders of the company, hear all of their concerns, and then put it together to present another option for a solution. It might not meet the needs of everybody, but at least it’s showing that I hear you. At the same time, let’s integrate our solutions so that we’re all working towards the same outcome.
What do you find most rewarding about your work?
I recently started a new role where I’m leading a mental health program for a tech company named Goodpath. It’s not an incredibly small startup, but it’s also not a large company, and I find that I’ve been able to make connections with everybody. I think what is really rewarding is that when I started, I took the time to meet with almost everyone individually, all of the employees and contractors, in separate 15 or 30 minute meetings just to say, “Hey, I’m here. I’d love to get to know you.” It’s so much easier to help someone and ask them for something when they actually know you and you actually know them. I also truly believe that to be a good leader and manager, we need to understand the needs of those who are reporting to us so we can best support them in their professional growth. I think that the most rewarding thing is when I go somewhere and start working with a new company. It’s creating relationships. I think that’s something that us as clinicians are very good at. But I also think it models a really, really great way for communication, and that communication is the basis for all of the outcomes that we’re seeing in the health sector. Can we communicate as a team so that we can build the products the right way, the ethical way, following the evidence-based approach? Are we all working together with mission alignment? It’s been really rewarding, and in my current role, everyone is mission-aligned. As a result, the things that people are asking of you are not outside your wheelhouse. It might be pushing you a little bit further or only something that you’ve been doing a little bit of, but they’re challenging you to work with them to grow together.
Can you share a memorable success story or achievement that you’ve had at any time in your career?
When I think of success, I always think of patients, and I still am involved in patient care. That’s something I never want to give up. It’s important to me because that’s what I went to school for. I’m thinking of a patient I met with last week. He didn’t think he initially needed therapy. I only met with him for three sessions while he was also doing some other treatment approaches that are part of our mental health program. And he just told me, “I have anxiety and depression, and I had no idea. I have been feeling this way for a year. And here I am, three weeks later, just having someone ask me questions, and I think about them between the sessions. And then I’m doing the work between the sessions. I had no idea I would be feeling better in three weeks. I had no idea what I was capable of.” And I loved that because he saw himself as being the driver for his change. He saw therapy as being a team in which someone is asking him the questions a little bit differently, or someone’s not telling him the solutions, telling him to find his own solutions. Tech and improved access is what led this person to evidence-based care. So when I think of success, I still feel first and foremost, that my brain goes to patients and helping individuals. I think what I feel so successful about when it comes to tech, is being able to touch so many more, much more quickly, and creating access to many more individuals. All the while still having the same individual impact that I was helpful with before I transitioned into tech.
It’s nice that you’re still seeing patients because many clinicians in tech aren’t practicing therapists. It really keeps you in touch with the population and what it is like to be in those shoes working with clients.
I think it’s really important. If you are a clinician leading a clinical product for clinical programs, which I’m doing, you need to also know that the tech is working. This lets me be able to actually put yourself in the therapists shoes to say, “Hey, what is missing here in this program” or “What are some of the blockers to a more efficient program?” I really feel the best way to do that is to be testing it myself. Now I’m not taking patients all day every day, and I have a lot of other responsibilities. But I do carve out that kind of time. I also think that yes, that’s the value for me being a clinician but also adds value to the company to say, “Hey, I’m walking myself through this whole program and this is where we need to help make things more efficient, make things more fluid for the user experience, for the provider experience, and the therapy experience.”
What advice would you give someone starting out in a similar career path who wants to get into tech?
Reach out to people and don’t be offended if someone does not answer you. I feel like early on I reached out to some people that were giving really great talks, and I would get no response on Linkedin or even if they had shared their emails. I think that the most important thing I can say is that it’s okay. It just means that person is busy, and they might have competing things that are demanding their attention. It has nothing to do with you, but I think that’s one of those things that can feel like a rejection, especially if it’s someone who’s doing something exactly like what you want to be doing or if you’re feeling stuck in your search.
I think another thing that’s been really cool for me has been conferences. Go to conferences, especially ones that might have subgroups that have a digital health component or subgroups that have an area of your clinical interests. I think making connections in those small spaces is really really helpful, like meeting faces, meeting individuals one-on-one happens really well in the smaller conference setting.
I think too, nourishing the relationships that you already have. I found it just so valuable that my name has been brought up in different situations, and it’s just because someone knows that I’ve a) asked them for help in creating new leads or expand my network, b) been able to do this task or something similar before, and they’re like, “Oh, I’m thinking of Christine.” I think it’s the same for a lot of people. If someone sees what you’re really good at, it’s like, “Oh, we should ask you to do that.” And I think that has a role, especially as digital health continues to grow, and as the importance of clinicians and clinical leadership becomes more obvious. I once heard “the best manager is the one who’s gonna say your name when you’re not in the room.” It doesn’t have to be even the best manager, it can be each of us. Networking is not a one-way relationship; it’s bidirectional. That means that after meeting, we can remember each other, and say each other’s name at the right time. It’s like, “Hey, you need somebody to do this. I met someone who you should talk to.” I think so much of it is just about those relationships. Don’t be afraid of the relationships. As clinicians, you’re already great at them.
