Merrana, LLC

Merrily Sadlovsky, LICSW and Ana Zedginidze, LPCC are licenced mental health professionals with over 20 years of combined experience providing mental health services. For us, in mental health care, as well as individuals who identify as part of immigrant and BIPOC communities, we witness how individuals and communities in Minnesota are negatively impacted by the lack of diverse and inclusive mental health and wellness services. As mental health professionals, we also understand the barriers professionals face when trying to provide these services outside of traditional settings such as a group practice or health clinic. As a result, we are dedicated to developing opportunities for mental health & wellness professionals, especially from underrepresented and marginalized communities, to provide these services by reducing the barriers they face, in particular the prohibitive costs of office space and the lack of support in starting and running their own part-time mental health & wellness practices.

Merrana is committed to decreasing barriers mental health and wellness professionals face when providing services, especially for professionals from and/or working with individuals and communities from underrepresented and marginalized groups such as BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and rural communities in Minnesota. Merrana’s overall goal is to increase access to equitable, diverse, and inclusive mental health and wellness services by providing the office space, resources, support, and community mental health and wellness professionals need to offer these services independently and outside traditional settings such as group practices or health clinics. We believe during this time when individuals and communities are experiencing grief, loss, and pain in response to the collective trauma with the pandemic, ongoing police brutality, and systematic racism it is imperative people have a safe space. Merrana seeks to elevate change makers in mental health and wellness in their work by changing the traditional service delivery model of mental health.

Mental health and wellness professionals, especially those from and/or who provide services to marginalized and underrepresented communities, seeking to offer services independently outside traditional settings like a group practice or health clinic face cost prohibitive start up expenses (e.g. office space furnishing office, multiyear office leases, lack of support, lack of community) that serve as a deterrent to many professionals. As a result, this creates a gap in equitable, diverse, and inclusive mental health and wellness services for individuals in our growingly diverse communities. NAMI states that of the adults who experience mental health concerns only 25% of Asian adults, 31% Black adults, 32% of mixed/multiracial adults, 33% of Latinx/Hispanic adults, 49% of LGBTQ, and 49% of White adults received treatment/services. Mental health and racism are public health issues and need to be addressed as such. According to NAMI MN and MN Department of Human services, about one in five American adults experiences an episode of mental illness per year.  The WHO states that depression is a common mental disorder and one of the main causes of disability worldwide. Globally, an estimated 264 million people are affected by depression.

Our project creates a coworking space and a community for mental health and wellness professionals. Merrana seeks to create a sense of community for mental health and wellness professionals by offering a membership based model to rent office space when needed.  Merrana provides members the option to rent office space only when professionals have appointments scheduled. Members receive the benefits of consulting, connecting to colleagues and additional specialized services to help set up or continue their private practice. The specialized services are customized to the needs of mental health and wellness professionals such as help with insurance panel credentialing and billing, printing services, and business mailing address, included as part of each membership, and others offered as optional add-on services such as live phone service. Merrana empowers professionals to start and continue their business and operate a private practice the way the provider believes will help their clients. Merrana wants to support diverse and inclusive mental health and wellness services through an innovative service delivery model with features of a coworking office space. 

Our project is focused on increasing access to mental health and wellness services for individuals who often face the most barriers to services which are those from underrepresented and marginalized identities and communities (e.g. BIPOC, QTBPIPOC, LGBTQ+, immigrant, rural areas) in Minnesota. By providing affordable, safe, inclusive spaces, professionals in mental health and wellness private practice can increase accessibility and equity for all clients who want and need services for marginalized populations. Minnesota’s population is growing along with the diversity within the population. In turn, the mental health and wellness needs are increasingly becoming more varied which requires more eclectic providers and services.

Merrana offers solutions to the most common barriers to mental health and wellness professionals in private practice experience by offering a fully furnished, private office, and group rooms where providers can meet privately with clients in a safe, supportive, inclusive space. Mental health and wellness providers require a private, comfortable, welcoming space to create an environment that generates healing, health and growth to individuals in need. Merrana allows for providers to practice in ways they see fit. Reducing barriers to mental health and wellness services for all individuals is the heart of Merrana mission.

Merrana strives to increase access to culturally responsive, equitable, diverse, and inclusive mental health and wellness services by addressing barriers professionals face in offering these services through the creation of an innovative delivery of services that incorporates features of the coworking office space model. Our project elevates opportunities for mental health and wellness professionals, especially from underrepresented and marginalized communities, to offer services to more people as independent small business owners of their own part-time private practices. 

