The platform is setup to reward those clients who may have personality disorders and a sense of entitlement and have difficulty with not getting instant gratification and sets the therapist to get easily burned out with poor compensation For the amount of time spent one each client

Pros

Flexibility

Cons

Poor pay, ethical issues

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Soul sucking and exhausting, with good co-workers.

Network Clinician (Former Employee) - Remote - December 8, 2021

The pay seems "good" for our industry (which we all know we are still chronically underpaid), but not at the cost of how much you will be working and how stressed your nervous system will feel at all times. They do offer a generous time off package (again, comparatively), but with the amount that you'll be working, you'd need a week off a month to feel okay. Your caseload is expected to be higher than 60, and factor in session planning, meetings you have to go to, and notes/paperwork - you do the math. They will continue to load your caseload even when you tell them you physically and mentally can't do it, and it will lead you to feel resentment with every new client that you get, already impacting that therapeutic relationship. Co-workers are great, but upper management is all about the phony "we don't do this for the money" culture in order to help the higher ups keep cashing in at the expense of worn out and well meaning therapists. Don't do this to yourself, and don't do this to the field, you're better off working for a private practice group if you want more freedom and flexibility and money with way less stress.

Pros

PTO is higher than I've seen in clinical mental health, and the W-2 positions come with benefits. Met some really great therapist co-workers, who also all ended up leaving.

Cons

They preach work/life balance but continue to overload you with work, I got so stressed that I would wake up in the middle of the night with stomach aches, dreading the week ahead of me, Mixed messages about turning your availability off, no regard for clients and what's truly best for their experience

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Unfair pay structure

Therapist (Former Employee) - Grand Rapids, MI - November 16, 2021

You are better off just doing private practice virtual sessions on you own. They take the majority of what the clients pay and pocket it. If you don't meet arbitrary engagement requirements yoi get paid next to nothing. However clients still pay the same amounts. Sometimes they can ask for a small discount if you don't meet the response times when they are engaged. However you get penalized for clients that choose not to engage and just pop on when they want to talk. They literally pay you by word count chats. And like 20 bucks for live sessions. When there are platform glitches that affect you ability to provide a live session that was schedule, they don't provide assistance or alternatives in real time. You have to fumble and figure out something on your own with a upset client and even then you might not get paid if the system charges the client for the glitcjed session and then you provide a free session to make up for it. They will say you weren't supposed to provide the free session even though the client would have been charge 2x if you had done otherwise... I wasted more money in the last year providing services on this platform than making anything.

Pros

Great resource library

Cons

Pay structure sucks

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Can’t beat the culture

Recruiter (Former Employee) - New York, NY - November 1, 2021

The culture at Talkspace is the most admirable aspect of the company. The care the company puts towards employees in the form of events and perks creates a positive and productive environment

Pros

Social events, Culture

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Horrible pay

Therapist (Current Employee) - Chicago, IL - July 8, 2021

Horrible pay! Very little support. Clients can rate you negatively if you are not a good match even after one meeting. The expectation to always reply in a timely matter is ridiculous, you are literally working for free and more than what you need to. I think the rating system is unfair.

Pros

Work from home

Cons

Pay and an unfair rating system.

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Would you recommend working at your company?

Help people considering your employer make a good choice.

Great Work Environment

Intern (Current Employee) - Remote - July 6, 2021

Everyone at Talkspace really wants you to succeed. There is a large team of support, and they help you do your best work. Flexible and considerate. Great company.

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Little to no pay for your work

Therapist (Former Employee) - online - July 3, 2021

The company seems driven by profit, not by client care. The pay scale has been adjusted several times while I have been employed and each time it was to reduce therapist pay. they are not transparent about the pay and there is a culture of retribution for speaking out. There was suspicion that management was joining a therapists facebook group to report back what was reported. When I began with TS there was a slack channel that therapists could communicate with each other but when the pay changes began the slack channel was ended. I suspect that it was a deliberate move to prevent therapists from communicating and banding together to speak out. It is sad to know that this is supposedly run by therapists yet they treat therapists so badly. When I made the choice to leave I was not alone, there was a large exodus of therapists who decided they would rather not work than work for nearly free. The way that they treat therapists is toxic.

Pros

Some flexibility

Cons

Pay

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Talkspace is convenient but not great

Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (Current Employee) - Massachusetts - May 18, 2021

Very easy and convenient but not compensated for experience level. Not much oversight which can be good but also leaves you to your own devices most of the time.

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Not the best place

Counselor (Former Employee) - Richmond, VA - April 21, 2021

The pay is well below the average. They pay less that 1cent per word to you send to the client. You do have some freedom but are required to respond within a certain amount of time.

Pros

some freedom

Cons

poor pay

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Not a positive place to work

Therapist/Counselor (Former Employee) - Remote - April 16, 2021

The expectations are unrealistic. The "Reply By" means a therapist is basically on-call for 8-10 hours per day to respond to clients who hit the button up to three times a day. When I averaged out how many hours I was working each day with what I was making, I realized my housekeeper makes more than I do. There is no guidance and despite being assigned a "mentor" there was limited contact and basically no support. I had clients who left lengthy messages (voice or written) several times a day, far exceeding the 45-50 minutes of time spend with a client each week.

Pros

Flexible work schedule

Cons

No support, poor pay.

