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A confidential therapy referral partner for retained search firms.
A vetted clinical channel for the executive candidate in transition: between roles, after a departure, or carrying the weight of a high-stakes placement. A confidential place to refer, with no exposure to the search, the client, or the placement. Matched clinicians. Defined intake SLAs.
A confidential clinical referral channel for executives in transition.
This page is for partners and principals at retained executive search firms who want a confidential therapy referral relationship for candidates navigating transition, departure, or the personal weight of a high-stakes move. If that is you, the rest of this page is the briefing document.
CEREVITY operates as a clinical network with direct relationships between the network, the clinicians, and the partner firm. There is no third-party broker layer. Candidates you refer are matched, not first-served. Scheduling and intake run through CEREVITY infrastructure. Care is private-pay, out-of-network, and entirely separate from the search engagement by design, which is what keeps the referral confidential and clean.
Our clinicians are independent licensed professionals. Many have worked with senior executives in transition and understand what a career inflection point does to a person who has defined themselves by their role. CEREVITY exists in part because search partners regularly sit across from candidates carrying real distress, with no appropriate, confidential place to point them.
Executive transition is a clinical event as often as it is a career one, and search firms have nowhere to send the people who need more.
The reason a candidate sometimes stalls, struggles, or unravels mid-process is not always about fit or nerve. Transition at the senior level can surface identity loss, anxiety, and depression that no search process is built to hold, and the search partner is the one who sees it first.
Executives in transition present with a recognizable profile: identity fused with the role they are leaving or seeking, the isolation of being between positions, anticipatory anxiety about a high-visibility placement, and the grief of a departure that may not have been their choice. These are not search problems. They are clinical ones, and they routinely show up in the search relationship.
A search partner who senses a candidate is struggling has, in most cases, no good option. An offhand suggestion to find a therapist puts a vulnerable, high-profile person into a generic search at exactly the wrong moment. A trusted, confidential referral partner gives the search firm a real answer that protects the candidate, the relationship, and the firm.
What changes when the channel is built for transition: clinicians experienced with executives at inflection points, session formats long enough for real work, a confidential intake that never touches the search file, and intake SLAs defined so a candidate in acute need is seen quickly rather than waitlisted.
What CEREVITY clinicians treat in executives navigating transition.
The clinical scope is built for the realities of senior transition, the period when the search firm is closest to the candidate and best positioned to refer.
Identity loss after departure
Decades of being defined by a role, then suddenly outside it. The work of separating self from title is its own clinical project, and it is most acute in the months around a departure.
Involuntary exit and its aftermath
A forced departure carries grief, anger, and shame that a positive search narrative cannot resolve. Candidates often present composed and are anything but underneath.
Anticipatory anxiety on placement
The closer a high-visibility placement gets, the heavier the anxiety about stepping into it. This is treatable, and untreated it can derail an otherwise strong candidate at the final stage.
Isolation between roles
Between positions, the structures and relationships that organized a leader's life fall away at once. The isolation of the gap is a clinical risk, not just a logistical inconvenience.
High-functioning anxiety in process
Performance maintained at cost through a long, high-stakes search. The candidate looks ready; the underlying anxiety is a separate, treatable issue.
Depression masked as decisiveness
Mood disorders that read as drive, focus, or cool detachment in interviews. A search partner is not equipped to assess this, but a clinical referral partner is.
Relationship and family strain
Relocation, compensation change, and the upheaval of a senior move land hard on families. This is therapeutic territory and a frequent factor in a candidate's hesitation.
Onboarding and first-100-days strain
The transition does not end at acceptance. The first months in a new senior seat are a known pressure point, and a clinical channel during onboarding protects the placement the firm worked to make.
Three session formats, each chosen for the work.
Most referral options offer one session length. CEREVITY offers three, because the clinical work a candidate in transition needs varies. The choice is made between the clinician and the candidate, not by what a payor will reimburse.
The steady cadence of ongoing therapy. Most clients spend most of their care in this format.
For work that needs more room than a standard hour. Focused work on a specific transition or decision.