In 2017, Merrily started a part-time private psychotherapy practice in Minneapolis focusing on providing services to transracial adoptees. She wanted to continue her full-time work as a psychotherapist in the mental health clinic she continues to work at, but wanted to offer services to a marginalized community who often are unable to access adoption competent, culturally responsive services with a therapist who also identifies as a person of color and a transracial adoptee. The biggest barrier to offering these services on a part-time basis was finding office space that could be rented out on an as needed basis. Through a friend she was able to sublease another psychotherapist’s office for Saturday mornings only. While this affords Merrily the ability to offer her therapy services, her access to the office is limited to Saturday mornings only which limited services to individuals who were willing and available for Saturday morning appointments. And on the Saturdays she did not have any clients she would still be paying rent for this unused time. Merrily’s sublease arrangement is the current industry standard norm for mental health and wellness professionals looking to offer their services outside of traditional settings creating service disparities for individuals and communities.

Reducing barriers to mental health and wellness while increasing access to more culturally responsive, diverse, and inclusive services is paramount to us because we have seen first-hand the devastating impact the lack of these services has on individuals in our communities including loved ones. The disparities in mental health and healthcare due to systemic racism and discrimination, especially for BIPOC/QTBIPOC individuals, have been highlighted and exacerbated in recent months with the pandemic, murder of George Floyd in our city we call home, Trump administrations rollback of healthcare protections for LGBTQ under ACA, Trump administration immigration policies and travel bans including most recent ICE student ban, and the SCOTUS ruling limiting birth control access. As individuals who both identify as part of the immigrant community, and Merrily also as part of the BIPOC community, we are determined to create and collaborate with others to address this problem. We believe that providing opportunities for mental health and wellness professionals to offer their services outside the traditional service delivery model will increase access for Minnesotans and eventually other areas in the Midwest in order to address the public health issues of racism and mental health, and racism within mental health and wellness.

Merrana is a leader and innovator in the coworking space for the mental health and wellness industry in Minnesota. Merrana has a unique first-hand level of expertise and knowledge of this industry with both founders being licensed and practicing mental health professionals with over 20 years of combined experience. Given the increasing need for more equitable, diverse and inclusive mental health and wellness services, we find that this is the opportune time to provide these services by challenging the current service delivery model. Coworking space for mental health providers is available in a few areas in the US: NY, FL, TN, TX, CA, MI, OH, OR. Minnesota has close to 78,000 individuals in the state who are licensed as either social workers, psychologists, marriage and family therapists, behavioral health therapy, medical practice, nursing, and nutrition. Minnesota is a state in which the population and diversity continues to grow. Merrana is also the only coworking space for mental health and wellness professionals that focuses on the larger goal of decreasing barriers to professionals, especially those who identify and/or work with underrepresented and marginalized communities, by addressing the systemic racism within mental health and wellness services. 

When we initially started working on our project it was pre-COVID19 and the coworking industry was rapidly growing locally and globally. With the advent of the pandemic, like many industries, the future of the coworking industry became uncertain. Since our project focuses on increasing access to mental health and wellness services by decreasing the barriers to professionals offering services outside traditional settings, the pandemic only highlighted the importance of need for more services especially for marginalized communities (e.g BIPOC and immigrant communities) who have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. We had to build in the necessary safety precautions into our plans which include things such as design/layout, touchless systems, scheduling, and providing more support and services to help professionals their services via telehealth. We also had to shift from seeing the coworking space as a place for professionals to see their clients in-person only to creating a space and support services that help professionals use the space instead of their home to offer services via telehealth. We also see that professionals will eventually be moving to offering more in-person appointments within the next 12-18 months especially if insurance companies reduce or eliminate reimbursement for telehealth services. 

We are both new to the leadership team at the mental health clinic we currently work at in Minneapolis. We started in these new roles just before the pandemic hit, followed by the murder of George Floyd in our city, and the uprisings in our community and the world against police brutality, systematic racism, and white supremacy. As new members of leadership, we have been presented with an renewed opportunity to address the individual and systemic racism and oppression within mental health and our mental health clinic. We have felt ill-equipped at best, and more often than not fearful of creating more pain for our BIPOC/QTBIPOC staff and students when trying to address the long standing public health crisis: racism. We push ourselves individually to do our own work around these issues of racism, power, and privilege, and through our advocacy we the leadership team is establishing its’ own equity, diversity, and inclusivity goals and action steps to share with the clinic which is something that is a first in our clinic. We strive to constantly check intent and impact in this work, while understanding the hurt performative activism has on BIPOC/QTBIPOC individuals. We will do better.

We are proud of the simple idea to offer shared space to mental health and wellness professionals only based on when they need office space. Our idea contributes to business growth and public health benefits. Merrana encourages professionals to build their own business/practice, in turn contributing to personal and economic growth. Meanwhile, our community benefits from the services the professionals offer. Most mental health and wellness professionals receive payment for the hour they spent with their clients. This creates ample amounts of unused space and time that is not needed. Our model makes it financially feasible for professionals to offer only part-time services without a need to commit to rent for years. Similar models exist in other states, but have not been introduced in Minnesota. We believe our city is in desperate need of professionals who can help with mental health and wellbeing after the trauma that has been endured in our city.

