The site desciption on the main page is not entirely true
I read on the main page of 7Cupsoftea and it wrote (under the photo):
"Need Help? Learn More About Online Counseling
We connect you with a compassionate, trained active listener through our secure network. You also have the option of anonymous chat with a therapist for online therapy or free counseling online. Whether you want to chat about life, love, stress or just talk about your problems, we have an active listener or online counselor for you to vent to via anonymous chat.
7 Cups of Tea respects your privacy. Our bridging technology lets you connect one-on-one to a listener while remaining completely anonymous.
Need someone to talk to? Take a look at our community of listeners and online therapists and find the right someone for you to talk to about your problems."
All the paragraphs mentioned these I am only gonna quote the first one, the words therapists and counselor are mentioned which are not true. Here there are only Listeners whom volunteered to help by practicing active listening without giving advices and don't have professional psychological certificates, the professionals who wants to mentioned their proficiency could do so in their profile.
So to dismiss the confusions and no one has the wrong idea. I suggest 7Cupsoftea edit this and specifically take down the words therapists and counselor.
Good noticing that! That is a big error on their part for misleading people
I think the site evolved in a different way from its original vision. If you read the legalize for listeners there's all kinds of wording about obtaining payment, representing their credentials, etc. that suggests they had in mind that the site could be a channel for online professional counseling (and that's still echoed in the language about being "professional" at all times). I agree that they should update these sorts of things to be more faithful to the reality of the site.
Yes @squib,
I am aware that it seems at one point 7Cups was a paying service. (Although I don't know back then were there certificated listeners, therapists or counselors.) I agree with you that it may be true once, but it isn't applicable anymore so taking these down would make sense.
Hi @Seaway thank you for noticing and deciding to shareabout it here. This issue has been actually raised a couple of times, together with the fact that our Terms of Service (find links in website footer)needs to be updated, but it seems that there are some reasons why these things haven't already been changed.
I remember that someone explained that it could have to do with obsolete way of undersanding of how search engines work, paired with urge to grow website and reach as many people who are in need of (professional?) help, but there might also be some other reasons, for example, the fact that making these changesis not among priorities or perhapsthey do plan to make this website a place for free online counseling some day in future and do no not want to make these changes twice?This info about the website offering free online counseling and/or pshychotherapyis also a bit conflicting with some sentences in Listener ToS, for example:
"If you are a physician, mental health professional or other medical listener, you will not engage in the practice of medicine or enter into a physician/patient relationship with any member through 7cups.com[...]"
Also, there are some counselors on the websitealready but as far as I know, none of them has been verified (i.e. anyone can write that they are licenced professional on their profile and no one will check whether this is true).
I'd like to tag @Laura @Heather and @GlenM here since they might be able to give explanation and answer some of importantquestions that are raised in this thread.
Thank you @maku for the answer and tags.
Thank you for bringing this up!
@Aura47, thank you.
and what aboutthe title of the page and the description ? It's what it shows on the search engine and when we share the site on social medias....
Title of the page: Someone To Talk To, Online Therapy, Free Counseling - 7 Cups
the description: Need someone to talk to or just need to vent about problems? 7 Cups of Tea connects you with free active listeners, online counseling, and online therapy if you need help. Speak anonymously with a trained, compassionate person when you need to talk to someone or vent to via anonymous chat.
That too, @modestMoon7954. It is misleading.
I think in a sense the listener are 'trained' since we need to undergo some training&certification by reading the guidesprovided by 7cups and sometimes you will be tested or taking test to verify your credibility. But I do agree at one point that calling the volunteers 'professional' would be too much as it makes member/guest expect more than they should, which is not only burdening the listener but also make member/guest frustrated in a way. But yep, I think some revision needs to be done with the wording :D
guides are made to help people/members to deal with a specific issue, and not to help the listeners in their role. and they can select random answers to get the training "completed".
a real training in active listening is over 20 hours, and is not selecting random answers... and there is a lot of misinformation in the guides, for having read them...the information in them is not always true and accurate.
I agree on both that some listener are just completing the guide for the sake of completing and not understanding the guides.Sometimes the listener are even not bothered in reading and completing the training after all. And as for the misguided information in the guides itself, I think it's also needed to be adressed to the website administrator after all(since I'm a volunteer myself, although at times I find the guide quite unusual. I think I'm not in a place to challenge it, because I thinkthey useprofessional in constructing the guides after all)
That's why I agree that some revision indeed need to be done on describing the listener :D
@Minyaa, as a member of the community, I do believe we all have the right to speak up about our opinions. You can either write about it in the forum or send it to community@7cups.com.
Although I have to admit my mild frustration about how this issue haven't been tackled for more than a month now. I've read a post by a listener mentioning members expectations could be a little too high while 7Cups is a volunteered based community and not a professional counseling or therapy site.
Thank you for your input.
I totally agree. When I found 7 cups, I was in awe: free online counselling with trained volunteers. Wow. I was going through a bit of difficult time and decide to connect to an online listener rather than browsing. Imagine my shock when I connected and my listener outright ignored me (and to this day hasn't got back to me...). Turns out the listener had only just become a listener. So I browsed listeners instead. And yes, I liked the ones with the most badges- they must obviously be very knowledge having all those awards and have done lots of training! As a listener I now know how easy it is to get those badges and don't think I am verytrained. But someone who is in a vulnerable place wanting to talk doesn't know that. I wonder what would happen if the badges were hidden so that only the individual listener could see them....
I think if the site was aiming at just wanting to vent or rant about a bad day etc., it would do well. But advertising the site as offering 'counselling' and 'therapy' with 'trained' volunteers when there isn't much training in complex areas such as trauma, even though you can get a badge for it, it becomes dangerous.
Hey, great idea! You can submit a ticket at the bottom ofthis page and suggest that change! :)
@Laura @Heather @GlenM
Thank you for the tag, @Gracey.