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Jobs at Talkspace

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Recruiting Coordinator Intern

Junior Accounting Associate

New York State

30+ days ago

Operations Support Manager

High Caseload & Poor IT Support

Network Clinician (Former Employee) - Remote - April 16, 2021

Therapist caseloads are crazy high. Tech support only by email and takes days to get a reply. Daily tech issues on the platform. Otherwise, good clinicians and managers are supportive on clinical side. It’s a problem at the top levels of the company that create an unbearable work environment.

Pros

Mid-level management

Cons

Telehealth company shouldn’t have such severe platform issues. Lawsuit waiting to happen.

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High Demands-Very Low Pay

Mental Health Counselor (Current Employee) - Florida - April 8, 2021

DO NOT WORK AT TALKSPACE! They over charge the client and find numerous way to take away money from their therapists. No access to the Clinical Management Team as they refuse to respond to emails. No phone access to anyone in the company. After putting up with this “Mean Girls” attitude for three years I’m am going to work for Better Help.

Pros

Flexible

Cons

No support from management or supervisors.

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Unsupportive, unhelpful, and poor compensation

Mental Health Therapist (Current Employee) - Seattle, WA - April 3, 2021

I reached out to Talkspace support on a variety of issues - from being sent clients even when my availability was turned off to poor client experiences. Their response was a "canned" one, that even when I asked it to be escalated was met with a similar "canned" response. There is a rating system that you as a therapist receive. However it is unclear if the client's rating is about you, their experience with Talkspace (previous therapists, working with support). Clients are also unaware of their plan's features (it's confusing even to me) and may expect video but only get messaging. It's unfortunate because this hostility at the process gets directed towards you as a therapist.

Pros

None

Cons

Compensation, support, platform

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Using algorithm for therapy

Independent Contractor (Former Employee) - Telehealth - February 16, 2021

In line with current trends for online therapy, talk space shifted to a word count based pay scale, which takes the art out of what we do. In addition we are independent contractors yet we are subject to ridiculous rules and do not get the opportunity to transfer or terminate our clients without penalty

Pros

Self employed

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Work your own hours

Therapist (Current Employee) - Online - February 9, 2021

The biggest pro to being a Talkspace therapist is the ability to set your own hours. The compensation is pretty low compared to having your own private practice, but they do all billing, marketing, advertising, etc. plus you do not have to have anything other than an iPhone and wifi though a desktop or laptop computer helps. Basically they take the sales and business part of being in private practice which makes it all worth it to me-- I can truly focus on my clients' progress. I recommend this as a side hustle but not a full-time gig. Do not pursue this opportunity unless you are tech-savvy and willing to figure out policies and procedures on your own without a lot of quickly accessible help.

Pros

Work your own hours, easily gain clients

Cons

Policies change regularly, pay not amazing

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Completely on your own.

Independent Contractor (Current Employee) - Tennessee - January 30, 2021

I started working here in June to help during the pandemic. You will put in plenty of unpaid time applying, training and learning the platform. Scarily, the only way to get any support is by email. I have literally gone FIVE weeks (client already gone by then) before getting replies to my urgent emails. You are not assigned a contact person, supervisor or manager. The last month or two the email replies have been much prompter and TS has made improvements on helping therapists save time by doing some of the paperwork for us automatically. Pay is dismal and disheartening for someone with over 10 years of clinical experience.

Pros

flexibility

Cons

pay

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Hard Work, bad pay

Therapist (Current Employee) - New York, NY - January 24, 2021

require to work long hours. pay is low. but overall the job is okay.would not recommend if you have other alternatives. I would recommend for beginners

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Working constantly for low pay

Therapist (Former Employee) - United States - December 25, 2020

You have deadlines to respond and this keeps you responding even after your set work hours. You will receive clients from outside your state, even if you shouldn’t. It can be a toxic environment for clients since they can message you whenever they want to. You don’t have to respond if you’re not working but this can lead to comments on self harm or worse making it hard and an ethical conundrum to not reply.

Pros

Remote work

Cons

Low pay, ethical issues, not a healthy setting for clients

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Flexible side gig but ethical concerns

Therapist (Current Employee) - Remote - December 4, 2020

Great for extra money (though not enough for full time, in most cases). Enjoy helping the clients but many have unrealistic expectations, in part due to unreasonable response time requirements. This model of therapy does tend to foster a desire for instant gratification and clients may be quick to criticize it not “fixed” immediately. I have ethical concerns related to acuity of illness and handling clients with suicidal ideation, as well. Clients can choose to share very little about who they are and many don’t engage in video sessions, making it difficult to really build rapport.

Pros

Flexible, user friendly platform, good video quality in sessions

Cons

Lower pay, ethical concerns

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Zero support

Therapist/Counselor (Current Employee) - Nowhere, OK - December 2, 2020

Fairly newer provider. We're assigned a peer mentor, while some may be good, mine is useless and answers all questions by referring you back to the provider see manual and doesn't actually answer any of your questions. There is little support with a high demand to respond to clients within a specific timeframe because the platform " guarantees" response times. You'd never actually know it was guranteed or what plans are available and what they include unless you create a dummy account and pretend that you want to sign up for services.

Pros

Work on days you choose

Cons

Poor support

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Overworked and underpaid

Therapist (Former Employee) - Usa - December 2, 2020

I began with Talkspace this year and plan to finish out December and move on. The pay structure is a nightmare with very little logic or consistency. Clients/employers pay a lot, therapists get very little. So where does all of that money go? The platform offers clients little to no support on the business end and clients will wait weeks for a response regarding their accounts or other questions. Clients end up feeling as if they should be getting more and therapists feel overworked and unable to keep up with demands.