Earlier this month, Dr. Kathryn Ambeau logged onto LinkedIn to alert fellow psychologists to a surprising discovery she made about her private data on-line that may additionally have an effect on her colleagues.
An emotional assist platform generally known as 7 Cups had created and posted a profile of her to its web site with out her consent, as if she may be obtainable to supply remedy to the corporate’s customers.
The profile, which used her maiden title Lawing, introduced particulars about her therapeutic method and experience under a button that learn “send message.” However Ambeau had no relationship with 7 Cups and, in reality, had by no means heard of the corporate.
Whereas 7 Cups maintains that its listing is important to serving to individuals seek for psychological well being care, Ambeau, different therapists, and psychological well being consultants say they imagine it misleads customers and falsely associates suppliers with the corporate.
Ambeau supplied Mashable with a duplicate of the unauthorized profile and an outdated profile she’d paid to publish years in the past on a good on-line listing hosted by the trade publication Psychology At present. The 7 Cups profile used language that repeated or was remarkably just like her Psychology At present itemizing.
Screenshot of the unauthorized profile 7 Cups posted for Dr. Kathryn Ambeau (née Lawing).
Credit score: Courtesy Dr. Kathryn Ambeau
“This deceptive practice not only misrepresents me as being affiliated with their service (which I am not), but also violates consumer trust, misleads clients seeking care, and infringes upon my professional reputation and intellectual property,” Ambeau wrote of seven Cups’ listing. Her publish has garnered practically 150 feedback and 400-plus reactions.
It additionally prompted a shocking back-and-forth on LinkedIn between 7 Cups and therapists calling out the corporate for its ways.
In a collection of public posts and feedback that appeared on LinkedIn final week, 7 Cups defended its listing, declined to proactively take away supplier profiles that had been posted with out permission, and admitted that it does not have correct contact data for all listed therapists.
In line with private and non-private complaints from therapists who’ve tried to check their very own unauthorized profiles, 7 Cups additionally seems to subsequently direct potential remedy shoppers to its personal “active listening” companies. This providing just isn’t staffed by licensed psychological well being professionals however reasonably platform volunteers.
The corporate’s CEO, Glen Moriarty, declined to remark in regards to the matter to Mashable and didn’t reply to particular questions on how and when the listing was created.
In a LinkedIn publish addressing the controversy, 7 Cups argued that its “local support” useful resource information, which incorporates space therapists in addition to assist organizations like meals pantries and shelters, “cost us quite a bit to build.”
“The therapists that are frustrated want us to delete all therapists,” 7 Cups wrote of the complaints it had obtained over the listing. “We disagree because we think we should be able to have therapists in the local support section.”
The general public debate between suppliers and seven Cups could seem to be a contretemps to outsiders, however consultants say it is an egregious instance of a wider drawback in psychological well being: the so-called ghost community.
“It’s a big barrier for people to get the help they need.”
Such on-line directories, usually created by insurers, comprise outdated listings of psychological well being suppliers who usually now not settle for insurance coverage, or do not even follow anymore.
However customers do not know that. As a substitute, they go from itemizing to itemizing, emailing or calling therapists who seem to be match, solely to cross them off the checklist — in the event that they ever hear again from the supplier in any respect.
“It’s a big barrier for people to get the help they need,” says Laura W. Groshong, director of coverage and follow for the Medical Social Work Affiliation (CSWA). It is common, she provides, for individuals to “give up” after they encounter a ghost community.
The issue with ghost networks
Insurers usually compile listings as a service to plan members. With a purpose to take part, suppliers should opt-in.
But when insurers do not frequently replace their listings to take away suppliers who’ve since stopped accepting new sufferers or insurance coverage, or who now not follow, or immediate suppliers to vary their availability, a ghost community of dead-end listings takes form.
A 2024 survey of therapists performed by the American Psychological Affiliation discovered that 53 p.c of respondents did not have openings for brand new sufferers and a 3rd did not settle for insurance coverage.
The issue of ghost networks drew renewed Congressional consideration in early 2023 when three U.S. senators challenged main insurers, together with United Healthcare and Aetna, to elucidate how they had been addressing ghost networks, as required by federal legislation.
