24. Why Ellie Mental Health is Franchising: Episode with Founder & CEO Erin Pash

Founder and CEO of Ellie Mental Health, Erin Pash, LMFT joins the episode this week to discuss Ellie's rapid growth and how they are filling gaps in mental health care in new ways. Erin talks about the history of Ellie, why they chose the franchise model rather than corporate growth, and how she sees Ellie's continued growth in the future. Therapist Thrival Guide is a video-podcast by Ellie Mental Health. The intention is to move therapists beyond surviving and into the realm of THRIVING by covering all the things that graduate school didn't teach you! This mental health podcast is hosted by Miranda Barker, MSW, LICSW and Dr. Lucas Volini, DMFT, LMFT. Each episode features a therapist at Ellie speaking to their areas of expertise, clinical interests, and personal experiences of being a therapist. This series will be covering topics like burn-out, self of therapist, cultural considerations, client retention, session structure, advancing clinical skills, innovations in therapy, and balancing professional relationships with our personal lives. Every now and then, we'll even cover the happenings of how therapists are portrayed in pop culture. Dr. Lucas Volini, DMFT, LMFT, has been practicing as a marriage and family therapist for over ten years. Prior to joining Ellie as our VP of Clinical Quality & Innovation, he dedicated 8 years in higher education as a professor and clinical researcher at the undergraduate, masters, and doctoral level of learning. With an emphasis on working with relational systems, he's a die-hard family therapist through and through and remains infatuated with all things family therapy. He's also the author of two textbooks geared toward preparing MFT graduates to pass the national licensing exam...But at the end of the day, he mostly sees himself as a professional recreational golfer and aspiring YouTuber. Miranda Barker, MSW, LICSW, has been practicing as a therapist for nearly two years. She previously worked as a child protection investigator, adoption social worker, and case manager. She's new to the therapy game and loves soaking up all of the knowledge from the expert therapists in her life. She's currently the Executive Producer at Ellie Mental Health's in-house creative agency and believes that creativity is an important aspect of mental health care. Therapist THRIVAL Guide is one of many creative productions from ⁠Ellie Mental Health⁠. Ellie is a national mental health brand organized around community-based outpatient mental health clinics. It all began with a single office in St. Paul, Minnesota back in 2015, and since then has expanded to over 24 clinics in Minnesota and an explosive number of locations nationwide after franchising our model in 2021. Ellie will be opening over 500 locations in communities nationwide with new clinics opening each week.