Leading with Compassion: A Woman’s Perspective on Mental Health
Leadership

A Journey of Care, Challenges, and Change

Dr. Ananya Sinha never set out to build a success story—she set out to build a space where mental health care could be ethical, accessible, and deeply human. The journey of founding TherapHeal was not just about creating a platform; it was about resisting the commodification of mental health care, ensuring that those in need received care from qualified professionals, and fostering a culture where healing was not a privilege but a right.

A Calling Born in Crisis

When COVID-19 struck, the world was forced into isolation, but the mental health crisis became louder than ever. People sought therapy in ways they never had before, yet access remained a struggle. Offline centres became difficult to reach, and therapy commitments felt daunting in uncertain times. Dr. Sinha, a clinical psychologist, watched as online mental health services surged; yet the surge ran the major risk of turning therapy into a mere business service responding to market forces rather than a space for healing.

“There was a lot of grief therapy during that time,” she recalls. “We were seeing clients as young as 13 and as old as 85. The sheer range of people reaching out showed how deep the need was. But it also made me realize how fragile that space was. One wrong approach, one moment of ethical oversight, and everything could fall apart for someone in crisis. Therapy needed to be handled with the care it deserved.”

TherapHeal was born out of this urgency- a platform that would prioritize ethics over market forces, competence over reach, and genuine healing over transactional services. Stepping into the entrepreneurial space without formal business training was daunting.

In building TherapHeal, Dr. Sinha built a team- an all-women team- where the natural strengths of empathy, nurturance, and emotional intelligence became the driving forces behind its success.

TherapHeal’s growth centred on the deep trust it fostered among those seeking mental health support. At the heart of this trust lies a culture of care, a principle deeply rooted in sociocultural gender norms. In many societies, women are socialized to embody nurturance and emotional intelligence, attributes

often undervalued in leadership but crucial in mental health care. Rather than adhering to conventional leadership models, the emphasis was on emotional depth and relational trust as integral to its success, reflecting the broader cultural understanding of care as a fundamental aspect of well-being.

Balancing Leadership and Life’s Phases

For all the triumphs, leadership as a woman comes with battles that are deeply personal. As a new mother, Dr. Sinha now finds herself in one of the hardest phases of her journey—not as a psychologist or CEO, but as a mother trying to balance it all.

Motherhood has highlighted the gendered realities of leadership, where societal expectations often place a greater burden on women to balance professional and caregiving responsibilities. While workplace norms are evolving, women still face disproportionate challenges in managing both roles, often having to make difficult sacrifices to sustain their careers and families simultaneously.

The struggle and the magnanimity of work that goes behind building something is often unseen by society. The truth is, leadership requires sacrifices that extend beyond the workplace,” she says. Despite professional achievements, women entrepreneurs are often expected to prioritize their familial roles, a reality that complicates the already strenuous demands of leadership.

Moreover, running a remote-first organization added another layer of complexity. Unlike traditional office spaces, where teams bond in physical proximity, TherapHeal’s team was spread across locations, yet it functioned as a tightly knit unit. “An organization runs on its people. And as a woman leader, I have come to appreciate how essential it is to have a team that is not just task-oriented but relationship- oriented. That sense of connection is what makes us strong,” she reflects.

Shaping the Future of Women in Leadership

Despite these challenges, Dr. Sinha remains steadfast in her vision not just for TherapHeal, but for what women’s leadership in mental health should look like.

Through initiatives like FLOURISH Academy, she is ensuring that ethical mental health practice extends beyond her organization. By training the next generation of professionals, she hopes to build a future where quality care is non-negotiable and where mental health is treated as essential, not optional.

The impact of such a vision has already been recognized through TherapHeal’s growth- Best Women- Led Startup at Empresario 2023, accolades from Startup India, and partnerships that are reshaping the mental health landscape. Despite starting from a place where financial and business knowledge and skills were unexplored territory, the organisation now derives the credit of its expansion to efforts that have successfully materialised into opportunities for funding from the government authorities and agencies dedicated to see startups with worthy potential grow further. But for Dr. Sinha, success is not about limited to these accolades.

“The vision for the future of women in leadership isn’t just about putting more women in powerful positions. It’s about creating an ecosystem that accepts and supports them in those roles. Right now, that ecosystem still doesn’t fully exist. Women juggle multiple roles, not just as professionals, but as daughters, wives, mothers; roles that society still places above their leadership ambitions. Until we shift that perception, true gender equity in leadership will remain a challenge.”

She also believes that leadership in mental health cannot be driven purely by financial ambitions. “Mental health is a deeply sensitive space. It cannot be run by only thinking about financial profitability; it needs to retain its service-driven core.”

For young women aspiring to leadership, Dr. Sinha’s message is clear: “There will never be a perfect balance. You will always feel like you are falling short in some area. But if you believe in your vision, go for it. Help is available, networks exist, and you will find a way.

As a leader, a psychologist, and now a mother, Dr. Sinha continues to push forward—not because it is easy, but because the work demands it. And in doing so, she is paving the way for a new generation of women leaders: ones who lead not just with strategy, but with heart.