Psychological well being suppliers might also select to belong to publicly obtainable directories for a price. Therapists, for instance, regularly submit their profile to Psychology At present, and people listings usually present up excessive in on-line search outcomes.
On the whole, Groshong says that the majority supplier registries require some sort of state oversight to make sure that professionals are certainly licensed.
“Our licenses are valuable,” Groshong, who’s a licensed unbiased medical social employee, says. “If a company can claim that they have some connection to us, then that gives them a kind of validity, but it is without our permission.”
‘Extremely misleading’ ways
What makes 7 Cups’ listing uncommon is that a variety of therapists listed by no means consented to their inclusion. Some imagine their profile was constructed with repurposed content material from their Psychology At present itemizing.
One estimate produced on LinkedIn by a software program engineer working within the digital psychological well being house discovered greater than 130,000 therapists’ names in 7 Cups’ listing. Solely 67 of these appeared to have a “verified” itemizing by 7 Cups.
The corporate permits listees to “claim” their profile for a $30 month-to-month price, with a view to acquire referrals from potential shoppers, a proposal that Ambeau says felt like “extortion.” Whereas 7 Cups invitations therapists to formally be part of the platform through a single button, it requires therapists who need their data eliminated to undergo a multi-step course of.
Mashable Prime Tales
Beneath every therapist’s title, 7 Cups has positioned a “send message” button. Groshong says this presentation provides customers the impression that they will be contacting the therapist listed.
But in a current remark posted by 7 Cups on LinkedIn, in response to psychological well being suppliers offended in regards to the listing, the corporate admits that it doesn’t have verified contact data for every therapist. As a substitute, it makes use of a “service” to search out the supplier’s e-mail with a view to ship them referrals.
In more durable circumstances, 7 Cups says there are methods of “triangulating the data” to substantiate somebody’s identification. 7 Cups did not elaborate on what sort of knowledge it makes use of to confirm contact data for a person it believes to be a therapist listed in its listing.
If the corporate cannot efficiently match an e-mail to a possible supplier, it would ship a check message to the e-mail tackle it is obtained, with the hope of receiving an affirmative response. That technique raised issues amongst therapists on LinkedIn that such outreach might violate a potential consumer’s privateness. If all else fails, 7 Cups says it informs the potential consumer that it may well’t discover the therapist.
Every profile does embrace a disclaimer properly under the “send message” button noting that the therapist just isn’t employed by the corporate.
“Only therapists that have claimed their listing with 7 Cups can be contacted directly through the platform,” the disclaimer reads. “All other therapists are listed as a resource for visitors.” This appears to contradict 7 Cups’ public feedback that it makes an attempt to ship referrals to therapists who have not claimed their profile.
Groshong says the listings function as a bait-and-switch, and that a few of 7 Cups’ actions could run afoul of federal legislation.
Groshong has heard from CSWA members who’ve examined their very own unauthorized profile to see what 7 Cups sends in response. These people obtained an acknowledgment of their inquiry however had been prompted to pay for one among 7 Cups’ tiered premium memberships. That price contains upgraded options on the corporate’s free emotional assist platform.
They had been additionally instructed that whereas they waited for a response from the psychological well being supplier, they might strive chatting as a substitute with a “listener.” These people, whose identities aren’t vetted, aren’t credentialed psychological well being professionals.
Final yr, Mashable’s intensive investigative reporting on 7 Cups discovered severe points with predatory, abusive, and trolling conduct inside its neighborhood of listeners and members.
“It takes less than 2 minutes to connect with someone who can help,” learn the immediate about 7 Cups’ listeners, despatched to a therapist who examined their profile.
Up to now, a handful of testers who’ve introduced their circumstances to CSWA or posted publicly on LinkedIn say they haven’t obtained the referrals 7 Cups claims it might ship.
The firm replied to a associated thread on LinkedIn explaining that the inflow of elimination requests from therapists upset about their profiles delayed its capacity to ahead referrals.
Groshong calls 7 Cups’ listing ways “incredibly deceptive.” She believes that customers will assume that the therapists listed are freely related to 7 Cups, and a part of the corporate’s community of suppliers.
Then they’re directed towards “listeners” who haven’t got licenses to follow psychological well being remedy, which Groshong worries could also be deeply complicated — and probably dangerous — to customers.
