Havencrest Capital Management is making bold moves to improve Texas mental health care access, announcing a new acquisition that further solidifies its growing presence in the behavioral health space. In August, Deep Eddy Psychotherapy Management LLC—based in Austin—acquired Dallas Counseling Treatment Center Management. While this marks a rare deviation from Deep Eddy’s de novo growth model, the acquisition aligns tightly with Havencrest’s mission to address the overwhelming access issues in mental health across the state.
Matt Cline, a senior associate at Havencrest, made the company’s intentions clear in a recent interview. “We’ve been very heavily focused on the extreme access issues in mental health,” he said. “We feel like we have a strong conviction for and see an absolute need for various types of [behavioral health].” This conviction underscores Havencrest’s long-term vision: to become a leader in expanding Texas mental health care access through strategic investment, expansion, and innovative service delivery.
A Legacy Grows with Purpose
Deep Eddy’s journey began as a family-owned practice dating back to 1984. It gained new momentum in April 2022 when Charlotte Howard teamed up with Havencrest to professionalize and scale operations. Though Howard remains involved, Adam Maurer now leads the organization as CEO. Under their guidance, Deep Eddy has grown into a network of 12 clinics across Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, supported by a workforce of about 220 professionals. The company offers both in-person and virtual therapy, ensuring flexibility and convenience for patients.
What makes Deep Eddy’s model stand out is its dual commitment to quality and accessibility. Cline emphasized that the key to success lies in delivering consistently high-quality care. To achieve this, Deep Eddy offers a comprehensive internal training program for therapists. This initiative not only ensures that clinicians are up-to-date with best practices, but also fosters a unified standard of care across all locations. “If you don’t have the right value proposition for clinicians, they’ll be unsatisfied with their work or leave,” Cline explained. “If you’re not providing concrete, quality care for patients, they’re not going to be there in the long term.”
The Urgent Need for Mental Health Access in Texas
These efforts are particularly crucial given the context. Forbes recently ranked Texas as the worst state for mental health in the U.S., citing high rates of mental illness and a severe shortage of mental health centers. A Trilliant Health report echoed these findings, revealing that 10 of the 15 U.S. metros with the fewest mental health providers per capita are in Texas. It’s statistics like these that highlight the urgent need to improve Texas mental health care access—a challenge Deep Eddy is tackling head-on.
The acquisition of Dallas Counseling Treatment Center Management represents a strategic leap, instantly making Dallas Deep Eddy’s largest market. Still, the company remains focused on organic growth. Most future expansions will be new builds, with careful consideration given to local needs and care delivery models. With about 70% of Deep Eddy’s therapy sessions conducted via telehealth, the organization is seeking a balanced approach that blends virtual care with in-person services—another way it aims to enhance Texas mental health care access across diverse populations.
Expanding Services to Meet Growing Demand
In addition to expanding geographically, Deep Eddy is broadening its service offerings. The company is building a psychiatry practice to complement its core psychotherapy services, with its first psychiatric providers already hired. This integrated approach will enable Deep Eddy to deliver more comprehensive care, reinforcing its goal of becoming the premier provider of behavioral health services in Texas.
Deep Eddy primarily serves patients with commercial health insurance, staying in-network to maximize affordability. It does not serve Medicaid patients and only a small portion of its clients pay cash. This focus on insurance partnerships is a key pillar of its strategy to widen Texas mental health care access, especially considering that about 60% of insured Americans have mental health coverage through their plans.
A Model Designed for Scalable, Quality Growth
Backed by Havencrest, Deep Eddy is poised for thoughtful, sustained growth that addresses both the provider and patient sides of the care equation. This is Havencrest’s third investment in the behavioral health sector, following Effective School Solutions and Apara Autism Centers. Each venture reflects the firm’s commitment to improving behavioral health care delivery—especially in states like Texas where the need is most critical.
As Deep Eddy expands its footprint and services, its leadership remains grounded in the original mission: increasing Texas mental health care access in a way that’s both scalable and sustainable. “We’re not actively pursuing or thinking about other states at this point,” Cline noted. “We think there’s enough to work on to help the state of Texas.”
With local knowledge, a strong operational model, and a robust telehealth offering, Deep Eddy is uniquely positioned to transform Texas mental health care access. Through strategic growth, investment in quality training, and a thoughtful mix of care delivery methods, the organization is charting a path toward a more accessible, effective mental health system—one patient at a time.
