Cigna Healthcare and Little Otter are teaming up to provide mental health care to support children and their families
At Little Otter, we understand how overwhelming it can feel when you have questions or concerns about your child’s social and emotional development. You are not alone — and we’re here to help.
Our team of licensed clinicians specializes in supporting children and has deep expertise in early childhood and developmental differences. Whether you're noticing something that doesn’t feel typical, navigating a new diagnosis, or just needing guidance, we provide personalized and evidence-based care for both your child and your family.
Product availability may vary by location and plan type and is subject to change.
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Our Services
Comprehensive care that works
Little Otter works directly with your team at Cigna Healthcare® to ensure you get timely referrals to all the care services that are right for you, including support for needs outside of what we offer.
Therapy for the whole familiy
Individual therapy for children and their parents. Couples counseling and family therapy. All with independently licensed mental health providers.
Psychiatry
Consultation and medication management for children and parents with psychiatrists trained in treating both children and adults.
Parent Coaching
Parent-focused coaching and support with a licensed provider to help you with all the challenges of parenting.
WHO WE SERVE
For every family—and every family member
Whole-family mental health care tailored to your needs. No matter what your family looks like.
WHAT WE TREAT
Personalized care tailored to your family’s needs
WHY LITTLE OTTER
What makes Little Otter different
Support for co-occuring mental health conditions in children with neurodevelopmental concerns
We’re trained to treat common co-occurring mental health challenges for children with neurodevelopmental concerns such as anxiety disorders and OCD.
Collaborative care team
Little Otter collaborates closely with your child’s existing team including pediatricians, BCBAs, Speech and Language Pathologists, and other providers, to ensure our mental health care is connected, consistent, and tailored to your family’s needs.
Time to care
Start our Family Mental Health Check-up immediately. Book a Kickoff Call in 24 hours.
Virtual model
Video and phone calls from anywhere. The best clinicians for your family’s needs, on your family’s schedule.
Transparency
Outcome-based reports and progress you can see. Access to clinician notes and assessment results in the Little Otter Portal.
Here for you 24/7
Customer service whenever you need it. Message your provider anytime. Resources at your fingertips.
*Cigna Healthcare provides access to virtual care through national telehealth providers as part of your plan. This service is separate from your health plan's network and all services may not be available in all areas; subject to state regulations.
Better mental health solutions—faster
Treatment for family mental health delivered through our virtual care platform.
how it works
What to expect when you start care with Little Otter
Get access to quality care, immediately.
Take Little Otter’s Family Mental Health Check-up
Developmentally-sensitive assessment and report on whole-family health, including child, parent, siblings, impact on family functioning and relationships. It takes 8 minutes and the assessment’s report gives personalized content and recommendation based on the family’s needs.
30 minute Kickoff Call with Little Otter
Initial meeting led by a Little Otter Board Certified Behavior Analyst to review your family’s specific needs and treatment planning.
Get started with care services
After a 60-minute Clinical Assessment led by a licensed therapist, start care for therapy, psychiatry, and parent coaching services.
testimonials
Trusted by 25,000+ families
The leader in child mental health
Dr. Helen Egger is the Co-founder and Chief Medical & Scientific Officer at Little Otter. She is a child psychiatrist who has been a leader in the field of child mental health for more than 30 years. Previously, she was Division Chief for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Duke Medicine and Chair of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Director of the NYU Child Study Center at NYU Langone Health.
Dr. Egger is also an internationally-recognized researcher in early childhood mental health. Her research has set the standard for measurement of child mental health, and it's the foundation of Little Otter's Family Mental Health Check-up and Little Otter's measurement-based, whole family model of care.
FAQs
Little Otter is in network with most Cigna plans. After you complete onboarding and provide your insurance details, we’ll run an eligibility check to confirm if your plan covers care with Little Otter before your first appointment.
For questions about your coverage or Explanation of Benefits, contact Cigna directly using the number on the back of your insurance card.
To begin care, schedule a Kickoff Session via the Little Otter account. To create a Little Otter account, head to the Little Otter Portal.
Little Otter is currently available to Cigna members in the following states:
California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Washington, DC.
We’re coming soon to: Arizona, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, and Washington.
Want to know when we launch in your state? Sign up for our newsletter to stay in the loop!
Little Otter’s parent coaching services are parent-facing services that focus on supporting you in managing child behaviors. It can support not only the behaviors that you can see, but also the behaviors you don’t see but want to see more often. Our Parenting Specialists are board certified behavior analysts (BCBAs) whose goal it is to give you more tools as a parent to support you, and give you a plan to deal with day-to-day parenting struggles.
Yes, we do have a team of child and adult psychiatrists who conduct comprehensive psychiatric evaluations and offer medication management should that be indicated.
Our therapy and parent coaching sessions typically last 45 minutes, depending on the needs of the child and family. Session length may vary slightly based on the child’s age, engagement, and therapeutic goals.
Many young children struggle with attention during virtual sessions, and that’s okay! Our team is specially trained in engaging kids through play, movement, and flexible formats. Read our blog FAQs about Virtual Mental Health Care for Kids and Families to learn more about how we work with children who have difficulty sitting for extended periods.
No, Little Otter does not offer crisis support.
No, we do not provide ABA Therapy. While we support families of children with autism through wraparound services such as parent coaching, behavioral support, and family therapy, we do not offer formal ABA treatment.
No, Little Otter does not diagnose ASD. The gold-standard ASD diagnostic tools require in-person administration for accuracy. While telehealth adaptations show promise, they are not yet validated for standalone diagnosis.
Instead, Little Otter provides comprehensive mental health care for children with ASD and their families, addressing co-occurring conditions, emotional and behavioral challenges, and family well-being. We collaborate with external providers such as BCBAs delivering ABA for the child’s core symptoms.
Our Master’s-level BCBA care navigators facilitate collaboration with ABA providers, speech therapists, occupational therapists, and other external services to ensure our mental health care is integrated with the team addressing the child’s core autism symptoms.
If you are not yet in care with an ABA therapist, we can still provide services.
We don’t provide motor development assessments or treatment of motor concerns at Little Otter. Our focus is on emotional, behavioral, and family mental health care. However, we are happy to collaborate with external providers addressing your child’s motor needs.
No, we don’t provide speech and language services at Little Otter at this time. Our focus is on emotional, behavioral, and family mental health care. However, we are happy to collaborate with external speech and language pathologists addressing your child’s speech and language needs.
We don’t create or manage IEPs at Little Otter. However, our clinicians can provide assessments, diagnoses, and clinical documentation that may support the IEP process. We’re also happy to collaborate with your child’s school team if needed to help ensure consistent care across settings.
Personalized and comprehensive care that works for families.