Talkspace

Talkspace Therapist Review

Open Letter To Talkspace From Your Current Contracted Employees

Therapist (Former Employee) - Philadelphia, PA - August 1, 2020

It is with deep regret and sadness that we must now speak up publicly. We’ve already taken our grievances to you directly, but you offered scripted responses, retaliated by withholding client referrals, or ignored our concerns. We used to love contracting with Talkspace: Morale was high, community was cohesive, and there was a team of highly talented, passionate, and supportive staff that made Talkspace feel like an exciting and rewarding adventure in modern mental health treatment. In June 2019, however, you instituted the “reply by” button on the platform which enabled clients to demand up to three lengthy messages within restrictive time frames, overriding the former agreement we had with you for up to two asynchronous responses per day, depending on our schedules and the clients’ needs, which ensured appropriate boundaries and up to 50 minutes or more of therapy per week (just like face to face therapy). You decided to withhold fees pre-paid by clients for therapy if theses unreasonable deadlines are missed and withhold referrals from therapist who declined to take clients in these new plans. When you announced the addition of this “reply by” feature, therapists by the hundreds to thousands expressed discontent and concerns communally to you in our consultation platform on Slack or in private emails. We explained that your new feature raises issues around poor boundary modeling and distress intolerance for clients and created scheduling conflicts and burnout for clinicians. You refused to listen to us when we told you that this timed response feature is contraindicated -

Pros

work from home

Cons

too many to list but among them extreme low pay, extreme high expectations of therapist, etc

Ratings by category

1.0 out of 5 stars for Work/Life Balance

1.0 out of 5 stars for Compensation/Benefits

1.0 out of 5 stars for Job Security/Advancement

1.0 out of 5 stars for Management

1.0 out of 5 stars for Culture

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Therapist (Current Employee) - Maryland - May 24, 2023

Talkspace was great during the pandemic and provided services to many who otherwise wouldn't have had it. Outside of the pandemic it hasn't been so great. Frequent changes with insurance credentialing has often left clients without service. Changes in bonus structure reduced my pay by thousands. There is no number to call for providers or customers, only email, and a response takes several days or more. It can be good for getting more clients quickly, but pay is low especially for messaging sessions.

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Numerous payment/billing errors with little support

Therapist (Current Employee) - Utah - May 20, 2023

The pay is better than some places but less than others. However, when I started reviewing recent payments with actual sessions, I began noticing small but significant discrepancies to where their system was not paying me correctly. It has been a tedious process to get this corrected and the issue appears to be ongoing. They also provide only minimal support to their therapist providers. Therefore, the pay/compensation is significantly less than advertised.

Pros

Flexible schedule.

Cons

Numerous payment errors and inadequate support to providers in correcting their them.

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Therapists are not AI chat bots.

Therapist (Current Employee) - Remote - May 20, 2023

I just received my first "pay check" as a 1099 therapist. I don't even think my first "pay check" would be minimum wage in my state. Based on the fact there is almost zero support for onboarding, the time it takes a therapist to figure out where to find various tools and resources, and the actual time it takes to provide individualized care and document those interactions, there is NO WAY the pay even approaches minimum wage in my state. The other big issue I've had is there hasn't been a single interaction with a human from the company. They just push you through onboarding videos. Talkspace doesn't seem to offer much in the way of support, but yet they are constantly monitoring you with metrics on timeliness of response and such. They give therapists "motivational" information like "You're rating is at the bottom 30th percentile of providers." The customer rating system constantly prods customers to rate therapy. But customers are over promised constant access to a therapist, of course they're unimpressed when they buy the service! I've had to set boundaries and temper client expectations of what the service is and isn't. Counselors are human persons; we're not AI chat bots. Don't treat us as such, Talkspace!