just a heads up. a few treatment providers from my location went on talkspace. more or less to feel the site out because it was becoming popular with the college crowd here. what was discovered was the site was misleading the public. despite advertizing the site as online therapy each treatment provider was told the site does not perform actual therapy and is not meant to take the place of actual therapeutic help. when the treatment providers asked for proof that their "therapist" was an actual state licensed treatment provider they refused to give this information. siting they did not have to disclose their credentials due to it was online and they were not providing mental health therapy. they state they are privacy law compliant but when asked direct questions like do they save the chats or screenshot them, what documentation do they keep (they charge money so they have to keep mental health files on their "clients" by law) and what happens to the documents. some even asked if they will be getting receipts documenting who was receiving their money ie if "nicole" was the therapist would "nicole" be endorsing a legal receipt for payment... so that should any detrimental mental harm come from these so called therapy but not therapy sessions "nicole" can be brought into court to varify what talkspace is, services that were provided, (these treatment providers who went under cover as clients on talkspace were very thorough with their questions) in all cases Talkspace stated things like I'm sorry obviously you dont want our help, good bye, or Im sorry we are not at liberty to answer that question, or no we dont assume any risks to the client based on what we tell the client. they enter talking with us as a friend type relationship, this is not actual therapy, so we can not be held accountable should any harm happen. when asked how many of those answering the chats were actual treatment providers the answer was usually oh a great many of us, not everyone but a great many of us, one person did comment that statistics wise its about 1\3 to 1\2 since its online and they dont provide actual therapy they do not have to be actual licensed mental health treatment providers. when asked if any of their so called therapists have ever gotten into trouble with the law, been sanctioned, fined or lost their credentials due to being brought before their states mental health ethics board, there was laughter and the word probably, not sure, who knows.

in other words talkpsace is just like any other website where anyone can go to talk with someone who ......may or may not be licensed as a mental health treatment provider, who may or may not have been disciplined by their state ethics board and may or may not cause harm to another. for all we know the person behind the screen could be any one.

there is also a Forbes (company that reviews businesses, finds out whether they can be trusted, dow hat they say they do and much more in the business world) article about talkspace

Forbes Welcome

my point when using online "therapy" please be careful and make sure you know whats what. do your background checks.

me I was thinking about signing up with them at one time. I am glad now that I did not.