The heart of our theory of change is reducing barriers. We know there are  BIPOC, immigrant, LGBTQIA+ providers in our community. We want to offer these professionals and experts in Minnesota the freedom and independence to run their own practice and help their clients in ways they see fit. Because there are so many barriers to starting and maintaining a private practice, most professionals opt to work for organizations instead. We believe if we make it easier for these providers, we will create opportunities for more minority owned practices, and in turn, will contribute to more support and mental health wellbeing in our communities. 

We are currently at the beginning stages of our business development. We are creating a membership based model for professionals in mental health and wellbeing. We hope to have 40 members our first year and grow to 60 members by the end of our second year of operation. In five years, we hope to reach our projected capacity of 75 members, and hope to expand our office space and services for additional locations.

• To increase accessibility to inclusive and equitable mental health and wellness services for all Minnesotans

  •  Find an office space to lease in Minneapolis, MN by July 1, 2021.

  • Complete renovations by October 1, 2021 and ready for members on November 1, 2021.

  • Expand expansion opportunities in  Minnesota in 2023/2024.

  • Explore  expansion opportunities in the Midwest in 2024/2025 (e.g. Chicago, Kansas City, etc.)

  • Rates set to encourage more professionals to offer a wider range of services which increase in accessibility to services for a growing and diverse population of Minnesotans and their needs.

• To increase services to marginalized communities in Minnesota by increasing the ability of a diverse group of professionals to offer their services to their niche populations: 

  • Rural areas

  • Individuals of color

  • LGBTQ individuals

  • Socio-economic status diversity

  • People with disabilities and ADA accessible options 

• To provide the balance of having the freedom to run your own business while still maintaining a sense of community. 

• To generate profitability by January 2022.

• To provide exceptional and responsive customer service to all members 

• To utilize technology to increase efficiency, reduce our carbon footprint, improve sustainability. 

  • Paperless calendars using an online scheduling system for members to self-schedule office space as needed.

  • All paper documents/contracts for the building, offices, and members will be generated, stored, signed, and shared online.

  • Electronic keypads and electronic locks when possible.

  • Internal system to alert to everyone on-site for assistance in crisis situations.

As mental health professionals working in nonprofit, Merrily and Ana have  limited financial capacity to start a business. We believe the financial barrier is the most significant one at this time. We are currently exploring options for grants, small business loans, investors to turn our plan into reality. We hope to find advisors and groups with similar dedication to equity and justice to help us with starting a business. We have overcome barriers with legal questions by being selected as Scholarship Recipients from Reece Law, a local law firm in Minnesota. 

We hope to grow in our partnership with other organizations. Currently as we seek additional support in starting our business, we would like to be intentional in working with minority owned or locally owned businesses. We believe there is a lot of potential to partner with organizations with similar values and beliefs. 

Merrana’s services are offered through a membership model where customers will pay a monthly membership fee which allows them access to reserve time in, both private offices, and group rooms for an additional fee. Merrana’s system will allow members to reserve their own time in the private and group rooms as needed which provides the flexibility that is required for private practice mental health and wellness providers. Based on our financial projections, we are aiming for a maximum of 75 members per month with the assumption that each member will reserve 20 slots per month in a private office. Our pricing structure at $185/month for monthly membership fee plus additional fee for slots in a private office suggests that our monthly membership goal is at least 40 members a month who are each reserving 20 slots per month in a private office to reach $25,000 monthly income. This scenario puts at 48% full of slots each month.

Based on our estimates our goal is to reach a stable number of members each month. Our ideal would be to have at least 40 members and up to 75 members each month who are reserving office slots. We believe with this number of members and our additional services we plan to offer, we will reach financial stability. 

We are at the initial stages of our business. We have not had any funds raised yet. Merrily and Ana are the sole owners of the company so far. No debt has been taken on yet. 

We believe we need about $250,000 to start our business. We are currently looking into various options for funding, including grands, small business loans, and equity.

The Elevate Prize, the story, and the heroes it has honored are inspirations to Merrily and Ana. We believe in community and want to be part of teams and groups who are also dedicated to, not only to creating equity, but engaging in actionable steps to reducing barriers and helping others. We commit and uphold the values of The Elevate Prize and are dedicated to catalyzing positive and transformational change. 

We are proud of our strengths and acknowledge our limitations. We are open to seeking help in areas we are not experts in and learning from those who have experience and expertise. 

We believe there are a lot of opportunities for Merrana to partner with organizations. Those who also share goals and values of improving accessibility and equity to health are all of interest to us.