Talkspace to provide 500 months of free therapy to people with low-income

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Talkspace is looking to make the world a slightly better place by providing free therapy to people with low-income.

At the recent conference The Future of Therapy, the company’s CEO Roni Frank pledged to donate 500 months of free mental health therapy a year to people who can’t afford it. The program, called “Therapy for All,” was sponsored entirely by Talkspace with the idea that mental health care should not be a privilege for the rich, but a right of every human being.

Talkspace offers web and mobile apps that connect users with mental health professionals, all while trying to remove much of the friction and stigma associated with seeing a therapist. The service aims to make it easier for users to find the right therapist by relying on data and analysis. This process, powered by IBM’s Watson, uses semantic analysis to gain insights about a user’s personality, thinking style and emotional stress to determine the correct therapist to work with a patient.

Talkspace is focused on text-based communication though it also allows users to upload their audio and video messages. By paying a flat fee per week or per month, users can send as many messages as they wish and receive feedback and guidance in return.

To date, the company has raised $13 million including the $9.5 million Series A round in May 2015.