RICHMOND, VA., August 27, 2024 – InStride Health, an outpatient provider of specialty pediatric anxiety and OCD care, is expanding services into Virginia and is in-network with Anthem BCBS, Optum, UnitedHealthcare, Oscar, Oxford Health Plan, and Government Employees Health Association (GEHA). 

In response to the growing pediatric mental health crisis across the United States and the lack of immediate and affordable access to mental health providers, InStride Health offers high-quality, evidence-based care that works for kids, teens, young adults (from ages 7 to 22) and their families. InStride Health has no waitlist, fits within families’ lives, and has preliminary outcomes equivalent to those of top-ranked academic hospital programs. 

InStride’s comprehensive care is grounded in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with exposure therapy – a key component of CBT that involves gradually facing fears. Each personalized care plan can include individual and family therapy, scheduled and between-session exposure coaching, parent/caregiver groups, and medication management if indicated. Families work with a multidisciplinary care team – a therapist, exposure coach, and psychiatrist – who are highly trained and passionate about helping young people with anxiety and OCD thrive. The care team joins forces with the child’s pediatrician, school, and other relevant providers as appropriate to ensure they are equipped to support the patient’s ongoing progress. 

Using everyday tools like text, chat, and phone, InStride Health opens the door to skill-building and exposure practice in real-world environments and real-time situations that individuals with anxiety and/or OCD may otherwise avoid, accelerating learning and building lasting resilience.

Drs. Mona Potter and Kathryn Boger, InStride’s clinical co-founders, worked together for more than a decade at the nation’s leading freestanding psychiatric hospital, where they shared a commitment to improving behavioral health care for young people. Too often, they saw kids with anxiety and OCD not receiving the care they needed.  Determined to make specialized anxiety and OCD treatment scalable and accessible, they gathered experts who share their passion and purpose – and together, they built InStride Health.

“We built InStride to fill a gap in care geared specifically at the unique needs of kids, teens, and young adults struggling with anxiety and/or OCD,” said Dr. Mona Potter, Chief Medical Officer and InStride Health co-founder. “As a clinician and a mom, it has been so meaningful to hear from families who have gotten their lives back through treatment at our program. We are incredibly excited to extend access to our insurance-based care into Virginia, particularly as school – and accompanying anxiety and stress – ramps back up.” 

For more information about InStride Health, visit instride.health.

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About InStride Health

InStride Health provides specialty outpatient care for pediatric Anxiety and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and related presentations. Co-founded by Harvard-trained clinicians, the InStride Health care model is grounded in evidence-based treatment, specifically Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with an emphasis on Exposure therapy. A dedicated, multidisciplinary team of a psychiatrist, therapist, and an exposure coach is paired with each child to provide real-time support using everyday tools like text and a video- and chat-enabled mobile application. InStride Health accepts most major insurance plans in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia.