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Why we chose coaching as our foundation for 24/7 AI support

Applying AI in care settings requires thoughtful implementation, clinical oversight, and a clear understanding of where technology can enhance the human experience of care.

Rather than deploying AI broadly across all care settings, we’ve introduced it within our Lyra Care Coaching program first. Lyra’s coaching program combines personalized support from carefully vetted and highly trained mental health coaches with evidence-backed digital activities that empower clients to navigate daily challenges.

Overall, coaching offers more active, skill-building support for the most common stressors affecting most employees and their families, making it a natural foundation for what AI integration can most effectively enhance.

The power of what happens between sessions

Live coaching sessions provide a strong base for clients. At the same time, true transformation often happens in the moments between sessions. That’s why digital activities have always been a core part of Lyra’s coaching approach.

Data consistently shows that clients who engage with between-session tools see better care outcomes. Reinforcing skills outside of sessions helps people build habits that are sustainable.

Lyra AI: your always-on support guide

Lyra AI builds on this foundation by providing clients with a reflective, interactive space they can turn to when they need it most. It’s there when life actually happens.

Why Lyra AI is different

We’ve invested heavily to ensure our AI technology is as safe as it is supportive and deeply integrated in our care ecosystem.

What comes next for Lyra AI in care

By starting with coaching and combining the power of our Lyra Care model with the 24/7 responsiveness and safety of Lyra AI, clients get a continuous, responsive ecosystem of support.

As we move forward, providers will remain at the center of care and we’ll continue to combine deep clinical expertise with ongoing technological iteration based on our evaluations of how AI influences engagement, continuity, and outcomes. These learnings will help guide how this technology may support additional care experiences over time.

It usually doesn’t happen all at once. You reread an email. Second-guess a simple choice or put something off—not because it’s big, but because you can’t decide.

At first, you brush it off. But over time, even everyday decisions start to feel heavier than they should.

We tend to think of decision-making skills as something we use for big moments like career changes, major life choices, or high-stakes calls. But most of us are making decisions constantly throughout the day. When your mind is already full, all those small decisions can start to pile up.

To better understand why this happens—and how to move through it—we spoke with Mallory Hilinski-Wetzel, PhD, LPC, a licensed professional counselor specializing in burnout and evidence-based care.

“Decision fatigue shows up less as ‘I can’t decide’ and more as a kind of cognitive depletion. Clients describe mental fog, irritability, and a tendency to avoid even simple decisions after sustained demands,” says Hilinski-Wetzel.

Research on choice overload shows that when people are given too many options, they’re less likely to make a decision at all, even when all the options are good ones. It’s often not indecision that slows us down. It’s mental overload.

Decision-making skills aren’t something you either have or don’t. They’re something you can use to reset how you approach choices, especially when things start to feel harder than usual.

What are decision-making skills?

Decision-making skills are the abilities that help you choose between options in a clear, intentional way.

They’re not just about picking the “right” answer. They shape how you process information, manage uncertainty, and move forward without getting stuck. In everyday life, this shows up in everything from work priorities to personal boundaries and trade-offs.

“Most decisions are adjustable, so the focus shifts from ‘What’s the right choice?’ to ‘What moves me in a direction I care about?’” Hilinski-Wetzel explains.

Types of decision-making skills

Leadership: making thoughtful choices with incomplete information while balancing people and priorities.

Example: Deciding how to reassign work when your team is at capacity.

Problem-solving: breaking down complexity and choosing a path forward when there isn’t an obvious answer.

Example: Figuring out how to move forward when a project is behind schedule.

Emotional intelligence: noticing how stress or emotion may be influencing your decisions.

Example: Recognizing you want to say “no” to a request because you’re overwhelmed, not because it’s a bad idea.

Creativity: considering different options instead of defaulting to the familiar.

Example: Trying a new approach instead of repeating what you’ve always done.

Organization: reducing clutter so it’s easier to evaluate priorities and make clear choices.

Example: Sorting your to-do list to see what actually needs attention today.

