Lyra Health Reviews

While some of the therapists on Lyra’s platform are new in their careers, others have decades of experience—and unfortunately, neither group seems especially strong. Either they’re just starting out, or they’ve been doing it a long time and still aren’t great at what they do. So overall, the quality of therapists being offered doesn’t feel high. On top of that, what really concerns me is the payment process. You or your company signs on with Lyra, and the assumption is that payment is handled securely through their system. But almost every therapist still asks for your private credit card info separately, which completely defeats the purpose of using a platform like this and raises serious concerns about privacy and security.

Had a great therapist few years back through them and wanted to book with her again but the website is matching me with wrong people and I cannot search for the therapist I want despite confirming with her that she is available still through Lyra Health.

Filters simply don't work. They have a supposedly superior matching system but if you rematch again, you get different matches. So let's think about that:
1. No way to search for a therapist you want and had success with because AI is doing some wonderful matching magic based on thousands of data points
2. AI doesn't stick with its wonderful match, in fact it just changes its mind, like a wheel of fortune.

Then there are thousands of emails. You book a session and receive 3 emails to say session is booked and then several reminders. Therapists obsessively push measurements on you each week and it feels less of a tool to assess progress and more as a metric they have to satisfy. Despite me discussing my needs and expressing what I need, there is a mould they push, which is mostly 'Let's see how we can reframe your PTSD so it sounds positive so you get happy'.
You get tons of videos and exercises to do as homework. They record meetings as default now and the video does not tell you. Ask to opt out as it will be training AI and god knows where that data will end up.

Therapy should be connection with your therapist, who should not be feeling like they have to hit some targets each session. When you need someone to be there for you, this can be stressful for patients.

If I cannot match with my favorite therapist, I will see her privately and just tell my workplace not to bother with this benefit.

To Lyra Health leadership - stop forcing your therapists into some kind of a model and don't use AI as it sends tons of unnecessary emails and reminders. People have individual needs. Allow for flexibility. Otherwise I can just watch YouTube videos by cutting edge therapists and scientists which are way better than your resources. Right now my care through you feels less than personal.

Lyra Therapy sessions (12 free per year) is a way they get you to seek out therapy then if the doctor prescribes you medicine, they turn the visit into medicine management and charge an outrageous fee for this. I reached out for help and ended up getting more stressed and creating more problems for me vs helping. Bad way of doing business. When I inquired about, I was told they could not help, and I would owe the full amount regardless of what was explained to me in the 1st place.

I started at Lyra in 2023 and was super excited for everything they offered. Initially upon being hired I was required to see 24 clients per week with the opportunity to see 26 for an additional bonus. In January 2025 they decided to completely change their model to make providers open for 30 clients each week, but having availability for 2wk at a time. If you are not open for 30 clients each week you are penalized. Most clients are scheduling out further than the week you need which makes you open up for more to fill your week. Initially I was told that the clients I would be seeing would be low acuity and that has changed with clients who are in fact high acuity and in my clinical opinion not appropriate for short term care. You are penalized if you do not meet certain metrics, refer out, or close out cases if they are inappropriate for the model. The matching system is a JOKE! Clients are not matched to appropriate providers. You are unable to NOT see clients who may be high risk, and the administrative duties are insane. Upper management DOES NOT care about providers mental health or their ethical standards. It is 100% profits and quantity over quality. I went on leave for 12wks due to feeling stressed, overwhelmed, and having health concerns due to my work environment. I recently resigned because mentally Lyra was killing me. I do not recommend this place to any licensed provider who has high ethical standards and values quality care. Run away from this company as fast as you can!!!!

It really feels like Lyra is more focused on getting clients in and out of their system rather than providing on going treatment. I thought I could find a free therapist on this service paid by my employer but it turns out this is not the place for that. Their therapists are supposed to be very goal based and give you homework after every weekly session and you're also supposed to fill out questionnaires for their system to track "how you're doing". I'm looking for more long term support and I know I need a therapist but I do not know my goals. I'm also not willing to do "homework". So this "mental health service" was a complete flop for me. I even tried explaining that it would be hard for me to get myself to do this homework and the therapist was stumped. Why is this business so focused on getting clients out of the service in like 5-10 sessions? Every time that is brought up I feel like I'm just another thing to get in and out of their system. I also really don't like how I can't look for someone on there. You have to choose from whoever you're "matched with" by their system.

Spent months after starting for ADHD issues. Took months to give a diagnosis and spent months trying to get that diagnosis to precribing provider (referred from Lyra provider). Attempted twice to sign release of info so I could personally send (what they wanted me to do, very unprofessional) and still haven't gotten access to diagnosis. Can you imagine how hard it is to try to do the admin work between 2 non-communicating prividers and continue to get the run around? I feel worse state than when I started, and now have used all my yearly benefits.

A very bad company to work for a a full time Therapist as the previous review suggests. They ask the Therapist to get the client to agree to record their sessions and they use an AI robot to generate the notes from these recorded sessions while learning from the sessions and pretending like they are "helping" the Therapist!!! I felt violated and degraded working here and the "clinical quality supervisors" are a complete joke and completely useless!!!

Found out from my therapist that Lyra Health sent out an email to a large amount of their providers saying if they didn’t lower their reimbursement rate (that Lyra pays) they weren’t going to be shown to new clients. That means that when we go on to look for a therapist were shown the “cheapest” therapists. Doesn’t mean you’re given the best match. Also there’s a difference between Lyra employed therapists and the contracted therapists. The employed ones are “cheaper” to Lyra but also make you do a lot of weird stuff- like record your sessions and you’re only allowed so many with them to meet their metrics. Just shady… do yourself a favor and find your own not through Lyra.

My employer has this company for mental health coverage and we haven’t used it in over 6 years it’s so bad.

I’ve only found one therapist that was good through the service from 2017-2020 I was their patient. We tried more than 5 and they were all not at all up to par.

Lyra stopped allowing you to see the therapist directory, and you’re forced to tell your situation to even be “matched” with a therapist to a random stranger. TBH, I believe this is a scheme to not match you, but rather spread the work out to all the therapists… even the not so good ones. I’ve been “matched” with people who don’t even specialize in my conditions: ADHD and binge eating disorder. The therapists even were confused when I told them that I was concerned about the vetting process. BED is a major specialty that not any therapist in a box can handle.

Thankfully, we have a backup of medical insurance where I pay per visit for all of our therapy. It sucks that I pay $120 a month in copays when there’s a service that could cover it… but is so bad now that the directory is no longer available and you’re NOT ALLOWED to choose your therapy. A random customer service rep does….we can’t use them.

Highly do not recommend and I wish my employer would drop this benefit and replace it with a better one. I tell them every year when asked about benefits.

I’m still scarred from the experiences we had in 2021-2022. One of the five told me to get a divorce and I never went to see them again. Plus…. Tada! She had zero specialty in eating disorders and said “well I can grow with you”….

That was when I knew I could never trust their customer service reps to actually do a good job of finding a therapist. I know that the therapist directory has this type of information listed…. Because I used to use it!

Or… worst case… the CSR’s didn’t think BED was an eating disorder.. who knows.

I never recommend this service and you have to fill out “how are you doing” forms….