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Indianapolis startup BrightChoice this week launched web-based therapy services for Indiana residents with plans to expand nationally.
The company jumps into a fast-growing and highly competitive market to meet an increasing demand for mental health services, with BrightChoice counting on steady interest due to convenience for both therapists and clients.
The company is co-founded and led by a local father-son duo.
Son Matthew Miller, BrightChoice CEO, studied finance at Purdue University and taught himself website development, front- and back-end, and use of artificial intelligence, or AI. Father Andy Miller, chair, is a longtime Indianapolis-area executive and venture investor who also has graduate degrees in ministry and counseling.
Matthew Miller said BrightChoice grew out of an idea for the father-son pair to combine their passions—entrepreneurship and counseling for dad and technology for son—into a business.
“It was a year ago when I started to write the software for BrightChoice,” he said. “I had no idea what we were getting into and how difficult it’d be to build the platform and the software. But here we are, multiple millions of lines of code later, and it is something special.”
BrightChoice focuses on addressing common mental health struggles including anxiety, depression, stress management, relationship issues and post-traumatic stress disorder.
“We’re taking the time to be able to find people who we know will provide quality care,” Matthew Miller said. “With the platform we have, it’s very simple and user-friendly … You can go on the website and schedule within 24 hours.”
A new user to BrightChoice seeking a therapy session can select a therapist from a menu that includes a photograph and short biography as well as their upcoming available appointment times. BrightChoice also offers an option for a user to be matched with a therapist.
After an initial session, clients can then stay with that therapist, or pick a new one, and select sessions that are about 30, 45 or 60 minutes long.
The sessions cost about $75 to $150 paid by clients up front, but could be eligible for reimbursement depending on their insurance coverage. BrightChoice said it accepts many PPO plans and is in talks with Indiana companies to be part of their employee assistance programs, or EAPs.
Matthew Miller said he wrote the software for BrightChoice’s platform to include AI tools to help therapists save time with tasks such as documenting client sessions.
Noelle Guckien, BrightChoice’s clinical director, said the company’s model of allowing therapist flexibility is important in a field known for high rates of burnout.
“The buzzwords that you hear, burnout, quietly quitting, it’s real a mental health profession,” Guckien said. “We’re really focused on both sides of that therapeutic alliance, both with the client and the therapist.”
According to the American Psychological Association’s 2024 Practitioner Pulse Survey, psychologists say they continue to face capacity issues including longer waitlists and patients with increasingly severe symptoms. More than half, 53%, of psychologists did not have openings for new patients, according to the survey, which has been conducted since 2020 to track changes in psychological practices since the COVID-19 pandemic.
People seek care from psychologists, who have doctorate degrees, or from licensed therapists. BrightChoice faces larger competitors including TalkSpace and BetterHelp.
The company plans to add about 50 contracted therapists each quarter through its first year, said Andy Miller, with a goal of being nationwide in five years. “You need to move slowly, so that you onboard people at a pace that you can really get to know them,” he said.
Andy Miller previously has backed an array of Indianapolis-area companies including OneCause, a fund-raising software provider, and Silca, which makes bicycle pumps, tools and accessories. He said BrightChoice is “self-funded” and, for now, operates as a mostly virtual company.
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