Beyond the corporate wellness program: care for the people it does not reach.
Screenings, step challenges, and mindfulness apps are built for the whole workforce. The senior leaders carrying the most pressure, and the most risk to the business, are the least likely to use any of it. CEREVITY adds confidential, private-pay therapy with senior clinicians alongside the program you already run.
A corporate wellness program is an employer-sponsored set of preventive health benefits: screenings, coaching, fitness and mindfulness apps, and incentive challenges. Randomized evidence shows these programs change self-reported habits but not clinical measures, health care spending, or absenteeism. They also rarely reach senior leaders. CEREVITY adds confidential, private-pay therapy with senior clinicians alongside the existing program.
What CEREVITY is.
A nationwide network of independent licensed clinicians, offered as a confidential leadership-tier benefit alongside the wellness program an employer already runs.
CEREVITY is a nationwide network of independent licensed clinicians providing private-pay therapy by secure telehealth across all 50 states. It is not an app, not a coaching marketplace, and not an employee assistance program. Each leader is matched by hand to a clinician experienced with high-responsibility roles, and then keeps that clinician over time.
For an employer, the structure is simple to reason about. Care is private pay with no insurance claim filed, so nothing routes through the company health plan and no claim record is created. The benefit sits above the existing wellness program and the existing EAP rather than replacing either, and it is scoped to the leaders whose continuity most directly affects the business.
Employers usually arrive at this conversation after a specific event: a senior person who was visibly struggling used none of what was on offer, and told no one. The executive mental health benefit for companies is the same structure scoped to a named group of leaders rather than to the whole headcount.
Where a corporate wellness program stops.
The evidence on what these programs change is unusually good, and unusually sobering.
Running a corporate wellness program is a reasonable thing for an employer to do. Biometric screenings, fitness subsidies, nutrition support, and mindfulness apps are inexpensive per head, they are visible, and employees generally like having them. What they are not is clinical care, and the research is clear that they should not be bought as though they were. Organizations looking for something a tier deeper usually start by reading about EAP alternatives.
The strongest evidence comes from a cluster randomized trial at a large warehouse retail company, in which 160 worksites were randomly assigned either to receive a wellness program or to carry on without one.
of the 51 clinical, health care spending, and employment outcomes measured showed a statistically significant difference after 18 months. Self-reported habits moved. Measured health, cost, and attendance did not. Source: Song Z, Baicker K. Effect of a Workplace Wellness Program on Employee Health and Economic Outcomes: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2019;321(15):1491-1501. 32,974 employees across 160 worksites.
Employees at the wellness worksites reported more regular exercise and more active weight management. Cholesterol, blood pressure, blood glucose, and body mass index did not move. Neither did health care spending, health care utilization, absenteeism, job tenure, or performance evaluations. A three-year follow-up of the same trial found the behavior changes had held and the clinical and economic outcomes still had not appeared. A separate study of 46,336 workers across 233 organizations in the United Kingdom found the same for the mental health end of the category: participants in resilience training, mindfulness, stress management, relaxation classes, and wellbeing apps reported no better wellbeing than colleagues who did not take part.
Sources · Song Z, Baicker K. Effect of a Workplace Wellness Program on Employee Health and Economic Outcomes: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2019;321(15):1491-1501. Cluster randomized trial, 32,974 employees at 160 worksites.
Three-year follow-up reported the same pattern: Song Z, Baicker K. Health Affairs. 2021;40(6):951-960.
None of this makes wellness programming a bad thing to run. It makes it the wrong instrument for one specific job. A benefit designed for population-level prevention, delivered at scale and at low cost per head, is not going to resolve a chief financial officer's insomnia or a general counsel's panic before board meetings. That is a treatment problem, and it needs a clinician rather than a platform. Employers comparing what is actually available for that job often start with the mental health vendors beyond Headspace and Lyra.
What senior leaders actually bring to the work.
The presenting issues an incentive challenge cannot reach, in the language of the role.
Burnout that performance hides
The numbers still land, so nobody intervenes. Exhaustion at this level is masked by competence for a long time, which is why executive burnout therapy is usually started late rather than early.
Decisions with real stakes
Calls that affect livelihoods, capital, and reputation, made on incomplete information and a short clock. Sustained high-stakes anxiety degrades judgment well before anyone names it as a problem.
No one left to talk to
Peers become reports, the board evaluates rather than confides, and the spouse has heard it all. Leaders absorb every hard call alone, which is the exact pattern leadership isolation therapy exists for.
Decision fatigue
Dozens of consequential choices a day, with no recovery between them. The result is not dramatic; it is a slow drift toward avoidance, deferral, and impulsivity that decision fatigue therapy addresses directly.
The mind that will not switch off
Chronic hyper-vigilance erodes the recovery that judgment depends on. Executive insomnia is among the earliest signals that the load has stopped being sustainable.
