BetterHelp is marking World Mental Health Day with The Permission Project, a campaign that turns the spotlight on the conflicting expectations many women say they live with. Created with actor and podcaster Sophia Bush, the initiative moves beyond a simple awareness message by pairing free therapy access, financial support for therapists and a guide to rewriting internalised rules.
The project began when Bush approached BetterHelp about supporting listeners of her podcast, Work In Progress. According to Chief Growth Officer Sara Brooks, BetterHelp responded with 10,000 hours of free therapy. But the business wanted to go further than a discount code.
What the campaign includes
The Permission Project has three main parts. Listeners of Bush’s podcast can redeem a code for a free month of therapy with BetterHelp. The company is also putting $100,000 into its Therapist Impact Fund: five current BetterHelp therapists will receive loan relief awards, and five students will receive scholarships to train as therapists focused on women’s mental health.
Alongside that is a Rewrite Guide designed to help people dismantle the contradictory rules and write their own. It draws on narrative therapy, an approach that helps clients examine the stories they have absorbed about themselves and decide which ones still fit.
The research behind the message
BetterHelp’s 2026 State of Stigma Report found that depression and anxiety symptoms in women are rising. Among women in their thirties, more than eight in ten reported worrying excessively, four in five reported low energy, and 74% said they struggle to relax.
Fifteen BetterHelp therapists—including counsellors, clinical social workers and marriage and family therapists—then examined why those symptoms are climbing. Their observations helped the creative team distil ten “unwritten rules.”
- Be ambitious, but stay likable.
- Ask for help, but don’t be a burden.
- Set boundaries, but stay flexible.
- Succeed at work, but not at the expense of personal life.
- Be yourself, but not “too much.”
Brooks says the contradictions are the point. “Women aren’t lacking instructions; they’re carrying too many, and they are rife with conflict,” she told Adweek.
Why marketers should pay attention
For brand and campaign teams, BetterHelp is doing three things worth studying. First, it starts with audience research rather than category clichés. Second, it pairs a credible advocate—Bush—with a concrete product hook: free therapy for her podcast listeners. Third, it supports the supply side too, through therapist funding, not only consumer demand.
Licensed professional counsellor Sonni Williams says the therapeutic method matters because many “shoulds” feel personal but are really long-running cultural messages. “Narrative therapy creates space to decide which of those stories still belong to us,” she said.
The practical lesson for marketers is to name the hidden trade-off your audience experiences. Many campaigns promise relief; fewer make the contradiction explicit and then hand people a tool for action. Brooks says the real test is engagement after World Mental Health Day, whether someone books a session or simply rewrites a rule and lives by it.
Source: Adweek
