305 - Behavioral Health Trends You Need to Know for Therapy Practices in 2026

Dec 18

“This is your wake-up call to get involved and do something about it instead of just bitching on Facebook (which all of us love to do).” - Sarah Buino

The end-of-year mental health-related assessments are in and, y’all. You. All! These reports offer some bad news and worse news. Sorry, I ran out of sugar-coating; it’s been a long year. We’re going to parse the numbers on this raging dumpster fire of a decade, together.

Then, we’ll end on a much more hopeful note, together.

Psychotherapy Action Network, or PsiAN, is an advocacy group dedicated to advancing the use of and accessibility to “therapies of depth, insight, and relationship.” They conduct professional surveys, challenge insurance companies, and raise awareness about the proliferation of PMCs, those for-profit private management companies like Alma, Headway, and Rula. Side note: Would you be surprised to learn that many of these platforms are backed by the insurance companies that make clients’ lives (and therapists’ jobs) absolute hell?

PsiAN’s latest survey uncovered a substantial disconnect between what these PMCs promise therapists and what they deliver. Another shocker, I know. PMCs pad their bottom lines by offering inadequate data privacy protections, subpar pay, and abysmal corporate transparency. This divide has intensified as demand for mental health services continues to grow. In fact, the Hemingway Report examined Trilliant Health’s 2025 trends paper and found that behavioral health visits outnumbered primary care visits among insured patients.

Both reports underscore the same harsh reality: that while demand for mental health is exploding, power and influence are shifting to insurers and investors at the expense of patients and providers. Corporations will continue to squeeze our profession unless we intervene––and that feels like a huge ask.

We possess the answers.

Resistance is derived from the underdog position. What we're experiencing right now is part of a transition, and in these transitions, something has to die before something else can be reborn. It's scary and potentially painful. But it's less painful when we remember our collective power and act from our divine interconnectedness.

We’re a community of people dedicated to healing ourselves and caring for others in a world that’s always one dictator away from total collapse. Don’t let fear and loneliness lead you. We can only get through this shit together.

So, let’s bless this mess and goodbye 2025!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Psychotherapy Action Network (PsiAN)

Trilliant Health 2025 Trends Report

IL HB 1085

National Association of Social Workers (NASW)

Right Use of Power Institute

Heather Cox Richardson

The Fourth Turning

Spiral Dynamics

Jessica Lanyadoo

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