Why I Chose To Speak Up

I am genuinely saddened that I even need to write this. And yet, if I am being honest, I am not surprised.

Over the course of decades, our country has steadily shifted its focus away from collective well-being and toward individual gain. Not just any individuals, but the elite. Decisions are increasingly made to protect profits, power, and image rather than people. We are now witnessing the consequences of that shift unfold in deeply disturbing ways.

We are divided, but not in the way people like to simplify. This is no longer just about politics. It runs much deeper than that. It is about values. It is about who is protected and who is expendable.

While this article is not meant to dissect every one of those societal forces, they all point back to the same core issue. The system is broken. And staying silent will not fix it.

That is why I chose to speak up.

I did not speak out against AZBlue because it was personally convenient, or because it would somehow protect my income. In fact, the opposite is true. I knew full well that doing so could place my business, my reputation, and my professional relationships at risk. I knew there would be backlash. What I did not anticipate was how much of that backlash would come from within my own field.

I have been accused of being bitter about losing the ability to overwork associates or profit off their labor. I have been told that these changes will somehow improve quality of care, despite directly contradicting the standards I have spent years building at Northern Lights Therapy. Others have dismissed my concerns entirely, telling me that these policies already exist in other states and that I should simply adapt. Some have even suggested I should be grateful we are allowed to bill associates at all.

None of those assumptions reflect reality.

Speaking out will not save my business. If anything, it may cost me everything I have worked for. And I accepted that risk the moment I decided to say something publicly. I am not doing this to protect my bank account. I am doing this because our profession is being systematically pushed into a corner, and too many are willing to accept it under the guise of “something is better than nothing.”

That mindset is deeply familiar to me. It is the same logic used by people trapped in abusive systems. I know this because I have lived it. And I also know that settling for harm because it feels safer than resistance does not lead to healing. It leads to further erosion of self-worth, autonomy, and integrity.

Our clients deserve better. Our clinicians deserve better. And what is happening within the mental health field, particularly here in Arizona, demands attention.

These changes are already having real consequences. Providers are turning away new clients. Practices are being forced to reevaluate their entire business models, often shifting to private pay out of necessity rather than choice. Others are remaining in-network and adjusting in ways that inevitably reduce the quality of care they can provide.

The expectations insurance companies are placing on licensed and trained clinicians are unrealistic and damaging. I left community mental health years ago because the red tape became unbearable. The emphasis was no longer on people. It was on metrics, documentation, and optics. Helping clients became secondary to feeding the system.

Private insurance is now doing the exact same thing.

These companies do not prioritize the consumer. They prioritize profit. The changes being implemented are not accidental. They are gradual and strategic, designed to feel tolerable in isolation while fundamentally altering the landscape over time. Each small shift forces providers to adapt, until one day we look around and realize the field we trained for no longer exists.

I have been openly critical of large mental health corporations since their inception. Companies like Headway, Alma, BetterHelp, and others promise accessibility and higher pay while quietly consolidating power. Clinicians who refuse to conform are slowly pushed out through reduced rates and increasing pressure. Insurance companies are following the same playbook.

At the same time AZBlue is making access to care more difficult, they have closed credentialing to new providers. This means clients losing in-network clinicians will have fewer and fewer options. New providers are not allowed to join. And now members are being actively directed toward internal mental health services. Insurance companies want to keep everything in house, leaving you with zero options.

The message is clear. Insurance wants to limit care. They want to assign a number to your healing and decide when it should end. They do not benefit from people truly recovering. Dependency is far more profitable than resolution.

My original goal in entering this field was simple and sincere. I wanted to contribute to a world where mental health care would one day be less necessary. A world where people felt safe, supported, and connected enough that healing happened naturally through community and compassion.

Instead, we are heading in the opposite direction. We need mental health providers now more than ever, and the systems in place are actively undermining that need. The push toward automation, AI-driven care, and corporate control strips away the very humanity this field is built on.

I am not speaking out for my own benefit. I am fully aware that this stance may come at a personal cost. But if no one speaks up, there will be no field left to protect anyway.

I have made it my mission to create a space where people can feel genuinely seen, supported, and safe as they heal from whatever life has thrown at them. That mission does not end when it becomes uncomfortable. And it does not survive if we continue fighting each other instead of questioning the systems causing harm.

We need to return to the core of why we entered this profession in the first place. We need to support one another. And we need to stop defending corporations that have shown us, repeatedly, that they do not care.