Headspace

When Headspace Health laid off 33 of its therapists June 29, patients were told their providers had left the platform. What they didn’t know was their therapists had lost their jobs. And they suddenly had no way to contact them. Several therapists who were let go from Headspace, the Santa Monica meditation app and remote mental health care company, have raised alarm over their treatment and that of their patients after the companywide layoff of 181 total employees, which amounts to 15% of the workforce. After the layoffs were announced in the morning without warning, these therapists said they immediately lost access to their patient care systems. Appointments, they said, were canceled without explanation, potentially causing irreparable harm to their patients and forcing them to violate the ethical guidelines of their profession. One former therapist, who specializes in working with the LGBTQ+ community, said one of his clients had just come out in a session the day before he lost his job. The therapist requested anonymity because he was still awaiting severance from Headspace and feared retribution. “I’m the first person they’ve ever talked to about it,” he said. “They’re never going back to therapy. They just had the first person she talked to about it abandon them.” He didn’t know he had been laid off until 10 minutes after his first appointment was supposed to start and he had been unable to log into the system. “If any of the clinicians had done this to our clients, we would be losing our licenses tomorrow,” he said. “I assume [Headspace] didn’t allow us to talk to the clients because they didn’t want us to poach the clients. In doing so, they just really screwed over their entire client base.” In a statement, Headspace said it “promptly notified” members whose providers were affected and provided details on how to switch to a new therapist, prioritizing patients with greater need. The company said most of the individuals scheduled appointments with new providers within 10 days of the notification. “As a licensed medical provider, protecting the privacy and safety of our members and employees is paramount,” Headspace said. “We keep this commitment at the forefront for both our patients and our former colleagues, including safeguarding confidential patient data and personal details regarding the nature of the impacted employees’ departures.” The company said it used a “team-based model” that includes psychiatry and behavioral health coaching to ensure continuity of care beyond individual therapists. Monica Blauner, an officer and past president of the California Society for Clinical Social Work, said that if the layoffs did indeed immediately cut off access to therapists with no explanation, that would constitute a “huge breach of trust” with patients, many of whom may have a history of trauma and loss. “A lot of what happens in psychotherapy — the most important curative factor in psychotherapy is the relationship with the client,” said Blauner, who’s been a therapist for more than 40 years. Ending therapy is the end of an important relationship, and it’s crucial to give ample notice so that the therapist can help their patient process their feelings about the change and discuss how to move forward, Blauner said. “One of the things that can be so therapeutic for people, especially if you’ve had a lot of traumatic loss, is having a different and a better goodbye,” she said. Jay Hodes, president of healthcare regulation compliance company Colington Consulting, said Headspace acted in

Headspace Health’s acquisition of Shine marks its second acquisition this year. In January, the company acquired Sayana, an AI-powered mental health and wellness company, for an undisclosed sum. Founded in 2018 and backed by Y Combinator in 2020, Sayana leverages chat-based sessions with an AI persona that encourages users to track their moods. Headspace Health plans to turn off Sayana as a separate experience and move users over into Headspace Health once it finishes integrating the app’s core capabilities into the Headspace and Ginger experience.

Headspace Health is acquiring Shine, a mental health and wellness app dedicated to providing an inclusive mental health experience for the BIPOC community, the company announced on Thursday. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Headspace Health says the acquisition of the New York-based company will expand its ability to provide more inclusive self-care content to its growing global member base.

Headspace, a digital mental health "unicorn," laid off 13% of its staff.

The U.S. Navy has expanded its partnership with the mental health app Headspace to a handful of overseas installations, extending free access to coaching and mindfulness tools for sailors and their families.

During Fortune’s CEO Initiative conversation on Monday with former Medtronic CEO Bill George, leaders shared their insights on how to boost engagement. Headspace CEO Russell Glass noted that, in his company’s sixth annual workplace mental health report, about three-quarters of employees said work was negatively affecting their mental health and causing them to gain weight. “It has ratcheted it up over the last six years,” said Glass, “and I think a lot of it gets down to political discourse, just how difficult the environment is.”