The recent merger between Alma and Spring Health has the behavioral health tech world buzzing about “scale” and “reach.” But as a clinician and practice owner, it makes me pause. While the industry celebrates another corporate marriage, I find myself looking at a different kind of union—the one happening inside the therapy room when we actually decide to collaborate.

For too long, private practitioners have been conditioned to operate as islands. We hustle to keep our heads above water, positioning ourselves as solo “thought leaders” while we inadvertently hand over the keys of our profession to corporate giants.

The Illusion of Corporate Accessibility

Corporate America has successfully co-opted the term accessibility, making it synonymous with “taking insurance” or “digital convenience.” But let’s be direct: in many of these tech-driven models, accessibility is often a mask for exploitation.

When a client becomes a “consumer” to be tracked, and their data becomes a product to be sold, that isn’t care—it’s a transaction. We have allowed corporations to dictate what a client needs based solely on what they are willing to pay for. If insurance won’t cover a collaborative session, we assume it shouldn’t happen.

We’ve traded the human relationship for a data point.

The Power of the Multi-Lens Session

True accessibility is about providing the type of care a person actually needs. Sometimes, that care requires more than one perspective in the room.

I have sat in sessions where I collaborated with an Indigenous healer to support a client’s spiritual and psychological realignment. I have worked alongside a traditional reader and a doula to facilitate a “rebirth” ritual for a client who needed a somatic and communal shift that talk therapy alone couldn’t touch. I have brought my cultural lens into EMDR sessions to help a specialist understand the nuances of a client’s ancestral trauma.

This is community-level care. It bridges the gap between Eastern and Western modalities, recognizing that they aren’t as disparate as we’ve been led to believe. When we leverage multiple perspectives, we create a container that is actually safe—not just “HIPAA compliant.”

From Competition to Collective Power

Why are we still clinging to the “solo practice” model? The “Strong Friend” or “Solo Hero” trope is just as damaging to therapists as it is to our clients.

When we operate in silos, we are weak. We are easily swallowed by the “Big Tech” machines that promise us referrals in exchange for our autonomy. We need to rethink our structures:

• Move from Solo to Group: Why not build multi-specialty, multicultural practices where we value each other instead of competing for the same keywords?

• Value-Based Collaboration: We must stop letting insurance companies decide the “value” of a joint session.

• Human-to-Human Focus: Reclaiming the reality that therapy is a relationship, not a subscription service.

The Alma/Spring merger is a wake-up call. It’s time we stop shipping our businesses off to corporate entities and start reinvesting in each other. Consider our “Private Practice Incubator” that prioritizes the collective over the corporate.

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Ready to build a practice that honors the human over the consumer? Join the Private Practice Incubator and let’s build a community-centered business together.