Therapists, who really feel their fame and enterprise are at stake, might also pay a steep worth on account of being included in 7 Cups’ listing, Groshong says.
A failed mannequin
Regardless of stress on insurers to forestall their directories from turning into ghost networks, not less than one different non-public firm in addition to 7 Cups has used publicly obtainable psychological well being supplier knowledge and created a listing with it.
In 2022, the web remedy firm CareDash created unauthorized profiles utilizing data from a government-maintained nationwide database of licensed suppliers. When customers in search of a therapist clicked on “check availability” for a particular supplier, they obtained a message that the supplier “has not provided a way to schedule online through CareDash.”
They had been then redirected to totally different suppliers, together with some training on BetterHelp.com, which apparently paid a fee to CareDash for referrals. Upon discovering CareDash’s use of their title and data, affected licensed psychological well being suppliers raised alarms in regards to the enterprise follow.
In 2022, the American Psychological Affiliation (APA) despatched a stop and desist letter to CareDash on account of member complaints. CareDash subsequently shuttered its web site and discontinued its enterprise. The APA argued that CareDash’s listing constituted false endorsement and false promoting, in violation of federal legislation.
Dr. Marnie Shanbhag, senior director for the APA’s workplace of unbiased follow, instructed Mashable that directories created with out suppliers’ consent and participation mislead customers.
“There’s a perception of availability and depth that is not backed up by reality.”
“There’s a perception of availability and depth that is not backed up by reality,” Shanbhag says.
Whereas she declined to remark particularly on 7 Cups’ listing, she agreed that promoting emotional or peer listening companies to somebody who made an inquiry for skilled remedy would possibly give customers the misunderstanding that these issues are “equivalent.”
On the whole, Shanbhag says she hopes firms within the digital psychological well being house that need to create directories would act ethically, with sensitivity, and “most especially” with suppliers’ consent with a view to serve customers properly.
“You’re talking about the mental health of people, and you’re talking about incredibly vulnerable people,” she says.
Getting off 7 Cups’ listing
Mashable interviewed three therapists who efficiently eliminated their profiles from 7 Cups after interesting to the corporate. In addition they contacted state and federal regulators. None of them had ever obtained a referral from 7 Cups.
Sarah Meharg, a licensed medical social employee primarily based in Washington, D.C., believes 7 Cups used her Psychology At present itemizing to create its personal profile.
She not solely contacted 7 Cups immediately but additionally filed a grievance to the Workplace of the D.C. Lawyer Normal in November 2024, which resulted in her profile’s elimination from the web site. In 2022, she equally petitioned CareDash to take away the profile they created of her.
One other supplier, Lisa Taylor-Austin, says she submitted a elimination request to 7 Cups in November 2024, then adopted up with a cease-and-desist letter after it remained on-line. As well as, she reported the corporate to the Federal Commerce Fee and the legal professional basic’s workplace in Connecticut the place she practices. In late March, she printed a YouTube video warning potential shoppers in regards to the listing, which has since been considered greater than 8,000 occasions.
Kathryn Ambeau says it took practically 72 hours for 7 Cups to take away her profile. She additionally reported the corporate to state and federal officers.
Ambeau says she was incensed to find that she’d unwillingly develop into part of a ghost community that will have deceived customers into believing she was obtainable to deal with them.
“It’s grossly unethical,” she says.
The CSWA has supplied steerage to members who need their profiles taken down. Groshong says the group additionally plans to ship a letter to 7 Cups’ authorized representatives demanding that the corporate stop utilizing their members’ data with out permission.
Groshong says ideally, 7 Cups will clarify to customers the distinction between its personal listeners and licensed psychological well being professionals and never refer potential shoppers to suppliers they did not intend to contact, or to the platform’s personal companies.
“What [7 Cups] should be doing is sending a letter to anyone that they want to include in their system and give them a chance to say yes or no,” Groshong says. “If they say no, then just don’t use their name.”
Whereas these in search of a therapist could discover numerous listings through an internet search, belief within the outcomes is vital, as the talk over 7 Cups’ listing demonstrates.
An insurance coverage listing of lined therapists can actually be useful when it is well-maintained. The APA additionally suggests these trying to find a licensed psychological well being supplier request a referral from a main care physician or ask somebody they belief, like buddies or members of the family, for a advice.
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