Headspace adds referral partners for autism, eating disorders, and high-acuity care. Published. August 12, 2026 Headspace has established referral partnerships with Charlie Health, Cortica, Prosper Health, and Equip, giving members and their families more direct pathways to specialty mental healthcare. The partnerships cover autism and other neurodevelopmental conditions, eating disorders, substance use, and mental health needs requiring more intensive support than weekly therapy. They are available to members receiving care through Headspace's employee assistance program and through other employer and consumer channels. Nearly one-third of Headspace referral requests over the past year involved high-need specialty care. The company has provided more than three million care sessions through employers and health plans over the past decade and is supported by a network of more than 65,000 clinicians. When a Headspace therapist, psychiatrist, or coach determines that specialty care is appropriate, the company's Referral Coordination team will explain the available options and arrange a handoff to one of the partner organizations. Charlie Health provides virtual intensive outpatient programs for people ages 8 to 64 with serious mental health conditions, addiction, or co-occurring needs. Cortica offers diagnostic and multidisciplinary care for children with autism and other neurodevelopmental conditions. Prosper Health provides virtual autism evaluations, therapy, and post-diagnosis support for neurodivergent adults. Equip delivers virtual eating disorder care through teams that can include therapists, dietitians, medical providers, and coaches. "Families seeking autism evaluations, eating disorder treatment, or intensive outpatient care are often navigating some of the hardest moments of their lives," said Headspace Chief Clinical Officer Jenna Glover, PhD. "They deserve a clear path to care, not a confusing search process."

Q&A: Headspace debuts new Apple Watch app for mental health support. Fay Kallel, Headspace's chief product and engineering officer, tells MobiHealthNews how data from the watch will help determine times when a wearer is ready for a mindfulness experience. Fay Kallel, chief product and engineering officer at Headspace Fay Kallel, chief product and engineering officer at digital mental health company Headspace, sat down with MobiHealthNews to discuss the company's new Apple Watch app designed to use health data to identify moments when a member may be more receptive to a mindfulness experience. MobiHealthNews: Can you tell readers about the new app? Fay Kallel: Essentially, its vision for Headspace is to really be a mental health companion for its members and not wait until they come to a mobile device to take advantage of micro-moments of wellness during the day. When Mobihealthnews looked at its install base, Apple Watch was an absolute no-brainer as a companion device that is available all day on the go and more pervasive than a mobile phone. So, bringing Headspace to that has been a critical innovation, and I'm so thrilled that Mobihealthnews is launching that now. MHN: What was it about the watch, as opposed to other wearables, that made you choose to expand on that device? Kallel: I'll tell you, 50% of its member base has the Apple Watch. So it really is along the lines of this very simple vision of meeting the customer where they are. Mobihealthnews is opening the aperture from a vision perspective on everything wearables. I believe that wearables continue to be the way Mobihealthnews survive... and the Apple Watch was the first, most immediate integration point. MHN: What will users have access to? Kallel: Obviously, all the goodness of Headspace in a way that is very relevant to the Apple Watch experience itself. For example, instead of having to inundate the numbers with notifications - do this, do that - Mobihealthnews is really tapping into the haptic capabilities of the Apple Watch to gently give them a nudge when Mobihealthnews detect like, let's say heart rate is elevated - maybe it's like a pre-presentation or a stress moment in the day. So, meeting them in those like micro-moments where wellness matters the most, helping them breathe better, catch a quick meditation and leveraging the haptic capabilities within the Apple Watch is really both relevant to the form function of the Apple Watch, but also relevant to the everyday life of members. And it's all serving a clear vision of moving from mental health as an episodic issue to treat to an everyday hygienic matter to care for. That's really the shift that Mobihealthnews is building with this launch. [Members will] have some unique capabilities where you could queue up some of your favorite content and have that be basically front-and-center on the Watch so you're not in such a small form factor, trying to... parse through a whole content library. So, basically, picking up where you left off, being able to curate lists, leveraging the haptic capabilities. I think it's a much more relevant experience, plus the personalization aspect. MHN: Will there be a point where it will be able to relay that someone may need more assistance? For example, it seems your heartbeat has been pretty high for a long time. Maybe guide the user to treatment? Kallel: Ideally, the concept of personalization is really about deeply understanding the member, some of the behaviors that Mobihealthnews see through the Apple Watch, some of the data that Mobihealthnews detect, and really help them thread the needle in their personalized care journey. Mobihealthnews also have its AI companion that, through text and voice modalities, helps members understand their emotions, disambiguate what they're feeling and what they're going through. Because ultimately, when you think of all the data that comes through these wearables, they're creating a lot of awareness, but they're also creating the question, OK, what do I do with this name? How do Mobihealthnews demystify the wisdom behind the data? So Mobihealthnews is really deeply learning through personalization, algorithms, the patterns, behaviors - where do Mobihealthnews give the nudge? Where do Mobihealthnews surface an actionable moment to meet the customer where they're at because Mobihealthnews detected a data point? So, it's not data for data's sake; it's really data for wellness's sake. There is this use case that came to mind, the other rationale of why the Apple Watch is an ideal starting wearable integration. Sleep content is its fan favorite, if you will, where its members really go to sleep content quite a bit. When Mobihealthnews thought of the sleep experience, someone waking up in the middle of the night, having them go to the mobile device goes a little bit against the whole, you know, how do you help them get back to sleep? So, being able, through the Apple Watch, to detect an awake moment and automatically activate a sleep cast really helps the customer soothe and get back to sleep, which in its usability study was the use case raved about the most by its members and further fueled its priority to go with Apple Watch first because that was such a no-brainer use case.