presents
Where psychology meets innovation—live and in action.
The digital mental health challenges are clear. What it takes to move forward isn’t.
Inside the Lab is a cross-sector working event that brings together founders, psychologists, investors, healthcare systems, payers, and decision-makers from across digital mental and behavioral health to examine the tensions, decisions, and tradeoffs that shape real-world progress — and to work through what it would actually take to move the field forward.
dates
October 2027
Location
Austin, TX
Hosted by
APA Labs
World-class attendee score
NPS 85
WHY ATTEND
The Field agrees on the challenges.
Inside the lab examines why progress remains difficult.
Inside the Lab brings together founders, psychologists, investors, healthcare systems, payers, and decision-makers in the same room and ask not just "what's possible?" but "what's actually getting in the way of progress?"
The field agrees on the challenges. What's missing is honest examination of why promising solutions still stall, why pilots struggle to scale, and why stakeholders with shared goals reach different conclusions about what to do next.
Inside the Lab is where that examination happens — and where it leads to better decisions, clearer priorities, and collaboration that actually holds.
This isn't an event you attend to stay current. It's where you come to do the work.
invest in innovation
category
early bird
Ends July 31st
standard
Aug 1–Oct 10
All attendees
$795
$995
Startup / Founder
$676
$846
Clinicians
$557
$697
The agenda
Two days of doing, not just listening.
Active programming, cross-sector working sessions, and structured dialogue — all designed to produce real understanding and move things forward.
Most Valued
Collab Labs
90-minute cross-sector working sessions where participants examine a specific tension or decision together. The goal is genuine understanding — not a deliverable. In 2025, 60% of participants called this the most valuable part of the experience.
Startup Pitch Showcase
Early-Stage Visibility
A curated pitch format giving early-stage founders direct exposure to investors, clinicians, and health system partners. In 2025, several founders left with scheduled VC meetings.
Panels & AMAs
Expert-Led Sessions
Expert panels, fireside chats, and audience-driven AMAs designed for candid dialogue — not polished talking points. Stakeholders who rarely examine problems together, in direct conversation.
Activations & Networking
Structured Connection
Facilitated sessions and demo spaces designed to turn introductions into working relationships — across the sectors that too rarely share the same room.
Day 1 | October 14, 2026
8:00 - 9:00 AM
Registration & Breakfast
Arrive, grab breakfast, and start connecting through interactive activities that surface who’s in the room and the perspectives they bring.
9:00 - 9:30 AM
Opening Experience: A Realistic Future
What does the future of mental and behavioral health look like, and what will it take to get there? Table discussions explore possible futures for the field — and the forces that could accelerate or stall real progress.
9:30 - 9:40 AM
Welcome & Framing - Tanya Carlson, Managing Director of APA Labs
9:40 - 10:10 AM
Evidence vs. Speed
How much evidence is enough to act?
Mental health needs are urgent, but real innovation depends on knowing what works. Leaders across research, healthcare, funding, and innovation weigh rigorous validation against the pressure to move fast — and what different stakeholders need to see before adoption.
Jay Agarwal, Co-Founder & CEO, CORA; Joe Braidwood, Founder & CEO, GLACIS; Emily Dworkin, Senior Clinical Safety Officer, Spring Health; Eric Kuhn, Associate Professor, Stanford University School of Medicine
10:15 - 10:45 AM
Scale vs. Personalization
Can solutions grow without losing what makes them effective?
Real-world examples of the tradeoffs organizations face as they balance scale, personalization, and engagement without losing sight of the people they serve.
Dr. Elizabeth Cawley,
Chief Clinical Officer, PlaySpace;
Mira Jourdan,
Treasurer,
American Psychological Association;
Mike Meaney,
Founder & CEO,
One Small Step;
Conor O'Neill, PhD,
Senior Director of Therapy Programs, Brightside Health
10:45 - 11:00 AM
Break
11:00 - 11:30 AM
Innovation vs. Trust
What does it take for innovation to earn trust?
Leaders across clinical care, ethics, regulation, funding, and reimbursement examine what moves a new technology or care model from promising idea to widespread adoption — and what holds it back.
Alli Alford, Associate Director, Operations & Strategic Initiatives, One Mind Accelerator; Liz Ashall-Payne, Founder, ORCHA; Lindsay Childress-Beatty, JD, PhD, CAE, Chief of Ethics, American Psychological Association; Corbin Evans, Deputy Chief, Operations & Strategy and Senior Advisor to the Deputy CEO, American Psychological Association; Aubrey Schick, FDA Digital Health Policy Expert; Principal Consultant & Cofounder, Launch & Logic
11:35 - 12:05 PM
Access vs. Quality
How do we expand access while ensuring meaningful care? Through personal stories and stakeholder perspectives, this session examines one of the field's most persistent challenges.
