Open Minds Psychological is a private practice in Pennsylvania offering SyncGrow, a specialized support system exclusively available to Visible Hands VC portfolio companies. We provide both executive coaching for performance and licensed therapy for wellbeing—two distinct services that can work together to help founders and teams scale smarter, last longer, and thrive under pressure.

Why SyncGrow is Different: Performance + Wellbeing, Finally Aligned

Most support systems force leaders to choose: a coach for performance or a therapist for wellbeing. SyncGrow recognizes that each service has its own critical role. What makes SyncGrow unique is how we coordinate these services—while keeping the boundaries crystal clear. With your explicit consent, your coach and therapist can align their approaches, creating one integrated system designed specifically for the demands of entrepreneurship. You get the best of both worlds without gaps in support, blurred lines, or conflicting advice.

Executive Coaching Services: Strategy, Clarity, and Accountability for Growth

SyncGrow executive coaching goes beyond generic leadership advice. Our approach is grounded in two proven frameworks that drive sustainable high performance:

Executive Functioning (EF): The cognitive processes that enable planning, decision-making, focus, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. These are the mental capabilities that determine how well you execute under pressure, manage complexity, and navigate uncertainty.

Entrepreneurial Mindset (EM): The psychological patterns and behaviors that distinguish successful entrepreneurs—including tolerance for ambiguity, opportunity recognition, resilience in the face of setbacks, and the ability to create value from constraints.

Clinical Therapy Services: Licensed Care for Resilience and Recovery

While coaching optimizes performance, therapy addresses the psychological and emotional weight that leaders carry. The entrepreneurial journey is demanding: relentless pressure, constant uncertainty, financial stress, team responsibility, and the isolation of leadership. These pressures take a toll, and ignoring mental health isn't sustainable.

SyncGrow therapy is delivered exclusively by Dr. Brianna Matey, a Licensed Clinical Psychologist who specializes in working with entrepreneurs, executives, and high-performers. This isn't generic therapy—it's designed specifically for the unique challenges of building and scaling companies.

The SyncGrow Coordination Advantage

With your explicit consent, your coach and therapist can coordinate their approaches. This creates unprecedented alignment between your performance development and mental health support. You decide what's shared—nothing flows between your coach and therapist without your explicit permission. Your coach focuses on business performance and leadership development. Your therapist focuses on mental health and wellbeing. But they can align their approaches to reinforce each other.

Despite coordination, boundaries remain crystal clear. Coaches stay in their lane (performance, strategy, leadership). Therapists stay in theirs (clinical care, mental health, emotional wellbeing). This isn't a therapist pretending to be a business advisor or a coach playing psychologist—it's appropriate professionals working in concert.

In-Kind Services for Visible Hands Portfolio Companies

As a Visible Hands VC portfolio company, you receive $2,500 in in-kind SyncGrow services.

Choose one or all three 60-minute sessions:

Rapid Prototyping Toolkit - Customer discovery methodology to validate your market and refine your approach

Performance Coaching with EMP - Leadership development framework using the Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile

Wellbeing & Executive Functioning - Cognitive performance optimization to enhance decision-making and reduce mental fatigue

These in-kind coaching services are provided at no cost as part of the partnership between SyncGrow and Visible Hands VC. Clinical therapy services with Dr. Brianna Matey are also available to portfolio companies beyond the in-kind benefit. This investment in founder and team wellbeing reflects our shared belief that mental health and performance support are not luxuries—they're essential infrastructure for sustainable success.

How to Get Started

All SyncGrow services are accessed through Damian Salas, your dedicated contact for seamless coordination and appropriate matching to your needs.

To Access Your In-Kind Coaching Benefits:

Email Damian Salas at [email protected] with "Visible Hands Portfolio Company" in the subject line. Damian will schedule a brief assessment conversation to determine which of the three in-kind coaching sessions (or all three) would be most beneficial for your current situation and growth stage.

To Access Clinical Therapy Services:

Contact Damian to discuss whether clinical therapy with Dr. Brianna Matey would be appropriate for addressing mental health concerns beyond the coaching sessions. Therapy services are available to portfolio companies beyond the in-kind benefit.

Why work with us

SyncGrow Delivers What No One Else Does: Performance + Wellbeing, Finally Aligned

Most support systems force you to choose between business performance and mental health. SyncGrow is the first program that recognizes these aren't competing priorities—they're interconnected foundations of sustainable success.

Built Specifically for the Entrepreneurial Journey

Generic coaching programs don't understand startup pressures. Traditional therapy doesn't account for the unique stressors of building a company. SyncGrow was designed from the ground up for entrepreneurs, founders, and startup teams who operate in high-uncertainty, high-stakes environments.

The Only Program That Keeps Coaching and Therapy Distinct While Coordinating Them

Here's what makes SyncGrow revolutionary: we don't blur the lines between coaching and therapy. We maintain professional boundaries while creating powerful coordination.

Most programs make one of two mistakes: (1) Coaches overstep and try to provide mental health support they're not qualified to deliver, or (2) Therapists overstep and try to give business advice outside their expertise. Both approaches fail because they ignore that coaching and therapy require fundamentally different training, different ethical obligations, and different skill sets.

SyncGrow solves this through what we call the SyncGrow Coordination Model:

Clear Roles: Your executive coach focuses exclusively on performance, strategy, and leadership development. They help you make better business decisions, scale your operations, and develop as a leader. They are not healthcare providers and do not diagnose or treat mental health conditions.

Clear Boundaries: Your therapist focuses exclusively on clinical mental health care. They diagnose and treat anxiety, depression, burnout, trauma, and other psychological conditions using evidence-based therapeutic approaches. They are not business consultants and do not provide strategic advice or execution plans.