Your decision-making reset

If decisions feel more complicated than they should, you need a way to reset.

  1. Reset your attention

When you’re stuck refreshing emails, overthinking a message, or looping on a decision, start by noticing where your attention is going.

  1. Reset the decision

When everything feels tangled, try shrinking the decision down to its simplest form. 

“Sometimes the most effective strategy is simply breaking things down and reducing the number of choices so the brain has less to process,” says Hilinski-Wetzel.

  1. Reset your perspective

When you feel stuck in your own head, it can help to step outside of it. This often means talking it out or imagining another point of view.

  1. Reset the trade-offs

When a decision feels unclear, make it visible instead of holding it all in your head. Writing things down often makes patterns easier to see.

“Externalizing your thoughts—through writing or even saying them out loud—helps offload the mental demand and create clarity and psychological distance,” says Hilinski-Wetzel. “Brain dumping is one way to do this, getting everything out of your head and onto paper so you’re not trying to hold it all at once.”

  1. Reset emotional noise and next steps

When emotions are running high, slow things down before deciding. 

If decisions feel harder right now

Decision-making is something everyone navigates, even when it looks easy from the outside. When it starts to feel overwhelming, it’s often a sign that you’re carrying more than your mind has space for in the moment. That doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong. It just means you may need a reset or a little more support. 

“As cognitive load builds, people often shift from thoughtful, values-based decisions to quick, low-effort choices, or even complete avoidance,” Hilinski-Wetzel notes. “If you’re noticing persistent avoidance, rumination, or second-guessing that doesn’t resolve, it’s worth talking to someone.”

Better mental health care starts with better support for providers. Consistent, high-quality care depends on what happens during sessions, and the support providers have to refine their approach.

Today, feedback often comes through conversations with managers or reviews of session notes. These approaches are valuable, but they don’t always give providers consistent, ongoing visibility into their work over time.

That’s where Lyra’s Care Insights Hub comes in. This new AI-powered capability in our Lyra Engage EHR platform uses client interactions to surface clinically grounded insights, helping providers reflect on and refine their practice.

Built for how providers work

Designed to fit into how providers already work, the Care Insights Hub uses AI to highlight patterns across sessions and surface insights to inform their approach. It also supports ongoing development conversations with Clinical Managers, Lyra’s clinical leaders who partner with providers to strengthen quality  across the network.

The Care Insights Hub is grounded in clinician-reviewed standards, with human oversight at every step, and informed by client interactions and clinician-scored evaluations. Providers remain in control of care decisions, with insights designed to make key patterns more visible. It helps providers explore questions like:

Feedback strengthens care across the network

Lyra’s Care Insights Hub moves beyond high-level metrics to deliver insights providers can apply in everyday care:

From metrics to meaningful insights – Combines quantitative data with qualitative observations and network benchmarks, so providers understand what’s influencing outcomes and areas to focus on next.

Grounded in real care – Anchors insights in real session examples, making observations specific, relevant, and easier to incorporate.

More focused Clinical Manager conversations – Gives providers and Clinical Managers a shared, detailed view of care, so time together is more targeted and actionable.

Insights that scale across the network – Surfaces patterns across providers, informing training and strengthening network-wide care quality.

AI insights, shaped by providers – Providers and Clinical Managers can give feedback to refine the tool over time, while remaining in control of care decisions and applying their clinical judgment to every insight.

Stronger outcomes, driven by high-quality care

This commitment to supporting providers is core to how Lyra delivers consistently high-quality care. By prioritizing provider growth, Lyra ensures employees feel better and organizations offer care they can trust.

For many parents, supporting a child’s mental health starts with a lot of time-intensive logistics: phone calls between meetings, hours spent navigating options, getting second opinions, being available at a moment’s notice, just in case something changes.

Over time, finding the right care becomes a burden that seeps into how parents work, focus, and show up each day—not because they aren’t trying, but because the process asks them to carry more than they should. It can mean missed work, constant coordination, and trying to hold things steady as needs shift. And over time, that weight builds.

