October 2025 Updates

➡️ OpenAI indicated plans to establish an online network of therapists that ChatGPT would route users to as needed. My next question, is how to we make sure ChatGPT knows about us as therapists? How will it choose who? Will it hire therapists itself?

In the launch, they say “that means going beyond crisis hotlines and considering how we might build a network of licensed professionals people could reach directly through ChatGPT.” This suggests OpenAI might be on the verge of putting together a list of online therapists globally. We’ll keep an eye on this and keep you updated!

➡️ Flow Neuroscience received TGA approval in Australia for its brain stimulation treatment, becoming the first at-home depression device approved in the country.

➡️ In Australia, Medibank expanded its coverage of psychedelic treatments to include Treatment-Resistant Depression.

➡️ A new pilot study examined the ketogenic diet as adjunct therapy for college students with major depressive disorder. The Nature article concluded that results indicate robust and sustained decreases in depression symptoms over 10–12 weeks.

➡️ Ireland’s 2026 Budget 2026 allocated nearly €1.6 billion for mental health services, marking a sixth consecutive annual increase and over 50% growth since 2020. However, it is still less than 6% of total health spending.

➡️ Health New Zealand launched Ask Groov, the country’s first endorsed AI-powered wellbeing guide for adults.

➡️ Exin Therapeutics (YC W25) invested $25M to build a neurotherapeutics lab in the Philippines for AI-driven brain disorder therapies.

➡️ Lyra Health launched a “clinical-grade” chatbot designed to provide evidence-based mental health support and resources.

➡️ OpenAI announced a new eight-member expert council on Well-Being and AI to guide the development of mental health-supportive AI experiences and safety measures.

➡️ A new study found that LLMs could identify human facial expressions with a high degree of accuracy. They study published in Nature Digital Health examined the ability of LLMs to identify human facial expressions and found that accuracy was highest in ChatGPT4o at 86%, 84% for Gemeni 2.0 Experimental, and 74% for Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

Steve has kindly agreed for me to share his updates with you here monthly. Please note I have selected updates I think relevant to our community, and his list is much much bigger and comprehensive. Do check out the Hemingway Report for further updates!

I hope you enjoy! These updates will come monthly.

Sophia (Between Sessions Founder) x

I always welcome feedback, do drop me an email at hello@betweensessions.org for any feedback or questions!

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September Mental Health Industry Updates 2025

➡️ UK-based HelloSelf launched Companion, an AI tool designed for clients to use between sessions. We’ll be covering this in greater detail soon.

➡️ Seven Starling raised $8M to expand their virtual women’s behavioural health platform across the US.

➡️ The Royal College of Psychiatrists in the UK published a position statement concluding there is limited high-quality evidence for psychedelics’ efficacy and calling for further research.

➡️ Headway announced the expansion of its Electronic Health Record into a “fully connected, insurance-native platform for mental health”. This will provide their 60,000+ providers with AI-assisted notes, integrated telehealth, and simplified billing.

➡️ California passed landmark AI chatbot safeguards (SB 243), implementing new protections for vulnerable users, especially minors, from harm caused by unregulated chatbots.

➡️ New research from Pew found that 46% of Americans believe AI should play a role in providing mental health support to people.

➡️ The FDA published Lykos Therapeutics‘ Complete Response Letter rejecting their MDMA for PTSD application. They cited concerns regarding the reliability of the safety data as the lack of durability of the treatment as the reasons for their rejection.

➡️ London headquartered Unmind, who also provide free access to their app for NHS staff, secured an additional $26M in growth capital from Trinity Capital. This comes just after their $35M raise that was announced in July of this year.