Episode 4 Do you have to marry a rich man?
Hilda “The minute therapists start talking about organising people raise antitrust concerns but its really upside down because the real power isn’t actually with clinicians, its with massive insurance companies…..we hear about the workforce shortage, the therapy shortage, but it’s actually a market failure….I think that’s where the shift is going to come because when you frame something like reimbursement rates as an individual contract issues therapists have very little power but when you connect it to how patients can’t access care, even when they’re insured…because of the inefficiency of the system and the insurance companies have all the power you can’t actually access care when you need it. So connecting it to patient access and making it a public issue that’s where I think we’re going to build real leverage….”
James “When we took legal action against Uber and Orla cabs in the Netherlands about data access and algorithmic transparency that was one of the defences they used to say that this was an abuse of rights and anti-competitive behaviour. That we were interfering with the competitive force of drivers completing against each other by collecting this data. It’s a very old argument, 150 years old as a restraint on trade argument and it was quite amazing seeing that being used in 2025.”
Stories of UberTherapyis a series of six recorded conversations with therapists, social justice activists, trade unionists and progressive tech campaigners to ask if a MuchBetter.Help is possible.
Episode 4: Do you have to marry a rich man to be a therapist? with James Farrar (Worker Info Exchange) & Hilda Poulson (National Union of Healthcare Workers), to learn the lessons of organizing Uber drivers and the Kaiser Permanente hunger strike.
Hosted by James Farrar, Linda Michaels and Elizabeth Cotton on 11 September 6.30-7.30pm you are invited to attend the launch of our podcast series based around the six chapters of UberTherapy: The new business of mental health.
To read about the podcast series & book your tickets go to www.muchbetter.help
To get notification when the podcasts drop click here.
James Farraris the Founder & Director of Worker Info Exchange (WIE). After leaving a career in tech James became an activist for worker rights in the gig economy. He was a claimant in the landmark worker rights case against Uber recently decided in favour of workers by the UK Supreme Court. James founded Worker Info Exchange having realized that surveillance and hidden unfair algorithmic management would be the next stage in the battle for worker rights in the gig economy. WIE has gone on to successfully litigate against Uber and Ola Cabs to secure worker access to personal data and protection from unfair automated decision making.
Hilda Poulson is a Director at National Union of Healthcare Workers, which represents nearly 20,000 healthcare workers, including social workers, therapists and psychologists, across California, Hawaii and Pennsylvania. NUHW carried out sustained strike action against Kaiser Permanente in 2024/5 including a high-profile hunger strike by behavioural health workers in Southern California. Hilda has led numerous organizing campaigns across California, including organizing behavioral health clinicians. She specializes in building worker-led campaigns, developing training programs, and supporting organizing across complex healthcare systems.
*GabSpace graphics designed by Austin Hughes, The American Psychoanalyst tapmagazine.org
@survivingwork.bsky.social @survivingwk
@UberTherapy.bsky.social @ubertherapies