What happens next, whether families find the right support or continue managing it on their own, can shape everything that follows. That’s why we’re expanding our Center of Excellence for Pediatric and Young Adult Mental Health to provide more coordinated, intensive support when families need it most.

Where care starts to break down

As needs become more complex, finding and navigating the right care gets harder. More than half of organizations report rising child and teen mental health claims. At the same time, needs are becoming more urgent. Many families require immediate, specialized care, not just routine support.

But care hasn’t kept pace. Families often face long wait times, unavailable providers, and disconnected care experiences. Even when care begins, it doesn’t always feel coordinated. Providers operate separately, and alignment across clinicians, schools, and families is limited.

Many organizations have expanded benefits and flexibility, and those steps help. But they don’t always reduce the burden of navigating care, especially as needs change. That’s often where challenges emerge.

One family’s experience navigating care

For one Lyra member, attempts to find the right care were defined by constant uncertainty.

Even after their child returned to school after intensive care, there wasn’t a clear sense that things were stable. For months, her husband worked from his car outside the school, staying close in case something went wrong.

When care feels uncertain, parents step in to fill the gaps, and that responsibility follows them everywhere.

Care becomes constant. Work happens in between.

The impact shows up at work

Supporting a child’s mental health needs often means:

As this adds up, the impact extends beyond the individual. Managers adjust coverage, work gets redistributed, and timelines shift. Over time, it affects how teams operate and whether employees can stay in their roles at all.

What changes when care is connected

Lyra’s Center of Excellence for Pediatric and Young Adult Mental Health takes on the responsibility of coordinating care, so it doesn’t fall on the parent.

Instead of navigating options on their own, families are quickly connected to an urgent care pediatric specialist who assesses the situation and determines the right next step.

When care is matched to need from the start, it reduces the likelihood of defaulting to emergency rooms or inpatient stays, limiting disruption for families and avoiding the highest levels of cost.

Specialized pediatric support, all in-house

Lyra delivers care in-house, with pediatric specialists for all care levels as needs change. Care is built specifically for children, teens, and young adults with support that fits into their daily lives.

That means fewer handoffs, no restarting, and less need for families to manage transitions on their own.

Support adjusts as needs change, with the right level of care available at every stage:

Immediate support, anytime
Families can access 24/7 clinical support, including a crisis line staffed by professionals who help de-escalate situations and connect them directly to urgent mental health care when needed.

Inpatient care for the most intensive needs
Children, teens, and young adults are quickly connected to in-network, evidence-based inpatient care, with support to return home as soon as it’s safe.

More frequent support without hospitalization
Structured, high-frequency virtual outpatient care is delivered in-house, helping stabilize symptoms at home without requiring families to switch providers.

Skills-based support to stay on track
Young people learn skills-based approaches to manage behaviors like self-harm while staying engaged in school, relationships, and routines.

Ongoing care to maintain progress
Ongoing care continues at a steady pace, helping maintain progress and reduce the risk of future crises.

This approach supports families earlier, so situations are less likely to escalate.

What changes for parents

With the right support in place, families no longer have to carry the full weight of managing care alone. They don’t need to: 

Instead of managing care, families can focus on their child.

When care finally works
Dana was doing everything she could to help her daughter, but the process of getting care was disjointed, slow, and hard to navigate. What happened next shows what it looks like when a family finally has support they can rely on.

How better care strengthens performance

When care relies on employees to carry more than they should, the impact shows up in performance, capacity, and retention. By providing care that’s coordinated, responsive, and easier to navigate, organizations can reduce that burden, so employees can be present for their families and more fully engaged at work.

Only 23% of employees feel engaged at work. That’s often framed as an engagement challenge, but it may also reflect how work is structured, supported, and experienced day to day. 

Most employees want to do meaningful work. They want to contribute, grow, solve problems, and feel connected to what they do, but constant change, shifting priorities, and growing workloads can create friction that makes even highly engaged employees feel stuck or disconnected over time.

