I Tried Online Therapy at Talkspace for a Month—Here’s How It Went

Talkspace is among the most well-known online therapy platforms today—and that’s partly because it’s one of the first ones to come onto the market (it was founded in 2012). But it’s also heavily advertised:  As an avid podcast listener, I’ve heard many advertisements for Talkspace for years. 

The company’s mission is simple: make therapy more accessible to everyone, regardless of where they live, insurance coverage, and income. While Talkspace does offer traditional telehealth visits with a therapist, it is best known for is its messaging feature. Subscribers have the option to chat back and forth with a therapist, whether it’s through text, video, or audio messages, any time they could use a little support. The messaging is asynchronous, but you will typically hear back from your provider within one business day (oftentimes even less). 

Basically, you have a therapist in your pocket, so if you’re feeling anxious about an upcoming flight, overwhelmed with work, or struggling to find motivation, you can get those feelings out as they arise rather than having to wait until your next therapy session. 

Still, like any good shopper knows, brand familiarity—or even convenience—does not always equal quality. Just because I, like thousands of other Americans, have heard of Talkspace doesn’t mean it’s living up to its promise of delivering quality mental health services to everyone. So I decided to find out whether it was truly living up to its claims by signing up to try one month of therapy at Talkspace. Here’s how that went. 

(And spoiler alert: I actually do think Talkspace is worth trying.)

Signing Up for Talkspace

I signed up for one month of Talkspace’s middle-tier subscription for individual therapy, which includes unlimited back-and-forth messaging with your provider and four 30-minute therapy sessions per month. This is actually one of the pricier plans—costing me $99 per week. I could have paid less had I signed up for the messaging-only plan ($69 per week), or I could have paid more ($109 per week) had I wanted to also have access to Talkspace’s weekly workshops. 

There was an option to pay through insurance—a perk that’s not available on every platform—but I opted for self-pay for the purposes of this review. I was able to take advantage of a promo code that gave me $25 off per week for my first four weeks of therapy, though ($100 off my bill for the month), so my first month’s total came out to $296.

Still, signing up for therapy was pretty easy. I clicked on the type of therapy I was looking for on the homepage (“Individual Therapy”), then went through a series of questions about what I’m experiencing, basic information about myself, my location, therapist preferences, and how I’d like to pay (after this step, I was given a breakdown of pricing). 

I selected my plan, and then filled out a bunch of intake questionnaires before I was matched with a therapist and was able to schedule my appointment. 

On its website, Talkspace advertises that it has thousands of providers across the country. Whether or not that’s true, I have no idea, because I was matched with my therapist; I didn’t get to review options. And during my initial sign-up, I wasn’t asked about my preferences (besides whether I had a gender preference for my provider). 

My hope was to find a therapist with whom I felt comfortable opening up, and who would demonstrate knowledge of and compassion for the specific challenges I’m facing. And fortunately, I ended up with a therapist who was fantastic, so the algorithm definitely worked for me. 

If this match hadn’t worked, though, I would have been able to request to switch, and at that point, Talkspace would have shown me a list of options to choose from. 

How Therapy Sessions Work

Scheduling

Scheduling my first appointment was really easy: there were a lot of morning and afternoon time slots available throughout the week, so I was able to easily find something within a week that fit my schedule. However, my therapist did not have evening or weekend hours, which could be a problem for someone with a less flexible schedule.

One day prior to my session, I received an appointment reminder email, and I received another one 10 minutes before the session. I turned off notifications on my phone settings when I downloaded the app, simply because I get overwhelmed by a lot of alerts and pop-ups, but I imagine reminders are sent through it as well if you enable notifications. 

Virtual Appointments

When my appointment time arrived, I opted to use my computer for the chat rather than my phone. Signing in was quick and easy through the website, and after I clicked “Join Session,” I was given the option to attend with video or audio only. I opted for video, but one-on-one conversations like this can be intimidating, so I definitely see the value in the audio-only option. 

There was a timer visible to me the whole time so that I could anticipate when we were getting to the end of the session. Still, my therapist never made me feel rushed; we actually ended up going a few minutes over the allotted time, and I was happy to see that the video didn’t abruptly shut off once we reached the 30-minute mark. 

The only technical difficulty I experienced was a slight sound issue when I tried to connect while wearing my AirPods. After removing them, the sound still wasn’t working. I had to click out of the session and rejoin without my earbuds connected, and it worked fine. This wasn’t a big deal for me since I had privacy during my call, but I would have been frustrated if my kids were home.

By the end of our appointment, my therapist shared an overview of her availability with me, but never pressured me into scheduling my next appointment on the spot. After our session, I took a look at her calendar and there were a lot of time slots available throughout the week—it seems that a perk to the 30-minute sessions is that therapists have more flexibility with scheduling. 

Asynchronous Messaging

After our first session, my therapist used the messaging feature to send over intake questions to help her get to know me and my struggles a little better. Questions ranged from basic information, like my name and pronouns, to my medical and mental health history, my relationship, and my support system. 

During our appointment, my therapist also assured me that any information I shared through the message portal was secure and private (Talkspace employees aren’t allowed to view it, due to HIPAA laws; only my therapist and I had access), so I felt comfortable answering her questions. 

She was very responsive through messaging, adhered to Talkspace’s promise of a response within one business day five days a week (she was actually quicker than this to respond), and her messages were thoughtful and tailored. Our messages were more basic than therapy-centered, but I think that had more to do with me and my comfort and preferences regarding messaging than her willingness to message back and forth.

Pros & Cons

While I was impressed with Talkspace in general, it does have a few pitfalls. Here are my pros and cons:

Pros

• Serves all 50 states
• Offers individual therapy and psychiatry
• Messaging, phone, and live video options
• Also offers teen and couples counseling

Cons

• Short sessions (only 30 minutes)
• Questionable privacy practices
• Cheapest option is messaging-only
  

Final Thoughts

Overall, I had a really good experience with Talkspace. I was a little skeptical when I was just matched with a provider without being given any other options, but my therapist was a great match for me. She was engaged, answered my questions, validated my feelings, and generally made our session feel like a safe space. 

 Still, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the platform is not without its pitfalls. 

The biggest drawback for me was how short the therapy sessions are. If you’re someone who plans to primarily take advantage of the messaging feature, then the 30-minute sessions might be fine, but I would personally trade the messaging availability for longer therapy sessions. 

In 2022, Talkspace was among several online therapy companies that came under fire from lawmakers due to its privacy practices and third-party advertisers. Because of this, I was very selective about what I shared during my initial intake period before I was matched with my therapist. But once I shared my concerns with my therapist, I was put at ease knowing that anything I told her during our sessions or through our text messages would be secure. 

Still, my overall experience with Talkspace was positive and I felt like I received quality care from my therapist. The primary reason I wouldn’t continue to use the platform is because I prefer traditional talk therapy over messaging. 

I’d also highly recommend Talkspace to someone with anxiety around therapy, because the shorter sessions and messaging feature allow a person to ease into treatment and slowly warm up to it rather than jumping right in.