A Headspace therapist says he was laid off a day after one of his patients came out for the first time. Now the patient can't contact him.

• A Headspace therapist told the LA Times he was laid off one day after a patient came out to him.
• The patient now has no way of contacting him, the therapist said, because he was booted from Headspace's patient care system immediately after being laid off.

A therapist who worked for Headspace Health says that he was laid off the day after one of his clients came out for the first time, according to a new report in the Los Angeles Times, and that the client now has no way of contacting him because he was booted from Headspace's patient care system immediately after being laid off.

The Los Angeles Times reported that after Headspace announced its layoffs last month, patients were told their therapists were no longer on the platform. Appointments were reportedly canceled without warning, and patients who had no idea their providers had been laid off suddenly couldn't contact their therapists.

"I'm the first person they've ever talked to about it," the therapist, who requested anonymity because he's waiting on his severance and fears retaliation from Headspace, told the Times. "They're never going back to therapy. They just had the first person she talked to about it abandon them."

The therapist that the Times spoke with told the newspaper that "if any of the clinicians had done this to our clients we would be losing our licenses tomorrow. I assume [Headspace] didn't allow us to talk to the clients because they didn't want us to poach the clients."

But by handling the layoffs the way it did, Headspace "just really screwed over their entire client base," the therapist told the Times.

Headspace, a remote mental healthcare company, laid off 181 employees — 15% of its workforce — on June 29. Thirty-three of those employees were therapists, a company spokesperson told Insider. Headspace also previously conducted a round of layoffs in December, slashing 4% of its workforce, or around 50 employees.

The company told the Times that it "promptly notified" members whose providers were impacted by the cuts, and a Headspace spokesperson said in a statement to Insider that 90% of the patients who were affected "have been rescheduled for an appointment with their new provider within ten business days of notification."

"While we cannot comment on any individual patient situations — nor should any licensed healthcare provider — we take into account all aspects of an individual's identity (e.g. sexual orientation, race, gender identity, ethnic background, etc.) when matching members with their provider," the statement said. "We're confident in our ability to provide continuous, high-quality care for our members."