Low mood behind full function
Work continues at volume while everything else quietly empties out. This presentation is routinely missed by screening tools and self-report surveys, and it is what anxiety and depression therapy is built to treat.
Fraudulence at the top
The higher the seat, the more convincing the sense of having been overpromoted. It is rarely spoken about inside the company, and almost never inside a company-run channel.
Strain at home
The hours and the mental load follow the leader home, and the relationship absorbs the overflow of a job that does not pause. Couples therapy is part of the network for exactly this reason.
A benefit that is available is not the same as a benefit that gets used. The distance between those two things is precisely where the senior tier sits.
Session formats built for an executive calendar.
Three lengths, and no standing weekly slot to defend.
The steady cadence of ongoing therapy. Most clients spend most of their care in 50-minute sessions.
For work that needs more room than a standard hour can hold. See 90-minute sessions.
For work that needs uninterrupted time to reach resolution. See 3-hour therapy intensives.
Care is delivered in 50-minute, 90-minute, and 3-hour sessions by secure telehealth, nationwide. A leader whose week is set by other people can do focused work in a single 90-minute or 3-hour block rather than protecting a recurring appointment that travel will break. Continuity is preserved because the leader keeps the same clinician throughout, and modality is matched at intake rather than assigned by an algorithm. The practical difference between a benefit that is offered and a benefit that is used is usually this mundane.
Cover the people the program never reaches.
A confidential conversation about a leadership-tier benefit takes one call. Nothing about it touches the company health plan or the existing wellness vendor.
Start a partnership conversationHow a senior leader is matched.
Every leader is matched by hand, not by an algorithm running against an intake form.
The eligible individual submits a confidential intake form covering presenting issues, modality preference, professional context, and scheduling parameters. Operated by CEREVITY directly, 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 senior leader, who receives the match with the clinician's profile, modality, and credentials, plus a direct online scheduling link.
Scheduling runs directly through CEREVITY infrastructure with no phone handoff. First sessions are typically scheduled within 5 to 10 business days of the match.
Care continues on the cadence the clinical work requires, in 50-minute, 90-minute, or 3-hour sessions, without an employer-imposed session cap.
Capability comparison for employers with a wellness program in place.
An evaluation framework for the case where a corporate wellness program is already in place and the open question is what belongs above it. All three models have a place; they are built for different populations.
| Dimension | Typical EAP | Executive-tier platform | CEREVITY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Network model | Broker layer between employer 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 and scheduling | Phone handoff to the clinician's line | App-based intake and scheduling | Network-operated intake, direct online scheduling |
| Session formats | Standard 50-minute, capped session counts | Standard 45 to 50-minute sessions | 50-minute, 90-minute, and 3-hour formats, no cap |
| Clinical scope | Acute, broadly applicable concerns | Workforce-wide, executive tier as an upsell | Built around the presenting issues of senior leaders |
| Modality fit | Generalist talk therapy | Generalist therapy with some specialty | CBT, DBT, psychodynamic, IFS, matched at intake |
| Reach | National via roster density | National telehealth, roster variance | All 50 states via telehealth |
| Payment model | Employer-sponsored, in network | Per-employee-per-month seat pricing | Private pay, out of network, partnership agreement |
| Employer visibility | Aggregate, broker-mediated | Vendor dashboards with engagement metrics | Administrative reporting only |
| Right fit for | Workforce-wide acute support | Mid-tier ongoing care with an executive add-on | employers with a wellness program in place, end to end |
If a formal evaluation is underway, our notes on what to look for in a private therapy provider for employees cover the procurement questions in detail.
What the employer sees, and what it does not.
For a leadership-tier channel to work at all, the leader has to trust that using it creates no 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 senior leader's clinical content.
- Whether a specific named senior leader 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. Our notice of privacy practices and privacy policy are published in full.
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, and whether one applies is a determination made with counsel rather than assumed. The partnership agreement defines the administrative reporting scope in writing before anything goes live. See also our terms of service.
The question senior people ask before they will engage is almost always the same one: who finds out. It is answered directly in our note on confidential therapy and the records an employer sees.
What the first 30 days look like.
The hardest part of a leadership-tier partnership is not the contract. It is the period between signature and the first senior leader 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.
Your team provides the eligible-individual list. CEREVITY confirms it against the network and establishes the verification path at intake. Only eligibility confirmation flows forward.
CEREVITY provides a confidential, leadership-tier comms template explaining the benefit, the privacy posture, and how to access intake. It is written to be received without stigma.
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, stated carefully.
The randomized evidence that wellness programs do not lower medical spending is strong. No comparable randomized evidence exists for a senior-tier clinical benefit either, including this one, so the case below is structural rather than trial-backed and is presented that way.
