Talkspace: Virtual Therapy App 12+

A few critical issues

I will start by saying that I have been with my therapist and talkspace for years now but there are a number of issues: the biggest one being, insurance being out of network but there’s no notification of that. I just recently discovered that my insurance is OON and I had no idea until Talkspace requested payments and i checked my insurance portal. This is a HUGE deal when it comes to treatment. I, myself work in healthcare as a utilization reviewer that works to get prior authorizations so I know the urgency of ensuring not only are patients covered but that it’s communicated when they are not. When you’re doing messaging sessions weekly which are being billed for and you don’t know that they’re not covered then that only increases the need for therapy…. An alert notification in app would help to notify patients when their benefit information has changed or a phone call.

Next, the glitches are pretty annoying. Having to restart the app essentially when it freezes and now with upgrading to a new phone it does not want to open with my FaceId then it just keeps trying to open itself and I have to swipe out of it, move my face away, and enter my passcode instead. I’ll have to see if I can turn off the FaceID to just use my passcode.

I love my therapist and don’t intend to leave her but this insurance issue is a big issue for me.

Developer Response ,

Hi there, I am happy to hear that you love your provider and have been with Talkspace for years. I do apologize for any misunderstanding regarding your insurance and billing. I appreciate you taking the time to provide such valuable feedback as we continue to improve our user experience.

Extremely disappointed

I was initially matched with a therapist that specialized in a subject that I had no issues with nor did I specify I had issues with. I had to accept in order to try to change therapists, only one of which was female (which is what I wanted) so I had to accept that.. but I felt like I wished I had more choices to pick from. My therapist was nice. Very generic though, and didn’t know how to use the platform. Promised to email me something and never did. Red flags raised when she cancelled our second appointment together but we rescheduled in the same week. I really wanted routine and continuity… and I didn’t want to switch providers at this point after already going through a really tough first appointment. So I stuck with the same provider. Fast forward, she cancelled our 4th appointment, rescheduled it for two days later, then I waited on video and she never showed up and didn’t message til the next day with a pretty tepid sorry. I called (to no avail) and emailed Talkspace to share this and show my disappointment and yes I got a refund, but no apology for being treated as unimportant or uncared for. Talkspace was my therapist’s side gig so clearly not as important as her full time job which is fine if that’s ok with you. But it took its toll on me. Will not continue. To add insult to injury, the app is not very user friendly.

Developer Response ,

Hi there, thank you for taking the time to write this review. We are so sorry to hear that you had a frustrating experience with your therapist and the platform. Your feedback is immensely valuable as we continue to grow and learn as a company. What you described is something we take very seriously - we would love to see what we can do to help. Please send us an email at Feedback@Talkspace.com. We look forward to helping you.

Nightmare and Robbery. AVOID.

What an absolute nightmare. I can’t recommend this service less. When you pay for therapy here, you get “credits” for sessions (45 minutes by the way) and these credits EXPIRE. So you can liable to pay for therapy and then LOSE ACCESS TO THERAPY YOU PAID FOR. This is exactly what happened to me. They took a month to get me a therapist, but told me I could change easily to a new one if I didn’t like mine. By the time I had my first session, all of my 3 other credits for the month were set to expire in a week. So I had no option but to schedule them with this therapist who I didn’t like or else I’d lose the sessions I paid for. This therapist showed up late to multiple of my sessions, and took a nearly 10 minute phone call during one of our short 45 minutes of therapy. By the time that happened, I tried to change therapists and talkspace said they’d get me a new therapist soon. It’s been over a month and a half and I’ve heard nothing. In that time, 3 of my credits expired so I’m out hundreds of dollars of money that has been essentially stolen from me from this absolutely garbage company. You should be ashamed of yourselves for running such a shady company that is allegedly trying to help people but is really just extorting them and not offering the service you promised (being able to actually get a new therapist if you don’t like them). I’d give negative stars if I could.