In a Nutshell
pros
- Support from qualified professionals
- Share a therapist with your partner
- More convenient than seeing an in-person counselor
cons
- No free trial
- Therapists only respond once or twice per day
Talkspace - CouplesTherapy at a Glance
Affordability
Therapist Network
User Access
Communication Tools
Customer Support
Therapist/Counselor Screening Process
A major advantage of using Talkspace is that you can be sure that the people you speak to will be appropriately qualified therapists. Talkspace therapists hold high-level degrees, like PhDs and LMFT (Licenced Marriage and Family Therapist) certificates from accredited institutions. Couples therapists in this network hold, at minimum, 3,000 hours of clinical experience in the state they wish to work in. What’s more, most Talkspace therapists have additional training in certain areas like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) or Mindfulness.
In your initial consultation, you’ll be asked some straightforward questions by a Talkspace agent. The agent will then identify a therapist who meets your needs, based on your responses and the professional background of Talkspace’s available counselors.
Get Help With:
Through Talkspace, you can access support for any type of issue you and your partner are dealing with, collectively or individually. Common areas of difficulty for couples that Talkspace therapists assist with include health problems, in-law relations, sex, infidelity, parenting, and financial issues.
Because Talkspace therapists are licensed professionals, they are also qualified to assist with things that are normally addressed through one-on-one therapy sessions. For example, addiction or mental health concerns, including stress, depression, and anxiety.
Types of Sessions Available:
Talkspace couples therapy sessions are performed solely over what’s called an “unlimited messaging interface.” Effectively, that means you will interact with your therapist through text, audio, and video messages.
You and your partner can enter a private shared room and send as many messages as you want to your therapist throughout the day. The Talkspace-assigned therapist will log in at a scheduled time to read and respond to these messages. Normally, you’ll hear back twice per day. The big benefit of doing things this way is that you don’t have to wait a week for your next appointment to share something that’s come up.
Unlike other Talkspace therapy styles, no live video chats are available for Talkspace Couples Therapy subscribers. Therefore, you may wish to look elsewhere if that’s how you’d prefer to talk to your therapist.
Pricing & Special Offers
To access Talkspace Couples Therapy, you’ll need to sign up for a monthly or quarterly subscription as there’s no way to purchase a single therapy session. If you pay monthly, the service costs $396 per month.
However, if you feel like you and your partner will require long-term assistance, you can take out a quarterly subscription instead. At $1,068 per quarter, doing things this way will save you $40 every month.
Membership will get you unlimited access to your therapy sessions and the ability to send messages to your therapist whenever you need to. At the time of review, Talkspace is offering a $100 discount to new subscribers. To access it, sign up with the offer code “1004U.”
What’s Unique About Talkspace Couples Therapy?
Talkspace Couples Therapy stands out because the company has a vast network of therapists. This means that you have a good chance of being paired with someone that you and your partner click wth.
Unlike in a standard therapy arrangement, where you get stuck with whoever works at your local therapy center, with Talkspace, a free consultation is used to match you with a trained professional who has a relevant background.
Another unusual feature of Talkspace Couples Therapy is the ability to connect to your Amazon Alexa account. After adding Talkspace as an Alexa skill, you’ll be able to listen to your latest message from your therapist, take assessments, and perform helpful exercises.
What Users Are Saying About Talkspace Couples Therapy
‘Having my partner so involved in discussing what I felt was ‘my issue’ made it a really rounded experience, as our therapist understood it from both perspectives. It also meant that my partner and I were more aware of each other’s needs.’—Claire W.
‘It’s two years later now and the rest is history. I love the help I get with Talkspace. I was given a therapist who is exactly what I needed. Who is respectful, qualified, and best of all, genuine. She is committed to my therapy as much as I am.’—Claire F.
‘I’m so grateful to finally have someone who understands me, who encourages me, and who is there for me.’—Finkel L.
‘Talkspace has been an affordable and readily available way for me to have a resource and guide through the experiences and challenges of living on the road, dating and breakups, family dynamics, professional changes, world events, and all my other victories and traumas, big and small.’—Katherine C.
Scheduling Conversations
The Talkspace Couples Therapy platform revolves exclusively around messages. That means there’s no need to schedule a particular time to talk to your assigned therapist. Instead, you can expect to hear from them once or twice per day, Monday through Friday.
Generally, Talkspace couples therapists send their clients one morning and one evening message, but this varies depending on the specific therapist.
The Talkspace platform also offers a Guaranteed Response Time which means you know approximately when your therapist will get back to you. You can access this feature by hitting a “Reply-By” button in your therapy room. This will tell your therapist that you are expecting a response and display an expected reply time based on their schedule and time zone.
Customer Support
If you have any questions about using the Talkspace platform, you can find answers through the Talkspace help center which is full of detailed explanations. Alternatively, you can send queries to support by email. Unfortunately, phone support isn’t available.
Bottom Line
Talkspace Couples Therapy stands out for several reasons. First off, you can use this service to stay in day-to-day contact with your therapist and bring up issues whenever they crop up. Also, Talkspace can work around your schedule as there’s no need to book appointments at specific times. However, Talkspace Couples Therapy isn’t the perfect tool for everyone as some users won’t feel comfortable using a service that’s so reliant on text-based communication.