[im_down_w_otp]

If investors offered me counseling services, I don't see how I'd feel comfortable taking them. Not because I have anything against therapy (I used to regularly see a CBTist, and still employ the techniques personally all the time), but because I would have an incredibly hard time believing in both the VCs' wherewithal to hire such a person on more than their perceived celebrity within their professional/social circle and also I'd struggle in fundamentally trusting that mine and the therapist's incentives were properly aligned.

It seems like it couldn't possibly produce a dynamic that's much different than say corporate HR. Wherein the helping hand extended to the employee is always beneath that of the one that's protecting the company.

But, maybe that's just me exposing my rank cynicism, which by some measures is a personality flaw in its own right.

[markdjacobsen]

I recently spoke with someone from Alpha Bridge Ventures (https://www.alphabridge.vc) after writing a book about entrepreneur mental health. They provide mental health services to their founders, and my understanding is that they have a firewall between the investors and a separate entity that provides mental health services. A menu of mental health services is available to founders but the investors never know which founders are using them. Although they emphasize the intrinsic humanitarian value in helping their founders, they also rationalize their approach by noting that providing mental health services is good business; founder burnout is a leading risk factor for startup failure. I was impressed by their approach, which seems to mitigate the incentive problem.

[awillen]

Yeah, that's fair. I don't think it's quite like HR because it's a situation where your interests and your VCs' are better aligned, but that's not always the case.

Maybe better if they could just refer some independent therapists who have experience with founders.

[jrickert]

That all makes a lot of sense. I wonder if those issues could be alleviated by contracting a sufficiently large outside firm to manage therapy services, thus at least creating some separation and objectivity for individual therapists.

[dr_dshiv]

My wife has been using an approach called "Design Therapy" (www.designtherapy.org) that uses design thinking methods for self/couples development. This allows mental health challenges to be approached outside of a "disease treatment" frame. I appreciate the approach.