Tether was designed by a licensed therapist and a psychologist with over 50 years of combined experience of guiding people through change. Tether is the intersection of deep behavioral science and hard-won knowledge of what people actually need when the ground shifts beneath them.
The Founders
Joree Rose is a licensed marriage and family therapist, mindfulness and meditation teacher, and retreat leader with over a decade of experience helping people navigate transition — personal, relational, and professional. She has developed mindfulness curriculum taught across settings ranging from classrooms to boardrooms, and has delivered corporate mindfulness training to companies including Safeway, Pandora, and many small organizations — translating contemplative practice into tools that work under real pressure.
At Tether, Joree designed the emotional framework that shapes how the AI coach responds to employees in distress, uncertainty, and transition. Her clinical training informs the boundaries that keep Tether safe. Her years working directly with individuals and organizations inform the tone that keeps it useful.
Joree hosted the podcast Journey Forward with Joree Rose for over 6 years and has been featured in Oprahmag.com, NBCnews.com, Business Insider, KTLA News, and more.
Dr. John Schinnerer is a psychologist, executive coach, speaker, and author with a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. He has coached leaders at companies including Meta, Twilio, Okta, Airbnb, and Stanford University, and has trained over 20,000 students in emotional intelligence and resilience.
At Tether, John designed the coaching logic — a stage-based, CBT-informed framework that determines how the AI coach guides employees through each stage of change. His background as an executive coach grounds Tether in what actually moves people forward, not just what sounds good in theory.
He was a consultant on Pixar's Inside Out and has been featured in U.S. News & World Report, Reader's Digest, Fatherly and more.
The Why
Most organizational change fails — not because leaders chose the wrong strategy, but because they underinvested in the human side of it. The research is consistent: 70% of change initiatives fall short of their goals, and the gap almost always lives in individual adoption.
We built Tether because we kept seeing the same pattern. The framework was solid. The communications were clear. The training was adequate. And people were still stuck — anxious, resistant, and disengaged. Not because they were obstinate, but because no one had helped them move through their own internal experience of the change.
Tether exists to fix that at scale. To give every employee — not just those who seek out coaching or flag themselves to HR — access to practical, in-the-moment support exactly when they need it.
The Science
Tether's coaching logic maps directly to the Prosci ADKAR model — the most widely used change management framework in the world — and extends beyond it. Every conversation is designed to identify where an employee is in their journey and deliver the support that stage actually requires.
Tether draws on CBT, ACT, motivational interviewing, and positive psychology. Not wellness buzzwords — methodologies validated in organizational and clinical settings over decades of research and practice.
Tether is a coaching and development tool, not a clinical service. It knows its limits. When an employee's situation requires more than coaching can offer, Tether redirects them — to their EAP, to HR, or to emergency services if needed.
A 30-minute conversation. No pressure. If it's not the right fit, we'll say so.