Employee motivation isn’t simply something people either have or don’t. It’s shaped by how employees experience work day to day, including communication, workload, leadership, workplace systems, and how easy or difficult it feels to make progress. Organizations that understand this are often better positioned to create the clarity, focus, and consistency employees need to perform at their best.

Motivation is more than mindset

Employee motivation is what helps people stay engaged, focused, and willing to put energy into their work, even during stressful or uncertain periods. It can be shaped by personality, as well as whether employees feel supported, trusted, and set up to succeed in their roles.

When employee motivation is strong:

When motivation starts to decline, even strong employees may disengage or lose confidence in their ability to succeed.

The new drivers of employee motivation

Employee expectations around work continue to evolve. Different generations may prioritize different things, but across the workforce, employees increasingly want clearer priorities, flexibility, transparency, and work that feels manageable amid constant change.

Employees are asking bigger questions:

Motivation becomes harder to sustain when the answers to those questions feel unclear.

At the same time, organizations are navigating significant pressure themselves: adapting to rapid change, managing leaner teams, implementing new technologies, and supporting employees through uncertainty. Maintaining motivation today often comes down to helping employees stay focused, aligned, and effective while navigating growing complexity and constant change.

Understanding intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivators

Motivation is typically shaped by a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Intrinsic motivation comes from within. It’s what makes work feel meaningful, engaging, or satisfying. Examples include:

Extrinsic motivation comes from external rewards or recognition. Examples include:

Many organizations have historically focused more heavily on external motivators like compensation and recognition. But sustainable motivation also depends on whether employees feel trusted, equipped to succeed, and able to work effectively without constant friction or confusion.

The strongest workplace cultures support both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, helping employees stay engaged while also reinforcing long-term performance and well-being. When organizations support motivation effectively, the impact extends far beyond engagement scores. Employees are more likely to:

Over time, motivated teams build stronger collaboration, resilience, and performance momentum across organizations.

How to improve employee motivation

Motivation is easier to sustain when employees have clarity, the right tools, and work environments that help them stay focused and effective.

#1 Recognize contributions consistently

Recognition is one of the clearest signals that work matters. Employees are more likely to stay engaged when acknowledgment is specific, timely, and connected to meaningful contributions, not just outcomes. Small moments of recognition can have a big impact.

#2 Build confidence and capability

Confidence plays a major role in employee motivation and performance. When employees feel equipped to handle challenges and changing expectations, they’re more likely to stay engaged in their work. This is especially important for managers, who are often expected to lead teams through conflict, change, and uncertainty with limited formal training. Practical skill-building can help managers make decisions more effectively, communicate more clearly, and keep teams aligned during periods of pressure.

#3 Strengthen collaboration

Employees are more likely to stay engaged when they feel connected to their teams and understand how their work contributes to broader goals. Strong collaboration, clearer communication, and opportunities to learn from others can help reduce isolation and improve alignment across teams.

#4 Encourage autonomy

Autonomy signals trust. Employees tend to stay more engaged when they have clarity on goals but flexibility in how they achieve them. Clear direction paired with flexibility often leads to stronger ownership, creativity, and accountability.

#5 Equip employees with the right resources

According to a recent survey, 73% of employees say benefits matter as much as salary, or more. High-quality mental health support can help reduce personal strain that often affects focus, energy, and day-to-day performance at work. 

#6 Reduce friction in everyday work

Everyday workplace friction can wear down motivation over time. Reducing unnecessary friction through clearer priorities, stronger decision-making structures, and more streamlined communication can help employees stay focused and productive.

Creating conditions for stronger performance

Employee motivation is less about keeping people constantly inspired and more about helping them work effectively amid change and pressure. Clearer communication, better alignment, and fewer everyday obstacles can help employees stay connected to the work that matters most.

At Lyra, we believe that transforming mental health care requires more than just the right tools—it requires courageous leadership. We’re honored to present the Workforce Mental Health Awards at our annual Breakthrough conference, to recognize the exceptional people and organizations who are setting a new standard for employee well-being.