For work that needs uninterrupted time to reach resolution within a single session.
Because CEREVITY operates outside the insurance reimbursement model, session length is set by the clinical work, not by what a payor will reimburse. That is the structural reason all three formats can exist on the same network, and why a referred candidate can be matched to the format the moment actually requires.
Ready to scope a referral partnership?
Briefings are scoped to your firm. We respond personally within 48 business hours with proposed times and any prepared materials relevant to the referral relationship you are evaluating, including how the intake SLA is defined.
Request a briefing →How a candidate is matched.
Matched, not first-served. Here is the process that produces the match for a candidate you refer.
The eligible individual submits a confidential intake form covering presenting issues, modality preference, professional context, and scheduling parameters. The form is operated by CEREVITY, not by a broker.
Intake is reviewed by CEREVITY's clinical leadership against the network's active capacity, current licensure footprint, and modality availability. This is the step that does not exist in an EAP.
A specific clinician is matched to the candidate based on the review. The candidate receives the match with the clinician's profile, modality, and credentials, plus a direct online scheduling link.
The candidate schedules directly through CEREVITY infrastructure. No phone handoff. First sessions are typically scheduled within 5 to 10 business days of the match.
Care continues with the matched clinician on the cadence the clinical work requires, in 50-minute, 90-minute, or 3-hour sessions, without an employer-imposed cap.
Capability comparison for Retained Search Firms.
A vendor evaluation framework on the dimensions that matter when scoping a candidate-tier-tier offering for candidates. Both models have a place. They are designed for different populations.
| // Dimension | Typical EAP | Exec-tier platform | CEREVITY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Network model | Broker layer between search firm and contractor roster | Single-vendor platform, W-2 or contracted pool | Independent clinical network with direct relationships |
| Clinician assignment | First contractor to reply with availability | Algorithmic matching on intake-form inputs | Clinical review by network leadership |
| Intake & scheduling | Phone handoff to clinician's line | App-based intake and scheduling | Network-operated intake, direct online scheduling |
| Session formats | Standard 50-min; capped session counts | Standard 45 to 50-min sessions | 50-min, 90-min, and 3-hr formats, no cap |
| Clinical scope | Acute, broadly applicable concerns | Workforce-wide, executive tier as upsell | Built around Retained Search Firms presenting issues |
| Modality fit | Generalist talk therapy | Generalist therapy with some specialty | CBT, DBT, psychodynamic, matched at intake |
| Reach | National via roster density | National telehealth, roster variance | All 50 states via telehealth |
| Payment model | Search Firm-sponsored, in-network | Per-employee-per-month seat pricing | Private-pay, out-of-network, partnership agreement |
| Search Firm visibility | Aggregate, broker-mediated | Vendor dashboards with engagement | Administrative reporting only |
| Right fit for | Workforce-wide acute support | Mid-tier ongoing with executive add-on | Retained Search Firms, end-to-end |
What the search firm sees, and what it does not.
For a candidate-tier-tier channel to function, the participating candidate has to trust that engaging with it does not create visibility into their care. CEREVITY is built around that requirement.
- Confirmation that contracted services were provided to eligible individuals.
- Aggregate utilization at the partnership level, where contractually appropriate.
- Invoicing and eligibility reconciliation.
- Nothing tied to a specific named candidate's clinical content.
- Whether a specific named candidate has scheduled, attended, or engaged.
- What clinical issues are being addressed, or which clinician is assigned.
- Session notes, treatment plans, or diagnostic information.
- Any attendance detail at the individual level.
Clinicians are independent licensed professionals operating under their own licensure and the confidentiality and privacy obligations that attach to it. Protected health information is held within the clinical infrastructure, and the agreements governing it are defined in writing before the partnership goes live.
Clinical records, session content, and individual engagement data sit inside the clinical platform. The administrative layer the partner interacts with is structurally separate from the clinical layer.
Eligibility lists are maintained on the partner side and confirmed at the point of intake. Administering eligibility does not require the partner to receive clinical information back.
