How to leave Headway or Grow Therapy and go independent
Leaving Headway or Grow Therapy means terminating your provider agreement, credentialing with payers under your own tax ID, and moving eligible clients to your own practice. Plan 60 to 90 days. The part that catches most therapists out is credentialing, because your enrollment does not travel with you.
The short version
Your insurance enrollment through these platforms does not transfer when you leave. Both platforms distinguish between clients you brought with you and clients who found you through the platform, and that distinction decides who can come with you. Re-credentialing under your own tax ID commonly takes 90 to 180 days, which is longer than most exit timelines. Build the independent practice first, then give notice; reversing that order creates a revenue gap. And read your signed agreement: help center articles describe the general policy, not your contract. From October 2026, Headway also charges $9.99 per appointment for clients who found you through its marketplace; clients you brought yourself are exempt.
Last updated October 2, 2026, to reflect Headway's fall 2026 changes. Platform policies in this guide were checked against Headway's and Grow Therapy's help centers on October 2, 2026.
What changed on Headway in October 2026
Headway announced three changes on October 1, 2026 that matter if you are weighing an exit. From October 8 in Virginia, Washington, Georgia, Ohio, and Illinois, and in every other state later in 2026, Headway charges a $9.99 fee on every appointment with a client who found you through its marketplace, for as long as you see them. Clients you bring yourself, clients who book through your direct link, and clients who found you before the fee started in your state are exempt. From October 12, talk therapists are also asked to give adult clients a baseline PHQ-9 or GAD-7 with a yearly follow up, and Headway will review a sample of your notes once a year.
The fee falls on the same clients Headway already expects to stay on the platform if you leave: the ones who found you through its search. Clients you brought are exempt from the fee and were always yours to take with you. So the fee does not change who can come with you. It raises the cost of building a caseload on Headway referrals, which is the trade off covered in the last section of this guide. For who pays, the yearly math, and the new documentation rules, see Headway's $9.99 marketplace fee: who pays it and who doesn't.
What actually has to happen
Going independent is four separate jobs that people tend to treat as one: ending a contract, moving clients, getting credentialed, and standing up a practice. Only the first is quick. Sequencing them properly is the whole task.
Step 1: Read your signed provider agreement first
Start with the agreement you signed, not the help center. Platform help articles describe current general policy, and your agreement governs your particular situation, including notice periods, client transition rules, records, and anything that survives termination.
Look specifically for the termination process and notice period, any non-solicitation or client transition language, what happens to outstanding claims after your access ends, and your record retention and release obligations.
Headway processes provider deactivations on a monthly cycle and asks providers to confirm outstanding sessions before submitting a termination request, so timing your request badly can strand unpaid sessions (Headway's help center, as of October 2026).
Step 2: Work out which clients can come with you
Both platforms draw a line between clients you brought to the platform and clients who found you through it. Headway's current provider guidance treats clients you brought as yours, while clients who came through Headway's search are expected to stay with Headway.
Headway makes the split visible. On your Headway calendar, initial intake appointments for clients who found you through its search show in blue, and clients you added yourself show in green. Each client's page in the provider portal also shows how they found you.
Build a caseload spreadsheet before you do anything else, with a row per client and columns for how they found you, their payer, whether they can transition, and the action required. Sending one identical announcement to your whole caseload is the single most common mistake, and depending on your agreement it can breach it.
Step 3: Start credentialing under your own tax ID early
Your enrollment does not transfer. Grow Therapy's credentialing guidance states plainly that enrollment status does not carry outside Grow, because providers are enrolled under Grow's group contracts with insurers. Headway's help center describes its credentialing as separate from any contracts you hold with insurers yourself, so plan on credentialing directly either way. If you see Aetna, Cigna, or UnitedHealthcare clients through the platform, you need your own contracts with those payers to keep seeing them independently.
Re-credentialing commonly runs 90 to 180 days per payer. That is longer than most exit timelines, which is why credentialing has to start while you are still on the platform and still earning. For the full sequence, from CAQH profile to signed payer contract, see our step-by-step guide to insurance credentialing.
You will need an individual NPI, a Type 2 NPI if you are forming an entity, an EIN, malpractice coverage, a current CAQH profile, and your license documentation. If you plan to bill Medicare, that is a separate enrollment through PECOS rather than a panel application.
If you are weighing whether to take insurance independently at all, our guide to billing insurance as a private practice therapist walks through what the claims workflow actually involves day to day.
Step 4: Build the practice while you are still earning
Stand up the infrastructure before you give notice. At minimum: business entity and EIN, bank account, EHR, HIPAA compliant telehealth, scheduling, payment processing, intake and consent documents, a Notice of Privacy Practices, and a Good Faith Estimate process.
The Good Faith Estimate is a federal requirement rather than an optional nicety. Under the No Surprises Act, uninsured and self pay clients are generally entitled to a written estimate when care is scheduled at least three business days in advance, or when they ask for one. See the CMS guidance on good faith estimates.
