Elizabeth Morrison Consulting

What Elizabeth Morrison Consulting does

Elizabeth Morrison Consulting (operating as EM Consulting) is a privately held mental healthcare training and services firm founded in 2014 and headquartered in Modesto, California, with a 10-person team serving customers across the United States. The company is organized around two brands: The Lay Counselor Academy (LCA), a training program that equips non-licensed community helpers — community health workers, peer specialists, substance use counselors, school personnel, faith leaders, and others — to deliver evidence-based mental health counseling through curricula covering empathic listening, motivational interviewing, CBT, behavioral activation, and suicide response; and Flourish Counseling, a direct-to-consumer and B2B employee-benefit counseling service delivered by lay counselors supervised by licensed clinicians at $136 per session with a free initial 30 minutes. The LCA is offered in four productized formats — Live (14-week cohort), Self-Paced (asynchronous via the Teachfloor LMS), Hybrid, and CHW Certification with Mental Health Specialty — and is supported by a 300+ page bilingual (English/Spanish) workbook.

The business operates a hybrid GTM: enterprise field sales contracts healthcare provider networks, Medicaid plans, community health centers, educational institutions, faith communities, and philanthropic organizations to train their staff; a self-serve motion reaches individual learners through the Teachfloor platform and workbook e-commerce; and a frictionless D2C channel uses text-based booking for Flourish Counseling. Pricing on LCA organizational contracts is quote-based (the website lists $0 per person as a placeholder). Revenue mechanics span professional services (training contracts), recurring/unit-priced counseling sessions, and nominal workbook/merchandise sales at cost. The company has earned third-party validation through a 2025 California Health Care Foundation two-year evaluation (conducted by PRISM Partners) and was named a 2023 Steinberg Institute Champion. Named enterprise customers include Casa Familiar, Community Medical Centres, Horizon Health, Janus, Communi-Care/OLE, San Ysidro Health, Asian Health Services, and Stanislaus County. The company is founder-owned with no disclosed external funding, no M&A activity, and no public listing.

Name

Elizabeth Morrison Consulting

Legal name

EM Consulting

Website

https://emorrisonconsulting.com

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Elizabeth Morrison Consulting is a privately held Modesto, California-based mental health firm operating The Lay Counselor Academy and Flourish Counseling brands. It trains non-licensed community helpers to deliver evidence-based counseling and offers individual and employee mental health services nationally across the United States.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Mental Health Training & Counseling Services

NAICS

Offices of Mental Health Practitioners (except Physicians) (62133), Outpatient Mental Health and Substance Abuse Centers (621420)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200), Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Outpatient Mental Health Clinics & Counseling Centers (HLAFACAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Staff Training, Coaching & Professional Development (SEL/Mental Health) (EDAKAMAL), Mental Health Counseling & Psychotherapy Services (EDALAFAB)

Keywords

• Lay counselor training
• Mental health counseling
• Behavioral health consulting
• Employee mental health
• Community health workers

Headquarters

HQ city

Modesto

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Lay Counselor Academy Training Programs: EM Consulting generates revenue through organizational contracts for The Lay Counselor Academy training. Organizations pay to have their staff trained as lay counselors. Pricing is organizational/quote-based. Course options include LCA Live (14-week cohort with 14 live sessions and 5 personal counseling sessions), LCA Self-Paced (fully asynchronous), LCA Hybrid (self-paced plus live group and individual practice), and CHW Certification with Mental Health Specialty.
2. Flourish Counseling Services: Individual and couples mental health counseling offered directly to consumers via Flourish Counseling for You ($136 per session, first 30 minutes free) and to organizations via Flourish Counseling for Employees (contracted employee mental health benefit). Lay counselors deliver counseling supervised by licensed clinicians.
3. LCA Workbook and Educational Materials: Sale of the Lay Counselor Academy workbook (300+ pages) available in English and Spanish, sold at cost (printing and shipping only). Provides the course content in self-guided format.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

EM Consulting trains non-licensed community helpers (lay counselors) in evidence-based mental health counseling through The Lay Counselor Academy, offered in live cohort, self-paced, hybrid, and Community Health Worker certification formats. The firm also delivers direct mental health counseling through Flourish Counseling — provided by lay counselors under licensed clinician supervision — to individuals ($136/session with a free 30-minute first session) and to organizations as an employee mental health benefit.

