Introducing Therify – Inclusive Mental Healthcare for Companies

Therify is an inclusive mental health benefit for companies. Through our web platform, employees access culturally responsive therapists, live community sessions, and self-guided content to support their emotional well-being.?

Our mission is to improve the well-being of humanity by connecting people with emotional healthcare that reflects their lived experience. More than 30% of employees with access to Therify utilize the service, which is 3x higher than the industry average of less than 10%.

We’re backed by great investors like Y Combinator and Looking Glass Capital.

This is personal

I’ve experienced my own mental health challenges due to losing my father at an early age and relying too heavily on external sources of happiness, like other people and career milestones.?

I remember how uncertain I felt walking into my first therapy session in 2017. To my surprise, therapy would become one of the most transformative experiences of my life – helping me discover healing and joy – but the process wasn’t easy, especially in the beginning.

I spent multiple consultations explaining myself to therapists who struggled to understand my cultural experience as a Black man. I eventually found a good fit, but I feel deeply for the countless people who give up before receiving the care they need.

While stigma and cost remain barriers to access, the burden of finding care that can empathize with our cultural, gender, and/or sexual identities is an equally, if not more pervasive challenge that we must address.?

Existing mental health benefits don’t work for everyone

A great place to address this problem is the US workforce, where 155 million people rely on employer-sponsored healthcare.

The workforce is becoming more diverse, with people of color representing the largest percentage of new hires. Unfortunately, due to a shortage of culturally responsive resources and providers, existing mental health benefits don’t work well for employees of color.?

My co-founder Warren and I have personally experienced the frustration of being matched with providers who lack the cultural competence to meet our needs. This incompatibility between patient and provider results in poor treatment outcomes, and in some cases, misdiagnosis.

US companies have a moral and business imperative to address this problem. Offering mental health benefits that actually work for everyone is the most effective way to mitigate the $252 billion lost annually due to productivity loss among employees with mental health symptoms.

Therify is designed to work for everyone

We’re building a mental health benefit that’s inclusive, culturally responsive, and designed to work for everyone. We’re doing this by:

• Building the most diverse provider network in the industry. We launched in June and 52% of our providers identify as a person of color; 20% specialize in serving the LGBTQIA+ community.
• Meeting people where they are. Going to therapy is a big step for most people, so we’re building self-guided tools for employees to receive care on their own terms.
• Building representation into our product from Day 1. Our live community sessions are led by experts who reflect the diversity of our members. Moreover, representation isn’t a reactionary idea that we implemented in the wake of a traumatic racial event, but rather a strategic priority that has guided our company since our founding.

Warren and I previously worked at Facebook and McKinsey and Therify is the benefit we always wanted but didn’t have – a culturally responsive solution to support our emotional well-being. Something that felt like it was designed just for us.

An inclusive culture requires inclusive healthcare

A company’s culture is driven by the psychology of its employees. As such, we must consider how a diversity of social and environmental factors impact how people from diverging backgrounds think, behave, and show up to work every day.

We must do everything in our power to meet them where they are, recognizing the moral and economic benefits of building an inclusive culture where everyone – irrespective of race, gender, or sexual identity – is surrounded by the support they need to thrive.?

If you believe in Therify’s mission as deeply as we do, we’d love to chat: [email protected].?

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James Edward Murray is co-founder and CEO of Therify. He previously led partnerships with digital news organizations at Facebook. Prior to Facebook, he worked on the enterprise sales team at InVision, a venture-backed product design platform. He holds a BA from Howard University and MBA from Vanderbilt University.

Warren Sadler is co-founder and CTO of Therify. He was previously a consultant and software engineer at McKinsey and Company, where he built cloud applications for Fortune 500 companies. Prior to McKinsey, he was a Data Engineer at HCA, specializing in building machine learning models to improve clinical outcomes. He holds a BA from Nossi College of Art.?