Therapy companion

About the project

Healios aimed to become a holistic mental health provider, but its business model still centered on autism assessments. During a pilot of post-assessment therapy with NHS trusts, a new challenge emerged: clients needed more support between sessions than contracts allowed. With renegotiation off the table, we explored how to provide that support through a digital therapy companion app, focused on emotional regulation and crisis support—without adding to clinician workload.

My role in it

I led the end-to-end discovery and design of a new digital therapy support app—from early research and workshops to prototyping and user testing. This included reviewing clinical literature, collaborating closely with clinical stakeholders, running value proposition sessions, mapping user journeys, and designing with a focus on cognitive accessibility for neurodiverse users.

As this was Healios’s first mobile app, I also co-implemented missing components and extended the functionality of existing ones in our design system to support mobile use.

Why it mattered

While therapy was being trialed, clinicians were overwhelmed with client support requests between sessions—especially during emotional crises. The most common recommendation was to use digital tools, but existing apps were generic, outdated, or mismatched with our therapy model. We needed something that would truly support clients in the gaps between sessions, without adding to clinician workload or changing contractual limitations.

How we did it

I started by interviewing clinicians to understand when and why clients were reaching out between sessions. I followed up with a company-wide survey to validate those insights at scale.

To ground the solution, I:
• Reviewed clinical literature on emotional dysregulation
• Interviewed clients for real-world context
• Audited competitors to identify gaps

I then developed user personas and journey maps, aligning the team through value proposition workshops. From there, I designed user flows for the app’s two core areas:
• Emotional regulation – structured skill-building and emotional understanding
• SOS support – immediate support during crisis moments

Prototypes were tested with users, and the UI was designed to feel supportive, calming, and accessible—especially for neurodivergent users.

What it achieved

Within four months, requests for between-session support dropped by ~20%. Beyond reducing pressure on the clinical team, this project laid the groundwork for a scalable product that could meaningfully support clients between sessions and move us closer to the company’s long-term vision.