Product overview

Elizabeth Morrison Consulting operates as a human-centered mental healthcare training and services organization offering a unified portfolio centered around The Lay Counselor Academy (LCA) and Flourish Counseling. The LCA is a modular training program available in four formats: Live (14-week cohort-based), Self-Paced (fully asynchronous), Hybrid (async with live practice), and CHW Certification with Mental Health Specialty. Complementing the training division is Flourish Counseling, which provides direct mental health services through lay counselors to both individuals (Flourish Counseling for You at $136/session with free first session) and organizations (Flourish Counseling for Employees). Additional services include Learning and Development Workshops and Integrated Behavioral Health Consulting.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• The Lay Counselor Academy: A training course that equips staff with practical mental health counseling skills through live, self-paced, or hybrid formats.
• Flourish Counseling

Products and services

• The Lay Counselor Academy (LCA) Mental health counseling training program that equips organizational staff (CHWs, case managers, SUD counselors, peer specialists, first responders, school personnel, faith leaders) with practical, evidence-based counseling skills so they can support patients, clients, or students without requiring traditional clinical licensure. Delivered to healthcare provider networks, community health centers, schools, faith communities, and employers.
• Flourish Counseling for You Direct-to-consumer individual and couples mental health counseling delivered by lay counselors under licensed clinician supervision, with text-based booking (SMS to 209-800-7922), a free 30-minute first session, $136 per 50-minute session, no intake forms or insurance required, and evening/weekend availability.
• Flourish Counseling for Employees B2B employee mental health benefit contracted to organizations, providing employees fast text-based access to lay counselors under licensed supervision for work/life, burnout, and life transition support.
• Learning and Development Workshops Interactive, practice-based, relationship-focused training courses for organizations seeking to elevate internal talent and embed empathic communication across teams.
• Integrated Behavioral Health Consulting Consulting engagements to advance behavioral health integration, address population health and equity-related disparities, and build robust telehealth services for healthcare organizations.

Quantifiable outcome

• Lay counselors deliver outcomes on par with licensed clinicians across four studies on patient-reported satisfaction and outcomes
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers9 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• California Health Care Foundation (CHCF)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025CHCF conducted a two-year evaluation of The Lay Counselor Academy, published in 2025. The study showed LCA helps people feel more confident, love their jobs more, and brings more fairness to the mental health field. CHCF is a private non-profit foundation focused on improving California's health care system. This evaluation serves as a significant third-party validation of EM Consulting's core training program.
• PRISM PartnerscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPRISM Partners conducted the formal evaluation of The Lay Counselor Academy on behalf of CHCF, producing both a full report and executive summary. The evaluation demonstrated LCA's impact on counselor confidence, job satisfaction, and equity in the mental health field.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• BetterHelp: Largest direct-to-consumer online counseling platform in the U.S., connecting individuals with licensed therapists via subscription. Direct peer for EM Consulting's Flourish Counseling for You offering, but BetterHelp exclusively uses licensed clinicians while EM Consulting uses lay counselors supervised by licensed clinicians.
• Talkspace: Online therapy platform offering text, audio, and video sessions with licensed therapists to both consumers and B2B clients including employers and health plans. Direct peer for Flourish Counseling, with a similar D2C plus B2B employee benefit structure but using only licensed providers.
• Two Chairs: Outpatient therapy clinic chain and matching platform emphasizing client-therapist fit and evidence-based care. Direct peer because both companies emphasize the therapeutic alliance over credentials and offer curated, matched counseling experiences, though Two Chairs uses only licensed clinicians.
• Mental Health First Aid USA: National Council for Mental Wellbeing's flagship adult mental health literacy training program. Direct peer because, like EM Consulting's Lay Counselor Academy, it trains non-clinicians in foundational mental health support skills and has trained millions of Americans, making it the most comparable established training model for the LCA.

Broad incumbents

• Modern Health: Global mental health platform offering employer-sponsored therapy, coaching, and wellness resources across 200+ countries. Broad incumbent with overlapping B2B employee mental health use case and similar focus on access and cultural matching, though at substantially greater scale and capital.
• Spring Health: Enterprise mental health benefits provider combining therapy, coaching, medication, and assessments with a focus on fast time-to-care. Broad incumbent comparable to Flourish for Employees' text-based, rapid-access approach but operating across therapy, psychiatry, and care navigation.
• Lyra Health: Well-funded mental health benefits platform serving enterprise employers with therapy, coaching, and medication services. Broad incumbent comparable to EM Consulting's Flourish for Employees B2B motion but operating at much larger scale with broader service portfolio including EAP, coaching, and psychiatry.
• Headspace Health: Mental wellness company combining Headspace's consumer meditation app with Ginger's on-demand coaching and therapy services for employers. Broad incumbent comparable to EM Consulting's combined B2C/B2B model but with much broader content, coaching, and therapy offerings.

Emerging players

• Open Path Collective: Nonprofit network connecting individuals with licensed therapists for sessions at $30-$80 regardless of insurance status. Emerging player with overlapping mission of expanding affordable counseling access for underserved populations, similar in spirit to Flourish Counseling's accessible, no-insurance-needed model.
• Alma: Provider network and practice platform helping independent licensed therapists run insurance-accepted practices. Emerging player adjacent to EM Consulting's B2B mental health ecosystem; relevant because both companies work to expand the supply of accessible, in-network mental health providers, though Alma focuses on licensed clinicians.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UC9AfJJrLIpeZl0Liigh1UDA
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/elizabeth-morrison-consulting
• Instagraminstagram.com/emorrisonconsulting

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Elizabeth Morrison Consulting