A Business Associate Agreement is executed where the partnership structure requires it. The partnership agreement defines administrative reporting scope in writing before going live.
What the first 30 days look like.
The hardest part of a candidate-tier-tier partnership is not the contract. It is the period between signature and the first candidate in care.
A 60-minute kickoff with your team and CEREVITY's partnership lead. We confirm the partnership shape, the eligibility model, the administrative reporting scope, and the internal owner. The BAA, where applicable, is executed in this window.
Your team provides the eligible-individual list. CEREVITY confirms it against the network side and establishes the verification path that runs at the point of intake. Only eligibility confirmation flows forward.
CEREVITY provides a confidential, candidate-tier-appropriate comms template explaining the benefit, the privacy posture, and how to access intake. Your team adapts it to your voice.
Eligible individuals begin intake on their own cadence. First sessions are typically scheduled within 5 to 10 business days. By day 30, the partnership is operational and a quarterly review cadence is in place.
The business case for the search firm.
Three axes a search-firm partner can defend when formalizing a clinical referral partner. The specifics vary by firm; the structural argument does not.
Candidate relationships and repeat business.
Today's candidate is tomorrow's client. A search partner who handled a candidate's hardest transition with care, including a confidential referral when it was needed, earns a relationship that outlasts the placement and drives repeat and referral business at the most valuable level.
Placement durability and guarantee periods.
A placement that fails in the guarantee period is expensive and reputationally costly. When a candidate's struggle is clinical, supporting it confidentially during onboarding protects the placement, the client relationship, and the firm's track record.
Differentiation with candidates and clients.
Sophisticated candidates and client companies notice a search firm that treats the human side of transition seriously. A named, confidential clinical referral partner is a differentiating signal in a market where the relationship is the product.
Questions candidates and their teams ask first.
Clinicians in the CEREVITY network are independently licensed professionals operating under their own licensure and the confidentiality and privacy obligations that attach to it. The handling of any protected health information, and the specific agreements that govern it including any Business Associate Agreement, are defined in writing in the partnership agreement before the partnership goes live, scoped to your firm's structure and the referral relationship.
No. The clinical work is confidential between the clinician and the candidate and is entirely separate from the search file. The search firm receives only what is contractually appropriate, and the client company is never informed of a referral. This separation is what makes the referral safe to offer a candidate at a vulnerable moment.
No. The clinical channel is independent of the search and creates no obligation on the candidate, the firm, or the client. It is a resource the search partner can offer, not a step in the process, and it sits outside the assessment and placement entirely.
The intake SLA is defined in the partnership agreement so that a referred candidate, including one in acute distress, is seen on a predictable timeline rather than left to a waitlist. First sessions are typically scheduled within 5 to 10 business days of intake, with the specific SLA scoped to the referral relationship.
No. CEREVITY is private-pay and out-of-network by design. The structure is intentional: it is the only way to deliver the clinical scope, session formats, and confidentiality posture this population requires.
Partnership structure and who bears the cost of care, whether the candidate, a sponsoring employer, or the firm, are defined in the briefing. Pricing depends on the shape of the referral relationship and volume. The briefing call is where we identify the right structure, and the cost falls out of that.
First sessions are typically scheduled within 5 to 10 business days of intake, depending on modality requirements and scheduling parameters, with the intake SLA scoped to the referral relationship.
Through a briefing call. Use the form below or email [PARTNERSHIPS EMAIL] directly. Briefings are scoped to your firm; we respond personally within 48 business hours.
Tell us about your firm. We respond within 48 business hours.
Briefings are scoped to your firm. Share a few details below and we will respond personally with proposed times and any prepared materials relevant to the referral partnership you are evaluating, including the intake SLA.
The structural argument on this page is based on the firsthand experience of CEREVITY clinicians who have served on EAP panels, combined with widely-published industry estimates of EAP utilization and Retained Search Firms-specific data where cited. Specific contractual scopes, including the administrative reporting boundary and the BAA structure, are confirmed in writing in the partnership agreement before any partnership goes live.