Congratulations to our 2026 winners! Learn more about our awards program and join us as we continue to shape what great support looks like in 2026 and beyond.

Company of the Year: Cummins Inc. 

Awarded to the company that has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to mental health care, achieving meaningful results across its entire workforce. This company thinks about mental health care not just as an employee benefit, but as a company-wide priority.

Through creating and sustaining their It’s OK global well-being strategy for nearly six years, Cummins Inc. is making mental health a foundational pillar of corporate culture. By reaching nearly 70,000 employees through a sophisticated multi-channel engagement model, they’ve empowered over 200 employees to share their personal stories, making meaningful progress in destigmatizing mental health at every level of the organization. Their commitment is further solidified with specialized leadership training, and the 2026 launch of the global Mental Health Ally Program, ensuring every employee—from the corporate office to the manufacturing floor—has access to a supportive, informed, and clinically backed ecosystem of care.

Leader of the Year: Joanna Kaup, Benefits Manager, T-Mobile

Awarded to a leader who has consistently prioritized the mental health care of their employees by visibly and meaningfully integrating a mental health care focus into their broader company strategy.

As the strategic architect of T-Mobile’s “LiveMagenta” program, Joanna Kaup led the transformation of a traditional EAP into an integrated mental health ecosystem that now serves as a foundational part of the employee experience. By reducing barriers to care and partnering closely with leadership, she helped shift the organization toward a more modern, accessible, and continuously evolving approach. Grounded in humility and cross-functional partnership, Joanna has driven a grassroots, engagement-focused approach to well-being, ensuring support is not just available, but meaningfully embedded across the organization.

Rising Star Award: AdventHealth

Awarded to a company in their first year with Lyra who is showing exceptional promise and commitment to bringing mental health care to their employee base. 

In its foundational year with Lyra, AdventHealth successfully introduced mental health support to a workforce of 100,000 with a human-centered launch strategy that far exceeded industry engagement benchmarks. By developing custom video content and a specialized Leader Guide grounded in real-world health care scenarios, the organization made mental health care a visible, peer-supported priority. With a network of Health Champions trained as Mental Health Peer Advocates and strong leader engagement, this deliberate approach has built lasting momentum for meaningful cultural change.

Campaign of the Year: Eli Lilly and Company

Awarded to a company recognized for its creativity and effectiveness in driving mental health awareness through a campaign that truly engages and inspires employees.

Eli Lilly and Company’s Campaign of the Year elevated mental health from a traditional benefit to a performance strategy through sustained, peer-led activation. Rather than focusing on a one‑time launch, the campaign embedded Lyra within a broader mental health ecosystem—powered by executive support, mental health advocates, employee resource groups, and integrated health services—making support visible, accessible, and relevant across roles, shifts, and locations. What distinguished this campaign was how it came to life: prioritizing grassroots engagement over top‑down communications, normalizing mental health, and meeting employees where they are. Real‑time utilization insights continuously shaped the strategy into targeted workshops, manager tools, and family‑focused outreach.

Innovator of the Year: Tara Kousha, Chief People and Wellbeing Officer, Catalight

Awarded to a leader who has demonstrated a willingness to push limits and think boldly about the future of workforce mental health. 

Tara Kousha joined Catalight with a vision to adapt high-impact tech benefits into a powerful mental health and well-being ecosystem for the nonprofit sector. As an early adopter of Lyra’s Organizational Health Evaluation for deep root-cause analysis, she moved beyond surface-level observations to uncover the systemic drivers of workforce burnout and distress. This data-driven approach led Tara to pioneer the first pilot of Lyra’s Manager Coaching program. By sharing her insights with the broader community at Breakthrough and in last year’s masterclass, she is ensuring her impact reaches far beyond the walls of Catalight.

Innovative Company of the Year Award: AT&T

Awarded to the HR team that has demonstrated a willingness to push limits and think boldly about the future of workforce mental health.

