I haven’t seen a review posted for the app so I figured I’d give my two cents. If you use this app, I do not recommend the chat function at all. The counselor I spoke to was so dry they could’ve been a robot. I was legit telling them I’m having mental health issues due to feeling like I’m not important or ignored and they take minutes to respond and simply suggest to seek a psychiatrist. No “I’m sorry you feel that way” or “that must be hard for you”. I’ve dealt with customer service bots more empathetic than this counselor I had last night. I have been connected with a licensed psychologist and seen them over the course of a semester completely for free, and I think that is the strength of this app. The chat function was genuinely so horrible I’m very glad I didn’t take it too personally and left the chat when I felt like the counselor wasn’t doing anything helpful. I left feedback on the app itself, but this seems to be a continuing issue based on previous reviews. I think some can find help with this, but I repeat, THE CHAT FUNCTION IS GARBAGE. There is no way to tell if you are speaking with a legitimate counselor or not.

I was using this app to have someone to help me with grounding when I needed that. Many folks were helpful. The last one asked me straight away if I am reaching for the same reason. I asked “Why”, and the person said that I should go to a counselor. Well, I didn’t ask to send me elsewhere, just needed some support at the moment, the connection with another live being. I find such approach unethical and in disagreement with the service purpose: isn’t the idea behind it having access to help anytime anywhere? My case didn’t require neither counseling nor observation. However, the person I communicated with was ignorant even to ask how they can actually help me. Don’t recommend to vulnerable folks: they will experience even more pain and frustration than they had prior to the use of live chat. Nice idea, poor implementation (or maybe not right people)

I have put feedback after the so called “chat” session with the representative so to the company who made this app you should be able to find it. I understand for some people this is there job, however, the lack of personality was almost comedic in of itself. I am completely bombarded with information and with that god forsaken question, “What do you think triggered that feeling?”And this company wonders why users don’t like the app. The copying and pasting with no such formatting did make me laugh out loud because it does show how out of touch this company is with people. These poor “single session counselors” have done this over and over again that they have become completely numb to subject matter to almost machine-like capabilities. Quite frankly, I want to see how well ChatGPT does with counseling. Whoever heads the review platform, I challenge you to bring it up to your supervisor or team lead for this app. Don’t even bother responding to this review, I rather see if someone in that corporate ladder actually cares enough to improve the platform you are offering to the hundreds of thousands of students, workers, etc rather than get a “We are sorry you are not satisfied with app. Would you mind going to *insert link here* for feedback?” Honestly, if your response bot does respond to this review, I already know your answer.

The psychologists involved are really good, but there’s a lot of software glitches that become barriers to support. I like the articles though, and I like that the counselors are NOT specifically trained to weed out clients that aren’t “sick enough”1) When you click to start a call/chat, you wait for awhile (5min) to talk to a person who is THEN supposed to connect you to a counselor (if you’re waiting anyways SSP should directly assign you to a counselor after you click the right button)2) The chat interface is very slow and the time stamps for each message takes up too much page space. I would like to see “read recipts” and “typing worms”3) Sometimes getting a phone call is worse than text and it was difficult to get a phone call from SSP at a delicate time at home when I needed to keep it to texting