Jeremy Attermann,
Senior Director, Partnerships & New Business Ventures,
National Council for Mental Wellbeing;
Jennifer Christian-Herman, PhD,
Head of Clinical Strategy, Headway;
Jon Nelson,
Co-Founder,
Otherside Health;
Beth Pausic,
VP, Clinical Excellence & Safety,
Kooth;
Kira Weidner, PsyD,
Founder and President,
The Center for Affirming Families,
Founder & Owner,
Weidner Consulting Services LLC
12:05 - 1:15 PM
Lunch
1:15 - 2:45 PM
Collab Labs: Putting the Tensions to Work
Five scenario-based working sessions, running at once. Each takes on a real challenge from multiple stakeholder perspectives — surfacing the assumptions and incentives behind what moves forward and what stalls.
2:45 - 3:00 PM
break
3:00 - 3:45 PM
Collab Lab Share-Out
Facilitators bring the room back together to surface what emerged — where groups aligned, where they diverged, and what’s worth carrying forward.
David Cooper, PsyD, Chair, Mental Health Technology Advisory Committee, American Psychological Association; Beth Pausic, VP, Clinical Excellence & Safety, Kooth
3:45 - 4:15 PM
Spark Sessions, Round 1
Fast-paced talks introducing new ideas and emerging approaches across digital mental and behavioral health — built to spark new thinking and connections.
Sam Monson, Founder & CEO, We Hate Exercise; Anil Thapliyal, Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer, eMental Health International Collaborative (eMHIC)
4:15 - 4:30 PM
Closing: The Question You’re Sleeping On
Reflect on what challenged your thinking today, name the question you want to keep exploring, then see what the rest of the room is carrying into Day 2.
Tanya Carlson, MBA, Managing Director, APA Labs
4:30 - 5:15 PM
Exploration
Product exploration, a live podcast recording, and conversation zones built to help you find a partner, offer expertise, or understand a part of the ecosystem you don’t work in.
5:15 - 6:15 PM
Happy Hour
Wind down after a full day of working sessions with drinks and conversation, open to all attendees.
Day 2 | October 15, 2026
8:00 - 9:00 AM
Breakfast
Reconnect with what emerged from Day 1 as we shift from understanding the tensions to navigating them.
9:00 - 9:20 AM
Digital Mental & Behavioral Health: The Landscape We Are Navigating
A fast-paced look at the forces shaping the field — AI, youth mental health, workforce, funding, regulation, reimbursement. Together, we weigh what’s most urgent, most actionable, and still least understood.
Tanya Carlson, MBA, Managing Director, APA Labs
9:25 - 10:10 AM
Stakeholder Fishbowl
What do you need to see before moving forward? Candid perspectives from across the ecosystem on how decisions actually get made — and what it takes to reach yes.
Chris Hemphill, Founder & Head of Data Science, Modular Feedback, Health AI Fellow at NYU McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy Research; Vaile Wright, PhD, Senior Director, Health Care Innovation, American Psychological Association
10:10 - 10:25 AM
break
10:25 - 11:10 AM
When Progress Happens: What Successful Navigators Have in Common
Case studies from organizations that navigated real complexity: the tension they faced, the tradeoff they made, the partnership that mattered, and what unlocked progress.
Dr. Kay Nikiforova, Co-Founder, Safer AI Use
11:10 - 11:30 AM
Mini Synthesis: What Unlocks Progress?
Stepping back from the morning to find the patterns across very different examples — and what they suggest for what comes next.
Tanya Carlson, MBA, Managing Director, APA Labs
11:30 - 12:00 PM
Spark Sessions, Round 2
Five ideas, five minutes each. Emerging work and fresh perspectives worth exploring beyond the session.
12:00 - 1:15 PM
lunch
1:15 - 2:45 PM
Building Bridges: From Individual Perspectives to Collective Progress
What challenges can no stakeholder solve alone? A four-part working session on where progress stalls, what relationships are needed to navigate the field’s biggest tensions, and where cross-sector collaboration could matter most.
Tanya Carlson, MBA, Managing Director, APA Labs
2:45 - 3:00 PM
Break
3:00 - 3:15 PM
Building Bridges Share-Out
Where the room landed — collective priorities and where attention should focus next.
3:15 - 3:45 PM
The Innovation Compass
Live polling and discussion on the priorities, investment gaps, and barriers most likely to shape the field over the next five years.
Tanya Carlson, MBA, Managing Director, APA Labs
3:45 - 4:45 PM
Founder Showcase: What Would Move This Forward?