During a period of significant organizational change, AT&T took a bold, forward-looking approach to embed mental well-being benefits into the everyday employee experience, making mental health a core pillar of workforce support—not simply a “nice-to-have”. Led by the Benefits team, the company took meaningful steps to reduce barriers to access and meet employees where they are. This included creating a simpler front door to care, supported by a $5 million investment to bring roughly 20 licensed therapists onsite at office and call center locations across the country.

Founding Customer Award: eBay

Lyra is proud to honor eBay with the Founding Customer Award. The first organization to champion our mission 10 years ago, they continue to further the cause today. Since launching in 2016, eBay has been a fearless early adopter of essential services like medication management and seamless health plan integration. Now supporting employees across 28 countries, eBay’s impact is measurable: members have completed more than 125,000 care sessions, with 88% improving or recovering by graduation and 96% reporting their care needs were met. This award celebrates a decade of leadership, innovation, and eBay’s unwavering commitment to the mental health of their global workforce.

Managers are carrying more than ever, and it’s impacting how work gets done. In Lyra’s State of Workforce Mental Health Report, more than half say their role has negatively affected their mental health, and nearly half have considered stepping away because of the pressure.

Managers sit at the center of it all. They’re expected to deliver results, support their teams, and keep up with constant change. Over time, that weight adds up. And when they’re stretched too thin, the strain compromises engagement, decision-making, agility, and innovation.

A new standard for supporting managers at work

That’s why we’re introducing Lyra’s Manager Coaching program, a specialized 1:1 coaching solution designed for what managing actually looks like today. Whether someone is stepping into their first leadership role or leading through growing complexity, this program helps them:

This goes beyond traditional development. It’s built for the real moments managers face, when pressure is high and decisions matter.

Managers are the lever for performance

Managers are one of the biggest drivers of employee experience and performance. Employee performance can affect mental health and vice versa. In fact, research shows that managers influence an employee’s mental health as much as a spouse, and more than a doctor or therapist.

Day to day, managers influence teams, culture, job scope, how work gets done, what gets escalated, how change is communicated and embraced, and more. So when managers are equipped to lead effectively, teams are more focused, resilient, and higher-performing. When they’re not, even the best strategies can fall short.

Why coaching (not just training) makes the difference

Most manager training focuses on foundational skills. That’s important, but it’s not enough for the reality managers are navigating today. What’s often missing is support in the moment: the ability to quickly assess what’s driving uncertainty or a drop in performance, decide what to do next, and address it effectively.

Lyra’s Manager Coaching focuses on:

Because better decisions, made earlier, lead to better outcomes.

Designed for the realities of work

Lyra’s Manager Coaching is grounded in the latest research across management, organizational psychology, and occupational health. We prioritize quality by carefully vetting coaches, providing intensive training, and building evidence-based content. Just as important, we measure effectiveness by focusing on outcomes like engagement, skill development, and progress toward each manager’s goals, so support translates into results you can see and feel across your teams.

Optimize your workforce performance

Most organizations are already investing in performance. The opportunity is to invest where it has the most day-to-day impact.

Manager coaching is one of the most direct ways to improve how work happens, while helping retain your critical talent. When managers feel supported, teams are better able to focus, adapt, and deliver, making performance something you can sustain over time.

FAQs

What is Lyra’s Manager Coaching?
Lyra’s Manager Coaching program is a 1:1 coaching solution that helps managers navigate real situations as they happen, from tough conversations to team challenges, so they can lead more effectively day to day.

How is Lyra’s Manager Coaching different from traditional coaching programs?
Many coaching programs are either highly structured or completely open-ended. Lyra offers a consistent, evidence-based approach that helps managers assess what’s driving a situation and decide how to respond in the moment.

What kinds of challenges can Lyra’s Manager Coaching help with?
Managers can get support with challenges like burnout, difficult feedback, unclear priorities, team dynamics, and workload pressures, especially when there isn’t an obvious path forward.

How does Lyra support managers when issues go beyond performance?
Lyra’s Manager Coaching is connected to a broader mental health ecosystem, so there’s a clear path to additional care when needed. Managers aren’t left to navigate more complex or sensitive situations on their own.

