Headspace, a mental health company, has launched a direct-to-consumer clinical therapy offering.
Therapy by Headspace is available in all 50 states. It entails one-on-one video sessions with licensed therapists trained in a range of conditions including anxiety, trauma and mood disorders. The product comes after a decade of Headspace working with employers and health plans. The goal is to expand therapy availability for consumers. It is only available for adults to start.
“Our general mission is to provide lifelong support for mental health and so in order for us to deliver on that message, we really had to open it up to consumers,” Jenna Glover, Ph.D., Headspace’s chief clinical officer, told Fierce Healthcare. “We are widening the front door. There’s just more ways to get into these services.”
Nearly three-quarters of adults who are in or considering therapy face barriers preventing them from starting or continuing, Headspace found in a recent survey of more than 2,000 adults. Nearly half reported cost as the top barrier.
To help address this, Headspace’s new offering will take insurance. Most members will pay between $0 and $35 in copays per session, according to Headspace. The company is in-network with more than 45 national and regional health insurance plans, and Headspace will add more partnerships in the coming months.
“We recognize that a lot of the Headspace members today also use therapy, or they might have a desire to use therapy, so bringing that offering to the consumer side of the house felt like the right thing to do,” Tom Pickett, Headspace’s CEO, told Fierce Healthcare. Most patients are looking for insurance-backed options, Pickett added, which is where he believes the industry is largely headed.
While patients can still find Headspace through their employer or health plan, coming in through the DTC pathway will grant them three months of complimentary access to the full Headspace app. The app includes meditations, sleep and stress exercises and Headspace’s AI companion Ebb.
The latest offering is a pay-per-session, no subscription model. For patients whose plan doesn’t cover Therapy by Headspace, sessions will be $149 per session. Appointments are typically available in as few as two days.
Separately, Headspace offers two subscription-based products. Its core app experience—including content, guided clinical programs and access to Ebb —is $12.99 a month or $69.99 annually. Text-based mental health coaching, launched in 2024, costs an extra $99.99 per month. Coaching is designed for someone without a specific diagnosis who seeks motivation, skill-building and goal-setting support.
“We believe there's a full continuum of care, and there's a vast need of subclinical services. Everyone needs mental healthcare. Not everyone needs the same kind,” Glover explained.
The Ebb chatbot was built by clinical psychologists and offers real-time emotional support, personalized conversation and content recommendations. It serves as an important touch point between sessions, Glover noted.
In the coming months, Headspace will also roll out AI-driven assessments powered by Ebb and generate personalized care plans for each member. The aim is to have Ebb greet new consumers and use AI-driven clinical assessments to route them to the right care pathway.
“I see this being a pivotal time in mental health where we are finally able to offer a very personalized and very engaging experience,” Glover said. Another future goal is to give Headspace providers visibility into what users are sharing with Ebb.
Headspace providers practice measurement-based care, tracking patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) every two weeks within their electronic health record.
Another possibility for Ebb down the line is to deploy certain PROMs as needed throughout a chat. Headspace does not want to overwhelm its members with assessments. Rather, it wants to have them on hand when a patient brings something specific up, like trauma: “We are listening quietly in the background and acknowledging these are things we need to further understand,” Glover said.