New York, New York – DATE – Mantra Health, the digital mental health provider built exclusively to support student well-being and success across higher education, today announced a significant expansion of its coaching program and clinical content. 

While many digital health providers offer general wellness support, Mantra Health’s coaching program, which includes two separate tracks in Emotional Wellness and Productivity (executive functioning), gives students the opportunity to address challenges such as procrastination, minimizing distractions, improving motivation, and psychoeducation about ADHD, among others.

Recognized as a prominent predictor of college success, studies show that executive functioning skills have a direct impact on GPA, graduation rates, and post-graduate success. Students with executive dysfunction often carry higher stress levels and they may experience missed deadlines or disorganization, among other challenges, which can leave them feeling discouraged or behind. Working on these skills, such as managing time, setting priorities, and following through, can also prepare them better for a life and career after graduation. 

Driven by the desire to support students with executive dysfunction, especially those coping with ADHD, Mantra Health designed a new suite of skills-based courses. This was achieved by working closely with coaches and clinical providers at Vanderbilt University, who assisted in refining existing content and suggested the development of two additional high-impact courses that now live within the program: Mindfulness (specifically for those with executive dysfunction) and Self-Compassion. This collaboration builds on Mantra Health’s broader partnership with Vanderbilt University, launched in 2024, which includes comprehensive mental health and wellness support through the Whole Campus Care model.

This expansion arrives as new research reinforces the value of pairing skill-building content with coaching support. A 2025 study on blended care models found that while self-guided tools are scalable, adding a coaching program is associated with better clinical outcomes. Research on technology-enabled coaching found that 71.7% of higher-risk users improved or recovered from depression or anxiety symptoms, with coaching also associated with gains in distress tolerance and self-compassion, two core pillars of Mantra Health’s content offerings.

“It was a pleasure to work with Mantra Health on this project. They were responsive to our feedback and implemented the changes we recommended,” said Dr. Frances Niarhos, Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Samantha York, Assistant Director for Academic Wellbeing at Vanderbilt University. “We look forward to continuing to refine with Mantra how Vanderbilt uses the courses to support executive functioning of students.” 

The new courses can now be fully integrated into Mantra Health’s Productivity Coaching program, which includes 8-12 weeks of one-on-one, goal-oriented coaching. These self-guided courses are grounded in the four dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) skills-training modules: mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. 

“Executive dysfunction can often be accompanied by avoidance and deep shame. If a student feels like a failure every time they miss a deadline, no amount of time-management tips will help unless we also provide support to help the student develop and hold self-compassion while also working to make meaningful changes,” said Carla Chugani, PhD, LPC, Vice President of Clinical Programs at Mantra Health. “By working with Vanderbilt, we’ve integrated essential skills to help students balance the need for concrete, skills directed at breaking through avoidance of complex tasks, organization, time management, and much more, with the importance of holding a gentle, kind, and compassionate stance toward themselves during the learning process, which often comes with some amount of trial and error. We want them to understand that being kind to yourself is actually a prerequisite for being productive, and extending yourself some grace is often helpful for reducing the intense emotions that interfere with their productivity.”