Choosing the EHR is where people lose the most time, partly because the platform you are leaving handled notes, billing, and scheduling in one place and replacing that with three tools recreates the admin you left to escape. If you want a shortlist rather than a research project, see the best EHR for private practice in 2026, or look at what Upheal offers individual providers, which keeps notes, scheduling, and insurance billing in one system so a solo practice is not stitching together a stack.
Insurance billing in Upheal is priced per use rather than as a monthly add-on: $0.30 per claim submission and $0.15 per eligibility check, on top of the EHR at $1 per session or $99 a month flat, as listed on Upheal's pricing page in October 2026. For a solo practice still building its caseload, that means billing costs scale with the sessions you actually bill.
If you are still on the fence about the move itself, starting free costs nothing while you decide. Start free, no credit card required.
Step 5: Give notice and close out claims
Submit the termination request only once your own systems work and credentialing is underway. Keep seeing platform clients through the notice period, confirm every outstanding session before your access ends, and export what you are entitled to keep while you still have access.
Expect a tail. Claims submitted in your final weeks can take another 30 to 60 days to resolve, and resolving them is harder without platform access.
What usually goes wrong
Giving notice before credentialing starts. This is the expensive one. If notice is 30 days and credentialing is 120, you have created a three month gap with no in-network billing. Start credentialing first.
Assuming the client list is yours. It depends on how each client found you, and your agreement decides it, not your sense of the therapeutic relationship.
Underestimating the records job. Exporting charts in a usable form takes longer than expected, and some formats are painful to import elsewhere. Do it early, while you still have access.
Forgetting the Good Faith Estimate workflow. Straightforward to set up in advance, awkward to retrofit once you are seeing self pay clients.
Treating the platform's help center as your contract. Policies change and your signed agreement is what binds you.
How long it takes and what it costs
Most transitions run 60 to 90 days of preparation, with credentialing extending past the exit date by several months. A realistic plan assumes reduced income for one to three months unless you can bridge with self pay clients or stay on the platform while credentialing completes.
One time costs typically include entity formation, malpractice coverage, and EHR setup. The recurring cost is your practice software and any billing support. Against that, you keep the percentage the platform was taking, which is usually the whole point of leaving.
Is going independent actually worth it?
For most therapists with an established caseload, yes. For a new clinician still filling a schedule, often not. The platforms take a meaningful share of each session, but they supply referrals, credentialing, and billing. Replacing that means either paying for tools or doing the work yourself. From October 2026, Headway also charges $9.99 per appointment for clients who found you through its marketplace, which raises the cost of relying on its referrals without touching the clients you brought.
If your caseload is full and mostly people who found you rather than the platform, the math favors leaving. If you rely on the platform for referrals, leaving removes your client pipeline and adds admin at the same time. If you stay, sending new clients through your Headway direct link keeps them clear of the marketplace fee. Some therapists run a hybrid for a year, building independent panels while keeping platform clients, and that is a reasonable answer rather than a failure of nerve. Before you give notice, compare what you would take home on insurance vs. private pay with our free calculator.
Frequently asked questions
Does my insurance credentialing transfer when I leave Headway or Grow Therapy?
No. Grow Therapy enrolls you under its group contracts, and Headway describes its credentialing as separate from any contracts you hold yourself, so you must credential independently under your own tax ID. Plan 90 to 180 days per payer and start before you give notice.
Can I take my clients with me when I leave?
It depends on how each client found you, and your signed agreement governs it. Both platforms distinguish clients you brought from clients who found you through their search. Review your agreement's non-solicitation and client transition language before contacting anyone.
Does Headway's $9.99 marketplace fee change whether I should leave?
Not by itself. The fee applies only to clients who found you through Headway's marketplace, and Headway already expects those clients to stay on the platform if you leave. Clients you brought and clients who book through your direct link are exempt. If most of your caseload comes from Headway's search, the fee raises the cost of staying, so weigh it against the cost of replacing that referral pipeline.
How long does it take to leave Headway or Grow Therapy?
Most therapists need 60 to 90 days of preparation, plus 90 to 180 days for credentialing that continues after they exit. The exit itself is fast. The infrastructure around it is not, and credentialing is the binding constraint.
Do I need an EHR to go independent?
Yes, if you are keeping clinical records and billing insurance, which nearly all independent therapists are. The platform handled notes, scheduling, and claims for you. Going independent means owning those workflows, either in one system or several.
What happens to claims I submitted before I left?
They generally continue processing, but chasing them is harder once your platform access ends. Confirm every outstanding session before submitting your termination request, and keep your own record of what is pending.
Where this leaves you
Going independent is an operations project with a clinical deadline attached. The order matters more than the speed: read the agreement, map the caseload, start credentialing, build the practice, then give notice. Therapists who reverse those last two steps are the ones who end up with a gap in income.
If part of what you are leaving behind is a platform that handled your admin, the practical question is what replaces it without recreating the paperwork you left. Try Upheal free and see how much of it the EHR can carry.
