According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 1 in 5 Americans with mental health conditions. Most therapies developed for the treatment of mental health conditions focus on a siloed approach rather than taking a holistic one, which leads to better long-term outcomes. Being Health is a modern mental health practice that combines psychiatry, psychotherapy, novel treatments, wellness, and functional medicine in an integrated setting both in-person and via telehealth. Each team is supervised by a licensed psychiatrist and includes a psychotherapist, nutritionist, psychiatric nurse practitioner, acupuncturist, care advocate, certified nurse anesthetist, and functional medicine physician. The company focuses on several common conditions including anxiety, depression, stress, and trauma, offering seamless treatment options. Being Health launches today with its first physical presence in FiDi with 18 treatment suites with plans to expand nationally.
AlleyWatch caught up with Being Health Cofounder and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Allie Sharma to learn more about the launch, the business, the company’s strategic plans, recent round of funding, and much, much more…
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
We raised $5.4M in early-stage funding from 18 Park and HDS Capital.
Tell us about the product or service that Being Health offers.
Being Health, a psychiatrist-founded modern mental health practice, launches today to bring the best of psychiatry, psychotherapy, novel treatments (such as ketamine infusion therapy), functional medicine, and wellness services (such as acupuncture and nutrition) all under one roof for a seamless patient experience in New York City. The Being Health team of empathic, highly skilled clinicians collaborates to optimize outcomes for individuals seeking support and treatment across a spectrum of mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression, stress, and trauma.
What inspired the start of Being Health?
Throughout my career, I have seen firsthand how difficult it can be for people with mental health conditions to advocate for themselves and to find high quality care that addresses the nuances of the human experience. I wanted to create a design-forward practice that is accessible to people, that humanizes mental health care and that combines many different modalities within one system to treat the whole person from a mental health lens. Since completing my training in medicine and psychiatry at Cornell, I have worked both clinically and across systems of care – largely focused on helping New Yorkers feel better. Early in my career, I worked with adult populations, such as student mental health services and emergency psychiatry at Columbia University, in addition to working with NYC’s homeless population. Following these experiences, I led emergency psychiatric services for a public hospital in the south Bronx, worked to integrate mental health into primary care internationally, and started a collaborative care program integrating mental health into a Bronx primary care system. More recently, before starting Being Health, I worked at a healthcare technology company in addition to seeing patients in private practice since 2008. The experiences I had accumulated throughout my career helped me clearly identify how to build something that could work across industries and schools of thought to modernize mental health in a meaningful way.
How is Being Health different?
Being Health is different because we are expanding the mental health toolkit and offering a modern and integrated mental health practice that leverages the best of psychiatry, psychotherapy, novel treatments, functional medicine, and wellness to care for the whole person on their healing journey. Human beings are complex, and mental health care models have to accommodate for this. We are foregoing a “one-size-fits-all” approach, and offering a diversity of treatments that are not usually found under one roof. Through provider collaboration across disciplines, we personalize care according to an individual’s unique needs to help people improve their everyday state of being. For each of our services, from psychotherapy to ketamine infusion therapy, our pricing is always upfront and transparent.
Major biotech and pharmaceutical companies are investing hundreds of millions of dollars into the development of promising therapeutic applications of novel treatments today. Clinics are popping up all over, yet Being Health is poised to deliver these novel treatments with skill, compassion, and with rigorous safety standards in mind. Coming from my background and hands-on experience in emergency psychiatry, safety is not only my top priority, but the top priority of Being Health. Our safety protocols were developed over a period of nearly two years by experts in the fields of psychiatry and anesthesiology. Among other things, our standards dictate that a CRNA (certified registered nurse anesthetist) is on hand to supervise all ketamine infusion sessions.
What market does Being Health target and how big is it?
In a given year, one in five New Yorkers experience mental illness. At Being Health, we are striving to offer individuals a care model that is grounded in the latest evidence, guided by empathic clinicians and personalized to individual needs.
What’s your business model?
We are setting a new standard for mental health by bringing together diverse therapeutic modalities under one roof. Our team of empathic, highly skilled clinicians – including Psychiatrists, Psychotherapists (Psychologist, LCSW, LMHC, MSW), Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNA), Functional Medicine Physicians, Nutritionists, Acupuncturists, Care Advocates – collaborates to optimize outcomes for individuals seeking support and treatment across a spectrum of mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression, stress, and trauma.
We operate in a hybrid model at Being Health, incorporating both in-person treatments and virtual therapy. Depending on the service an individual is receiving, we offer virtual appointments so patients can easily integrate care into their already busy lives.
How are you preparing for a potential economic slowdown?
Mental health does not follow economic trends – if anything, the need for mental health services continues unabated during times of economic downturn. We believe in building a foundation for a better mental health system, starting here and now.
What was the funding process like?
We were excited to raise $5.4 million in early-stage funding from 18 Park and HDS Capital in addition to the founders/individual investors. The investors collectively have decades of experience in healthcare, mental health, and consumer businesses. We’re excited at the opportunity to modernize mental health care in a sorely needed way.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
We like to believe that our integrated model for mental health is what led investors to invest. Like us, they align with our mission to deliver high-quality care to those in search of a practice that provides access to the best of traditional and novel treatments.
We like to believe that our integrated model for mental health is what led investors to invest. Like us, they align with our mission to deliver high-quality care to those in search of a practice that provides access to the best of traditional and novel treatments.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
Above all, we are so excited to officially launch our New York practice and help bring New York residents an option for compassionate mental health care that attends to both mind and body.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
We are aware that we are in an environment where raising capital is not an easy journey. In the mental health care space, it’s incredibly important to understand the problems that patients experience to be able to identify opportunity areas.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
We are currently working on making Being Health the most effective and efficient as it can be for patients and practitioners. Once we feel that our model is scalable, we hope to expand Being Health to multiple locations in the New York City area soon.
What’s your favorite winter destination in and around the city?
My winter plan is always to make sure to get out of the city and into nature to calm my nervous system and have a chance to reset. Within the city, I like to cozy up in my neighborhood in Williamsburg and hit some of the winter rooftop spots that tend to pop up (chalets, ice rinks, and more).