Why does Lyra focus on both work performance and mental health?
The two are closely connected. Workplace challenges often have underlying causes, and addressing both helps managers respond more effectively in the moment, while sustaining their own well-being over time.

At Lyra, we’re proud to partner with benefits leaders who think boldly and prioritize the mental health of their employees. We had the privilege of speaking with Andrea Miller, Senior Mental Health Consultant at Higginbotham Insurance & Financial Services, about the company’s partnership with Lyra and how mental health support is a key part of workforce well-being. 

Why is mental health so important?
Mental health is important because our brain is the epicenter to our whole body. I believe in whole-body, positive, healthy functioning, and I think it starts with mental wellness. We can’t really pay full attention to our physical wellness and our diet, nutrition, and exercise if we’re not in a really good mental health space.

What are you especially proud of?
I am so thankful that Higginbotham sees the value in having a mental health benefit. Research shows that when leadership cares about mental health, it has a trickle-down effect on each and every employee. And Higginbotham partnering with Lyra has been proof of just that. We’ve heard so many things about Lyra being such a wonderful resource. It’s simple and easy to use, and has been beneficial to our employees. I’m so proud to say that I had a hand in that.

What do you or your members love most about the Lyra benefit?
I hear so often that when a person needs a mental health resource, it’s so difficult to find. You know they’re feeling upset in that moment and it makes it even more stressful for that individual when they can’t find help. 

Well, we don’t have that problem at Higginbotham because we’ve partnered with Lyra. It’s simple, easy, and our employees love it. I hear them saying things like, “Lyra was easy to navigate and really motivated me to start my journey toward working on my mental health.” And “I absolutely love it. It was easy to sign up and find a therapist. The scheduling, the videos, the whole setup is so easy. I’ve really gained a lot from my sessions.” These are actual quotes from some of our employees.

If another benefits leader asks you how or why they should make the case for a mental health benefit, what would you tell them?
I would tell them that an employee who feels good is going to be a great employee. It’s really important to have a mental health benefit. It arms HR, leadership, and the employee with tools that they need in any sort of situation, and helps them on their journey to feeling good and functioning at their best.

We talk about anxiety and depression all the time. But we often misunderstand both. Anxiety gets reduced to “stress.” Depression gets reduced to “sadness.” In reality, both are more complex—and more connected—than we tend to acknowledge.

To unpack what’s often missed, we spoke with Marlene Gomez, MA, LMFT, about how anxiety and depression actually show up in people’s day-to-day lives, and why recognizing the difference matters.

The biggest signal: impact

One of the biggest misconceptions about anxiety and depression is that they’re defined by how someone feels.

But clinically, that’s not the full picture.

“People often think they understand anxiety or depression because they’ve felt worry or sadness before,” Gomez explains. “But emotions are temporary. Clinical anxiety or depression is more persistent and begins to affect how someone functions in their day-to-day life.”

Anxiety: a mental health condition marked by persistent, excessive worry or fear that feels difficult to control and interferes with daily life

Depression: a mental health condition characterized by ongoing sadness or loss of interest and pleasure, along with changes in energy, sleep, or thinking that affect everyday functioning

Anxiety doesn’t always look like anxiety

We tend to picture anxiety as visible worry or panic. But in practice, it often shows up in more subtle—and socially reinforced—ways:

Hallmark symptoms:

Less common symptoms:

“Anxiety might show up as pressure, perfectionism, or constant worry about getting things right,” Gomez says. “When things don’t go as planned, that pressure can turn inward and become harsh self-criticism, which starts to look a lot like depression.”

Depression isn’t always visible, either

Depression is often associated with sadness, but many people experience it differently.

Hallmark symptoms:

Less common symptoms:

For some, it’s not an overwhelming emotion. It’s the absence of one. And because of that, it can be easy to overlook or misinterpret.

What’s the difference between anxiety and depression?

