Therapy Has Become the Default Answer to Everyday Stress and Social Connection, and Employers Are Paying for It
New global survey finds 71% of employees connect their reason for seeking care to workplace stress; half say better management would have resolved it. 60% say we're overly reliant on therapy.
SAN FRANCISCO, September 21, 2026--New global research from Modern Health, a leading global workplace mental health platform, finds that therapy has become the default response not only to clinical mental health needs but to everyday work stress and the simple need for someone to talk to, and employers are often financing a level of care many employees say they didn't need.
The finding is not that therapy fails to support these stresses: 88% of respondents say it met their needs. The problem highlighted by the survey is that therapy seems to be serving as a catch-all solution for which it was never intended. When every kind of stress leads to the same door, people end up in clinical care for challenges that were never clinical, and often stay there long after it makes sense. This is an expensive outcome, disproportionate with the clinical need. The findings come from a survey of 2,000 full-time employees at companies with 250 or more employees, all of whom have used or are currently using therapy, surveyed across the United States, United Kingdom, Mexico, and Singapore.
Benefit leaders are facing this against a fourth consecutive year of near double-digit increases with Business Group on Health reporting U.S. employer health care costs are projected to rise 9.2% in 2027. Mental health is in the top tier of conditions driving employer mental health care spend as utilization climbs and when untreated is associated with higher costs in other top claims areas including cancer, musculoskeletal, and cardiometabolic concerns. This survey suggests some of that spend is buying a level of care employees themselves say exceeded what they needed: 60% report therapy felt more intensive than they actually required.
"Rising use of mental health care is not itself the problem, it reflects needs that went unmet for too long and progress toward a more integrated healthcare system," said Alison Borland, Chief People and Strategy Officer at Modern Health. "But when every emotional or behavioral health concern is routed to the same clinical option by default, and people remain in therapy after their needs change, employees do not get care that truly fits them best and employers end up paying for a level of support that isn't best clinical practice. Therapy as default has a price, and both sides are paying it."