Coordinated Care (With Your Consent): Here's the magic—with your explicit permission, your coach and therapist can align their approaches. If you're working on difficult team conversations in coaching, your therapist might address the social anxiety or conflict avoidance that makes those conversations harder. If you're treating imposter syndrome in therapy, your coach can help you practice showing up confidently in leadership moments. The insights from one domain inform the other, creating a seamless support system.

You Control What's Shared: Nothing flows between your coach and therapist without your explicit consent. You decide what information is relevant to share, when to share it, and how coordination serves your goals. This isn't us talking about you behind your back—it's a transparent process you control completely.

The result: Leaders who get comprehensive support without fragmentation, blind spots, or conflicting advice. You address both the external challenges of building a company and the internal work of managing your psychology and emotions.

Grounded in Proven Science and Real-World Results

SyncGrow methodology isn't motivational fluff or untested theories. It's built on decades of research in cognitive psychology, entrepreneurship studies, and clinical mental health treatment:

Executive Functioning Research: Damian Salas's work, featured in Psychology Today, was the first to establish the link between executive functioning capabilities and entrepreneurial performance. Executive functioning—the cognitive processes governing planning, decision-making, focus, and flexibility—predicts founder success better than intelligence, education, or prior experience. SyncGrow coaching systematically develops these capabilities.

Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile®: Some SyncGrow coaches are certified in the Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile, a validated assessment tool measuring the psychological characteristics that differentiate successful entrepreneurs. This isn't personality typing—it's evidence-based profiling that identifies specific areas for development.

Evidence-Based Therapy: Dr. Matey employs therapeutic approaches with established efficacy rates: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with 70%+ effectiveness for anxiety and depression, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for psychological flexibility under pressure, and mindfulness-based approaches for stress management. These aren't experimental techniques—they're gold-standard treatments validated through thousands of research studies.

Comprehensive Support Throughout Your Entire Journey

SyncGrow isn't a one-time workshop or a fixed-duration program. We provide ongoing support that evolves with you through different stages:

Pre-Seed Founders: When you're validating ideas, managing uncertainty, and dealing with the isolation of early-stage building. Coaching focuses on customer discovery, strategic focus, and building founder confidence. Therapy addresses anxiety about the unknown and helps manage the emotional volatility of early-stage work.

Seed Stage: When you're building product, hiring your first team members, and starting to scale. Coaching develops management capabilities, team-building skills, and systems thinking. Therapy addresses the identity shift from individual contributor to leader and helps manage imposter syndrome.

Series A and Beyond: When you're scaling rapidly, managing larger teams, and facing increased investor pressure. Coaching refines strategic leadership, develops executive capabilities, and prepares you for the next stage of growth. Therapy addresses the mounting pressure, helps maintain perspective, and protects relationships outside work.

Critical Moments: When you're facing fundraising pressure, difficult pivots, team conflicts, or personal crises. We provide intensive support during high-stakes moments when the quality of your decisions and your psychological state determine outcomes.

Wellbeing & Executive Functioning: Cognitive performance optimization addressing decision fatigue, focus, working memory, and stress management. Essential for founders managing high cognitive load and constant decision-making demands.

You can choose one session or access all three based on your current needs and growth stage. Beyond the in-kind coaching benefit, clinical therapy services with Dr. Brianna Matey are also available to portfolio companies who need licensed mental health support for anxiety, burnout, depression, or other psychological challenges.

This partnership model reflects a shared philosophy: founder mental health and performance development aren't expenses to be minimized—they're investments in portfolio success. Just as you wouldn't skimp on legal or financial infrastructure, you shouldn't skimp on the psychological and performance infrastructure that determines whether founders can execute.

Single Point of Contact for Seamless Access

We know founders are busy and coordination overhead kills adoption. That's why all SyncGrow services are accessed through a single point of contact: Damian Salas.

You don't need to figure out whether you need coaching or therapy. You don't need to navigate separate intake processes or coordinate between different providers. You don't need to explain your situation multiple times to different people.

You contact Damian. He conducts a brief assessment to understand your current situation, challenges, and goals. He matches you with the right service and provider. He ensures seamless coordination if you're using both coaching and therapy.

This single-point-of-contact model means:

• Faster access when you need support
• Better matching to appropriate services
• Easier coordination between coaching and therapy
• Consistent relationship throughout your founder journey
• Lower friction for getting help when you need it

Confidentiality That Respects Your Professional Relationships

All SyncGrow services maintain strict confidentiality. Your coaching conversations and therapy sessions are completely separate from Visible Hands VC, your co-founders, investors, and team members unless you explicitly choose to share.

For therapy specifically, confidentiality is protected by law with only rare exceptions (imminent risk of harm, child/elder abuse, court orders). This means Dr. Matey cannot and will not share anything you discuss—not even that you're attending therapy—without your written consent.

For coaching, while confidentiality isn't legally protected the same way, we maintain the same ethical standards. Your coaching conversations stay between you and your coach unless you explicitly authorize sharing.

This confidentiality allows you to:

• Speak honestly about doubts and struggles without fear of judgment
• Address concerns about co-founders or investors without political consequences
• Explore career uncertainties without worrying about how it looks
• Get help for mental health challenges without stigma
• Work through personal issues affecting your business without shame

The only exception: If Visible Hands asks for aggregate, anonymized data about program utilization or outcomes, we can provide high-level insights that don't identify individual users. Your privacy is always protected.

es treating your mental health and leadership development as infrastructure, not afterthoughts.

Because You Deserve Support That Matches Your Ambition

Your company deserves your best leadership. Your team deserves a founder who can sustain high performance. Your loved ones deserve someone who can be present. You deserve to build something meaningful without sacrificing everything else.

SyncGrow makes that possible.