Anxiety and depression are distinct, but they frequently overlap. In fact, research shows that nearly half of people with major depression also have an anxiety disorder.

Someone might spend the day:

…while also feeling:

This combination can be confusing—and easy to dismiss as “just stress.”

But there’s a clearer way to think about it:

And when both are present, they can reinforce each other.

“Functional impairment is really the signal,” Gomez notes. “When anxiety or depression starts to change how someone behaves or how they’re able to engage in daily life, that’s when we begin to think about it clinically.”

What we still get wrong (and why it matters)

Even as awareness grows, many common beliefs still hold people back from getting support. Cultural messaging, social media, and even well-meaning advice can blur the reality of what these conditions actually are. Let’s clear up some of the most common misconceptions about anxiety vs depression.

  1. Anxiety is “just stress.”

Stress is a normal response to a challenge. Anxiety is persistent, excessive, and often disproportionate to the situation. It doesn’t switch off when the stressor passes.

  1. Depression is “just sadness.”

Sadness tends to pass. Depression is more persistent and involves sustained changes in mood, energy, thinking, and physical patterns such as sleep and appetite that meaningfully affect daily life.

  1. “If I’m functioning, I’m fine.”

Many people are considered “high-functioning”—they continue to perform at work or in daily life while struggling internally. But outward productivity doesn’t always reflect inner well-being. “There’s often a belief that strong people should just push through,” Gomez says. “But pushing through can come at the cost of your well-being. It takes courage to acknowledge that you’re struggling and ask for support.”

  1. “I should be able to handle this on my own.”

This belief delays support, often until symptoms worsen or become harder to manage.

  1. “Treatment means one path”

Effective care is personalized and evidence-based, and may include therapy, skills-building, lifestyle changes, medication, or a combination.

The goal is earlier recognition

Understanding anxiety and depression isn’t just about labeling symptoms correctly. It’s about recognizing when something has shifted:

That’s often the moment where support can make the biggest difference.

You don’t have to figure it out alone

Support can take different forms, but the most important step is recognizing when it might help. “We’re not meant to figure everything out alone,” Gomez says. “Getting another perspective from a therapist, coach, or psychiatrist can help people see patterns they might not recognize on their own.”

Early usage of our new AI free-text option in Lyra’s care search shows a strong signal of shifting behaviors and a better path forward to accessing the right care 

Nothing blocks the path to healing or finding what you need for your health faster than a gauntlet of drop-down menus and checkboxes. The industry standard of rigid form fills and intakes has persisted for too long.

We set out to change this 10 years ago when we designed a more human intake for Lyra members to find mental health care and a provider that fits their needs. As we continue to iterate on the most effective ways to apply AI across the Lyra platform, we asked ourselves a simple question about our care search: What if we just let people speak for themselves?

The shift: Effort to expression, with natural language-driven intake

We recently rolled out a new feature in our care search and triage process. Instead of navigating preset options, members can use a free-text interface. Powered by Lyra AI, this tool still surfaces some guiding cues but allows our members to describe what they’re feeling or thinking in their own words, which we use to get them to the right care recommendation.

Early signals: What the data says

We are in the early stages of this, with a phased rollout beginning in January of 2025. The initial engagement has been eye-opening, and we are approaching these insights with humility, knowing that early doesn’t mean absolute, but the trend is clear: people want to be able to find what they’re looking for in an unencumbered, natural way.

37% of members who are offered the free-text option use it. In other words, more than 1 in 3 people are choosing to bypass a more traditional experience in favor of natural language.

This is happening with an early version of free text and as part of an initial rollout where we’ve included it only as a secondary option to our standard search for care intake.

What comes next for care search

These numbers suggest that the friction of traditional health care isn’t just a nuisance, it’s a barrier that people will drop when presented with a simpler, more human alternative.

We know we haven’t solved the intake problem entirely. Rather, we’re using these early learnings to inform our continued iteration. We’re actively working to understand how our members think about their mental health before they’ve had a chance to get care, so that we can meet them with a product that speaks their language, not the other way around.