Has anyone ever used Talk Space?

Hey everyone. I'm looking for some feedback for the online therapy website talk space. I was listening to a podcast last night and there was an advertisement for talk space. I just wanted to see what people thought about it. Thanks!

Yeah, I hated it. No free trial (I think betterhelp.com has those) and just hard to connect or trust when you've never met the therapist you're working with. The 24/7 contact seems to be what appeals to a lot of people, but I never used it.

I tried betterhelp.com, no free trial. It was ok - I have mixed feelings on if it met my need or not.

It depends on the therapist you get. If you have the money to give it a one month try don't be afraid to change therapists of the first one is crap. I used talkspace and betterhelps, but preferred betterhelp due to overall therapist quality and also the web based platform was easier for me to use. I went through two therapists before I got one who was good. She checked in 2x per weekday but if we were having a conversation it was more. Sometimes if we had an intense day she'd tell me that I probably wouldn't hear from her the next day or over a long weekend. Her responses were long, specific, and helpful. She knew how to ask the right questions and read between the lines some. She told me enough about herself and allowed enough small talk for me to feel like I knew her. The biggest problem is I ended up MORE attached to her then someone in person because I heard from her almost every day. She became part of my life and for someone with attachment problems that is a scary thing.

I started seeing lots of ads so did a little reading about them. None of it sounded good. Their business model seems to be very predatory: Ts are independent contractors, and TS sets itself up as a "platform" in order to avoid any liability. Yet Ts report being forced to adhere to "scripts" in sessions. Client safety in crisis situations was not handled in ethical ways acc to many Ts who quit after a recent scandal. The pay structure is incentivized to force Ts to keep you renewing your contract, and to "up-grade" clients into using the more expensive video platform. They also have made a priority of developing an international market in order to avoid states legislation that curtails their practices.

I used talkspace from approx Oct 2016 to Feb 2017. For me it was the perfect way to get started with therapy.

I'm a guy and def have the "guy" feature of keeping everything inside and not wanting to talk about it so there was NO WAY, since i had never done any kind of therapy in my life (I'm 57), i was going to sit down face to face with a total stranger and spill my guts. The anonymity of talkspace was, for me, a perfect way to dip my toe into therapy and learn how it works. You are anonymous to your therapist unless you care to tell them more. That aspect gave me the ability to tell her stuff i wouldn't even admit to myself. Yikes!

I got lucky perhaps but my therapist and i "clicked". I requested a female and talkspace assigned me one about my age and within 100 miles of where i live so we could relate on cultural issues like music and tv shows and our physical environment.

I really liked the 24 hour ability to post my thoughts/worries/issues, etc. Because problems don't just come up during the once-a-week 45 minute typical therapy deal. They happen 24/7 (at least for me). I also liked that i could post a link to something like an article on Psych Central or You Tube. And she could post links for me to read too. That's not as easy to do in a in-person face-to-face session.

The downside stuff:
Once my talkspace therapist realized how many problems i had and how much help i needed she strongly encouraged me to see a local therapist in person. So i think chat therapy is only good up to a certain level of crazy or need and i went WAY past that. Not talkspace's fault or my therapists fault. Just the cesspool that is my head.

Because i could bombard my therapist 24/7 ... I DID!!! She couldn't keep up. She was drinking from a fire hose. And the pricing structure of talkspace means a therapist can only spend so much time a week on each patient otherwise they are working for a really low hourly rate. I know mine went WAY above the call of duty as she was helping me on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. I really thanked her for that.

I did some video chats on talkspace after A LOT of chat therapy and they were helpful to me. But the quality of the video call was lousy, which admittedly could have been on my end, so that made the calls frustrating too.

I was OK with the cost but that's just me.

Anything else you want to ask, I'll blabber about it more.

To add on what others have said here if your question is about talkspace directly I personally have had better experiences elsewhere.

The talkspace therapists aren't paid as much and I think it reflects in their work. I've got nothing except generic responses and pats on the back. The intake therapist was inattentive as well. She said she'd give me three therapist choices, but only gave one. I asked if there was only one available and she never got back to me (I gave her 4 days before I selected the one). When I asked to change because that one was terrible it took 7 days and I didn't hear a thing from intake or the old therapist. I got the feeling they didn't care much. On a positive note I was matched within my state there so we had some lifestyle things in common.

I had a good experience with betterhelp. The price is higher but the therapist I got there gave me the equivalent of a one hour session each week, just spread out over the week (or in a live video chat if I wanted, which I never did).

The quality at 7cups seems good too but their website sucks. I'll go into detail about why it sucks if anyone is interested but for comparison sake its the same price or cheaper as talkspace, same quality of betterhelp, but the website is very difficult for me to use.

Thank you all for the feedback! I have a lot to consider but this is excellent

All good 411. I was looking for this type of feedback too. Headed over to betterhelp.com and had a bit of a stickershock. The price they quoted me was $260/4 weeks. Other posts around here mentioned it was like half that cost. Doesn't seem to have any free trial period either.

7cups is cheaper but check your therapists license over there (go to the state they're licensed in and look it up to make sure its active) because I don't think the quality control is as strong.

I was on their site yesterday and saw a price range of $35 (or maybe it was $37.50) to $65 per week. Did you request Video chat? Just curious. Wondering if the info on their site is out of date.

Betterhelp apparently does have a free trial BUT they charge you first for a month and then apparently refund it if you cancel before the week is up. That's what I read anyway.