Founders present solutions to the field’s most pressing challenges — what makes their approach different, who needs to be involved, and what would accelerate adoption and impact.
Alli Alford, Associate Director, Operations & Strategic Initiatives, One Mind Accelerator; Shiv Bhavnani, Partner, Evio VC, Founder, GIMBHI; Joe Braidwood, Founder & CEO, GLACIS; David Cooper, PsyD, Chair, Mental Health Technology Advisory Committee, American Psychological Association; Sidrah Durrani, Program Manager, Headstream, powered by SecondMuse; Jon Nelson, Co-Founder, Otherside Health; Aubrey Schick,
FDA Digital Health Policy Expert; Principal Consultant & Cofounder, Launch & Logic
4:45 - 5:00 PM
Closing Commitment
A final commitment exchange to carry the work forward: what comes next, for you.
2026 Topic Themes
Ethical AI in Mental Health
FDA / FTC Regulatory Pathways
Reimbursement & Payor Strategy
Measurement-Based Care
Scaling Evidence-Based Interventions
Founder-Clinician Partnerships
Health Equity & Access
Youth Mental Health
Investment Landscape 2026
Thank You to Our 2026 Speakers
Jeremy Attermann
Senior Director, Partnerships & New Business Ventures
National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Jennifer Christian-Herman, PhD
Head of Clinical Strategy
Headway
David Cooper, PsyD
Chair, Mental Health Technology Advisory Committee
American Psychological Association
Corbin Evans
Deputy Chief, Operations & Strategy and Senior Advisor to the Deputy CEO
American Psychological Association
Dr. Leanna Fortunato, PhD
Director of Digital Health & Innovation
American Psychological Association
Chris Hemphill
Founder & Head of Data Science, Modular Feedback
Health AI Fellow at NYU McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy Research
Aubrey Shick
FDA Digital Health Policy Expert; Principal Consultant & Cofounder
Launch & Logic
Anil Thapliyal
Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer
eMental Health International Collaborative (eMHIC)
Who’s in the room?
Whether you're building solutions, funding them, implementing them, evaluating them, or governing them — your perspective belongs in this room.
Decision-makers actively building, funding, and evaluating mental and behavioral health technologies — committed to ethical innovation across every sector and career stage.
If you’re building, funding, buying, or influencing the future of mental health...
this is the room you need to be in.
2026 By the Numbers
NPS 77
World-Class Attendee Score
96%
Felt Better Connected to Industry Leaders
96%
Rated Experience
"Extremely Satisfying"
Most other meetings in this space are either science-focused with few digital sessions, or broad healthtech with only a few mental health programs. Inside the Lab is different — rigorous enough for researchers, practical enough for founders, and intimate enough for genuine collaboration.”
2025 Attendee
2026 Attendee
Attention to detail made the experience special. I attended last year as well and somehow this year was even better. It was a diverse mix and small enough to allow for conversation and connection. The panels and chance to work with others in the afternoon sessions was a great way to meet new peers and learn and exchange ideas. Well done!!”
Want to be part of the program?
Founder Showcase
Are you an early-stage founder building in digital mental or behavioral health?
The Inside the Lab Founder Showcase puts your work in front of the clinicians, payers, investors, and health system leaders who will determine whether solutions like yours succeed.
Spark Sessions
Have a perspective, emerging idea, or lesson from the field worth sharing?
Inside the Lab Spark Sessions are rapid 5-minute talks selected from an open call — your chance to contribute to the conversation.
Sponsorship
Be part of the working experience where digital mental and behavioral health leaders examine what actually moves the field forward.
Work with APA Labs to engage directly with leaders shaping digital mental and behavioral health. All sponsors must align with APA Labs’ values around ethical innovation, data transparency, and psychological science.
dates
October 2027
Location
Austin, TX
Hosted by
APA Labs
Contact
apalabs@apa.org
Registration
Inside the Lab 2026 — Register Interest.
October 2027 · Austin, TX · Spaces are limited
Secure your spot at Inside the Lab 2026.
Registration will open in early 2027, register your interest now for next year so you can hear first about what we have planned for one of the most consequential gathering in digital mental health this year.
THANK YOU TO OUR 2026 SPONSORS
Invest in Innovation
All Attendees
Early Bird
Ends July 31!
standard
Aug 1–Oct 10
Healthcare Systems, Insurer/Payer, Benefits Provider, Growth & Enterprise Health Tech, Startup/Founder, Investor/Funder, Strategic advisor/Operator, Clinician, Researcher, Educator, Other
$795
$995
Startup/founders receive a 15% off discount
Clinicians receive a 30% off discount
To learn more about our comprehensive meeting policies including cancellation terms, health protocols, and code of conduct guidelines click here.