Retention of key people
Replacing a senior leader is expensive in ways that are easy to count and slow to recover from. Confidential clinical care is one of the few channels that reaches the people least likely to raise a hand, which is the practical argument for retaining high-value employees through a route they will actually use. No trial has tested that claim; it rests on the cost of the alternative.
Judgment and performance
Chronic unmanaged stress degrades attention, sleep, and decision quality long before anyone steps back from a role, and burnout's impact on productivity shows up as slow deterioration rather than as absence. Treating the underlying pattern is a different intervention from a resilience workshop, and it is the one clinical care is for.
Credibility of the benefits program
A wellness offering that visibly fails the people under the most pressure costs more in credibility than it saves in spend. Adding a channel the senior tier will use makes the rest of the program easier to defend internally, because it shows the employer distinguishes between prevention for the many and treatment for the few.
Questions employers and HR leaders ask first.
What is a corporate wellness program?
A corporate wellness program is an employer-sponsored set of preventive health benefits offered to the whole workforce. Typical components are biometric screenings and health risk assessments, fitness and nutrition subsidies, smoking cessation and weight management support, mindfulness or meditation apps, and incentive-based challenges. Most large United States employers run one. It is health promotion at population scale, which is a genuinely different purchase from clinical treatment for an individual.
Do corporate wellness programs help with burnout?
Not reliably, on the evidence available. The largest randomized trial of a workplace wellness program found improvements in self-reported exercise and weight management but no significant differences in clinical measures, health care spending, or absenteeism after 18 months, and the three-year follow-up of the same trial reached the same conclusion. A separate study of 46,336 workers in the United Kingdom found no wellbeing benefit from resilience training, mindfulness, or wellbeing apps. Burnout in a senior leader is a clinical problem, and the burnout solutions that work are clinical.
How do you add mental health care for executives?
In practice it is a narrow, separately contracted benefit rather than a change to the health plan. The employer defines which roles are covered, CEREVITY handles intake and matching, and the leader engages directly with a clinician with no routing through HR. Our guide on how to set up confidential therapy for your executives sets out the sequence, and the first 30 days after signature are structured so the internal communication lands without stigma.
Does this replace our existing wellness program or EAP?
No. Both continue to serve the broader employee population, which is what they are designed for. CEREVITY sits above them as a leadership-tier channel for the senior people who will not use a company-run resource for something this sensitive. The other partnership models CEREVITY runs are set out on the partnerships page.
Is this coaching or therapy?
It is therapy, delivered by licensed clinicians, and it is distinct from executive coaching. Coaching focuses on performance and frequently reports back to a sponsor. Therapy is confidential clinical care with no stakeholder other than the leader, addressing stress, anxiety, depression, and the personal weight of the role. The distinction is drawn in full in our note on executive counseling versus executive coaching.
How is confidentiality protected for our leaders?
Care is private pay, so no insurance claim is filed and nothing routes through the company health plan. There is no claim record for a benefits administrator, an insurer, or the employer to access. Sessions remain between the leader and the licensed clinician, who is bound by their own licensure confidentiality and privacy obligations. Reporting to the employer is administrative only, and the governing agreements are defined in writing before the partnership goes live.
What does it cost the employer?
Structure is agreed in the partnership conversation and depends on how many leaders are covered and the scope of access. CEREVITY is a private-pay network with transparent published fees, so there are no insurance-driven surprises in the accounting. Standard individual rates are published on our pricing page.
How do we begin?
Start a partnership conversation using the form on this page, by phone at (562) 295-6650, or through the contact page. A member of CEREVITY's clinical leadership will follow up directly and confidentially to scope a benefit that fits the organization.
Start a partnership conversation.
Tell us which leaders you want to cover and what is already in place. A member of CEREVITY's clinical leadership will follow up directly and confidentially.
Further reading and related partnerships.
Research, clinical writing, and the other partnership models CEREVITY runs.
Research and reports
For employers and HR
Clinical writing
A note on sources.
The randomized-trial findings on this page are drawn from Song and Baicker, JAMA, 2019, a cluster randomized trial in which 160 worksites of a large warehouse retail company were assigned either to receive a wellness program or not, covering 32,974 employees. The same authors reported the three-year outcomes in Health Affairs in 2021, where total medical spending still showed no detectable difference. The United Kingdom finding is from Fleming, Industrial Relations Journal, 2024, a cross-sectional study of 46,336 workers across 233 organizations. Those studies tested wellness programming, not the model described on this page. No randomized evidence exists for a senior-tier private clinical benefit either, and nothing here should be read as a claim that this one has been trialed. The structural argument is based on the firsthand experience of CEREVITY clinicians who have served on EAP panels, combined with publicly available vendor materials. Specific contractual scopes, including any Business Associate Agreement, are confirmed in writing in the partnership agreement before a partnership goes live. Additional CEREVITY research is collected in the knowledge base.