Participation support for telehealth

Help clients stay involved in telehealth sessions.

Engage Companion helps behavioral health professionals build participation support into individual and group sessions. Set individualized goals, share check-ins and reinforcement, and review how clients responded—all alongside your existing video call.

Engage Companion is currently preparing for a limited clinical pilot. General clinical availability is not yet open.

Join the early-access list See how it works

Get updates about availability and opportunities to try Engage Companion.

Designed for work with children, teens, and adults who benefit from developmental accommodations.

Illustrative example

A participation plan for one client

Goal: Respond to a check-in.
Support: Allow extra time or an agreed alternative response.
Reinforcement: Earn a token after a qualifying response.

You choose the goal, the support, and what counts as a response.

Participation deserves a plan of its own.

Even a thoughtful therapy plan delivered by a skilled provider can be difficult to benefit from when a client struggles to participate. ADHD, developmental differences, background noise, videos, games, and other distractions can make it harder to stay involved in an online session.

Engage Companion was created to help with that challenge. It lets you offer reinforcement at intervals you choose for specific participation behaviors—such as responding to a question, completing an exercise, or returning after a break. You set the expectations and the reinforcement schedule to fit the client.

For neurodivergent clients, this can be part of an individualized accommodation plan. Clients without a neurodevelopmental diagnosis may also need support when their environment is distracting. More active participation creates more opportunities to practice skills, work toward goals, and benefit from the therapy you provide.

Clear goals. Timely encouragement. Progress you can review.

Make expectations concrete.

Choose an observable participation goal, such as responding when addressed, completing an exercise, or returning after an agreed break. Define what success looks like for that client.

Recognize participation as it happens.

Use brief check-ins and clinician-selected reinforcement to acknowledge qualifying responses. You decide when to prompt, what to reward, and how often reinforcement is offered.

Make room for different ways to participate.

Allow additional response time and agreed alternatives, including verbal, written, visual, or gesture responses. Build goals around the supports a client actually uses.

Keep context with the result.

Review each goal separately, with prompted responses, breaks, technology problems, and other exceptions taken into account. Add your interpretation and correct recorded events when needed.

How it works

A participation companion alongside your video call.

Plan the participation goal.

Create a reusable session plan. Choose the behavior you want to support, allowed response methods, check-in timing, and reinforcement.

Share the companion during the session.

Start your telehealth call separately. Share Engage Companion’s participant presentation window through your video platform. Keep the clinician workspace private while you manage prompts and record responses.

Review and adjust.

Review the recorded opportunities and responses for each goal. Add clinical context and use what you observed to guide the next session.

Clients view the companion through your screen share and respond through the methods you agree on. They do not need a separate Engage Companion account.

Support the moments that help a session move forward.

Responding when addressed

Offer a check-in, allow an individualized response window, and record whether the client responded independently or needed a prompt.

Completing an agreed exercise

Define the task and what counts as completion. Acknowledge participation with the reinforcement selected for that goal.

Returning after a break

Make break and return expectations clear. Record the return while preserving the context of the break.

Contributing to a group

Choose a goal suited to the client and group activity. Accept an agreed response method and review that participant’s progress against their own goal.

Who it’s for

For professionals who make participation part of care.

Engage Companion is being developed for psychologists, clinical social workers, behavioral therapists and behavior analysts, and other professionals providing structured participation support. Case workers and facilitators may also find it relevant when participation goals fall within their role and program.

Individual practitioners and small practices

Bring participation goals into individual or group telehealth sessions. Reuse plans, adapt prompts and reinforcement, and keep a record of each goal for your clinical review.

Behavioral health agencies and programs

Pair clinician-controlled session tools with organization accounts, staff roles, and supervisor assignments. Explore whether the workflow fits your team’s services, devices, and record-handling requirements.

You decide what participation looks like.

A spoken answer, a written response, a gesture, or a request for clarification can each be meaningful participation when it fits the client’s plan. Allow extra response time, acknowledge an approved alternative, or pause opportunities during a Sensitive Moment. Each goal is reviewed on its own, with the clinical context you provide.

Our story

It started with a question from the therapy room.

As a neuropsychologist providing remote therapy, Dr. Mary Wetherby saw a need for more support with session participation. When considering telehealth for a young client with ADHD and developmental needs, she believed therapy could be valuable—but worried that distractibility would make it difficult for the client to take part.

She wanted a way to offer brief, intermittent reinforcement for participation throughout the session. When she could not find an app that fit what she had in mind, she began developing one with her husband, Kevin, whose technology background includes work at Google.

Together, they began building Engage Companion: a clinician-controlled reinforcement program that works alongside the video platforms used for therapy. Its purpose is to help professionals make participation support part of the session, with goals, accommodations, and encouragement tailored to each client.

“I am excited about the possibility of helping more clients participate in therapy and work toward their goals.”
Dr. Mary Wetherby, Ph.D., neuropsychologist and co-creator

Privacy

Clinical records stay under your local control.

Participant records, plans, session activity, and reports are stored in an encrypted vault in the clinician’s browser. These clinical records are not stored on Engage Companion’s servers. The participant presentation reaches the client through the telehealth platform you choose.

A private clinician workspace. Share the separate presentation window while keeping clinical records and controls on your screen.
No client account required. Clients see the companion through your video platform’s screen share.
No audio or video recording by Engage Companion. The current app does not capture webcam or microphone input, transcribe sessions, or infer attention or emotions.
Encrypted backups you manage. Local storage makes device security, recovery-key custody, and regular backups important.

Current status: Engage Companion is preparing for a limited clinical pilot. General clinical use is not yet available. Pilot use will begin only after completion of the applicable product release, security, privacy, and practice-approval requirements.

Questions before you join?

Is Engage Companion a video-call platform?

No. You run the call in your existing telehealth platform and share Engage Companion’s participant presentation window. Engage Companion provides the participation plan, prompts, reinforcement, and clinician review alongside the call.

Does a client need to install anything or create an account?

In the current workflow, the client sees the companion through your video platform’s screen share. They do not need a separate Engage Companion account or app installation.

Does the app automatically know whether a client is paying attention?

No. The current app does not monitor the remote client’s camera or microphone. The clinician records observable responses and interprets them. A recorded response does not establish attention, understanding, or motivation.

Can I individualize the participation goals?

Yes. You define the observable goal, allowed response methods, response window, opportunity schedule, reinforcement, and goal threshold. Accommodations and exceptions keep the record connected to the client’s needs.

Can it support individual and group sessions?

The app includes individual plans and group templates. Clinicians manage goals and outcomes for each participant. When sharing with a group, choose presentation content appropriate for everyone who can see the shared window.

Does it write my clinical notes?

Engage Companion organizes recorded session activity into goal-specific reports. You provide clinical statements and annotations. It supports your review and does not replace your clinical record or professional judgment.

Can I use it with real clients now?

Engage Companion is not yet available for general clinical use. We are currently preparing for a limited clinical pilot with selected clinical use after the applicable release, security, privacy, and practice-approval requirements have been completed. Join the early-access list for updates about availability and future opportunities to try Engage Companion.

What happens when I join the list?

You express interest in Engage Companion and request updates about availability and opportunities to try it. Joining does not create a subscription, guarantee a pilot place, or grant access or permission to use Engage Companion clinically.

Bring a clearer participation plan to telehealth.

Interested in using individualized goals, check-ins, and reinforcement to support participation in your sessions? Join the early-access list for availability updates and opportunities to try Engage Companion.

Join the early-access list

Opens your email app. Send your request to hello@engagecompanion.com.

Please share professional contact information only. Do not include client names or clinical details.