TalkSpace?

[Windflower]

Has anyone ever tried therapy through TalkSpace?

If my insurance will cover some of it I'm going to give it a go - but I'm curious if anyone else has had any experiences with it.

I'm thinking at a minimum it would be great to have someone to talk to often and in depth without having to carve out time for in person sessions. But I'm also kinda hesitant about whether it will help or not.

[saylor]

I did, and I had a bad experience with it. In my case, though, I think the problem was with the therapist I tried to work with, rather than the platform itself. The only thing I really disliked about the platform was the process for selecting a therapist, which seemed to me to be unnecessarily constraining, and may have contributed to my bad experience because it led me to what turned out to be an inappropriate therapist. I did like being able to just text back and forth, rather than dialogue in real time, as it allowed us both to collect our thoughts between messages, facilitating more efficient communication.

I picked someone who claimed to specialize in PTSD, but this person seemed very ill-equipped to deal with someone suffering from childhood-abuse-related trauma (the platform did not include this as a screening criterion). My interaction with her ended up actually being a somewhat retraumatizing experience for me. If you do decide to pursue this route, I would suggest interviewing the prospective therapists specifically with respect to their knowledge and experience working with folks suffering from CPTSD

Good luck

[Windflower]

Thank you for sharing your honest experience! I'm sorry to hear it wasn't a good one.

As an update I've decided to go ahead with it - and actually one of the "reasons" to choose from for seeking therapy was childhood trauma. Hopefully the therapist I chose is as well equipped to handle that as she says.

I think you're right that a lot would depend on the therapist themself.

[saylor]

Sounds promising. Hope it goes well!

[owl25]

I was starting to consider TalkSpace today myself, and googled them. I came across this article, which doesn't sound all that great:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/07/technology/talkspace.html

If you can't read it, start your browser in incognito mode.

[Windflower]

owl25: Yes I read that article too. I decided to go for it anyway because that was awhile ago and not really indicative of the therapy itself - and this is kinda my only option right now so I went for it.

Update: I think it's going well. I like my therapist she seems to know what she's talking about in regards to trauma. She's having me start a trauma narrative - and if it's as effective as it is extremely painful and difficult, I'm on the right track. The initial screenings and intake questions included questions about trauma, and the bios for the therapists to choose from are very thorough. So that was a plus. I'll keep you posted too early to tell if it's helping or making it worse. Hard for me to tell when I'm right in the middle of a day full of flashbacks after extended time with my family.

[ash2Phoenix]

I'd be curious to hear an update about how Talspace is going now that some time has passed. I can't do zoom therapy and this whole quarantine thing has re-activated A LOT of my past trauma.