Leave a Review Headspace Care (Ginger)
Beware of fine print: records WILL not be deleted for 10 years
You don't find that out until the Delete Account page, and I actually read the whole ToS.
Update: I forgot about the terms segment that said "we are not responsible for data leaks that occur when handling your HIPAA." That should be the first guarantee. They worded it like they'd jump right to blaming the customer's internet for leaks you could sue for. Too many weird protections. Sketch.
Update 2: in the terms about Arbitration under the section "No Class Action", did that part mean we can't sue if there is harm serious enough to someone to go national? Why are they worried about class action? Now it has me wondering why. And if I'm understanding the legal wording wrong (a fraction of us are trained in legal writing), how many other people also read it and are feeling similarly?Show lessJay Walkaaa
Great resource
I had my doubts on exactly how worthy this app/program would be of my time. I have multiple projects going on at any given time, and value my time greatly. The support and guidance I have received from Ginger has been life changing, literally. I have spoken to two coaches since I’ve joined Ginger. Both of which were helpful in helping me return to center in times of turmoil, and motivating me to find that extra push to move forward with my dreams. These coaches aid in finding resources with all I desire to accomplish, from business planning to relationship planning. To have a team on this journey with me has been priceless. Stefanie has been my coach for the majority of my time with Ginger. She has me in awe at how quick she is to relay information of all sorts. And her advice has me feeling blessed for our paths to have crossed. She gives me a true since of kinship.Show lessAlpharisen
Good idea, but hit or miss
My insurance covered 90 days with a life coach. I ended up getting more out of books that I found on my own. My coach wasn’t helpful. She just responded with platitudes and then asked how she could help with my goals. Well…setting goals was the problem I needed help with. Meanwhile, I was responding to the check-in quizzes and saying I had moderate depression and thoughts of self harm (although no suicidal thoughts). She never acknowledged this. When I brought it up, she added generic Ginger modules on depression to my account. Again, just superficial platitudes that I could have found in any magazine article on “holiday blues”. For me, Ginger was a good experiment, but not worth the time and definitely not worth additional money.Show lessLiz3024
Almost great
So Ginger really really really needs to function more like a messenger by doing notifications each time you have a new message or previews while you are in other apps. The text function can be glacially slow. I find myself just staring at the screen waiting for a response and the impatience doesn’t help me feel better. Also I wish the merger with Headspace would happen sooner so that the tools from that app would be available with this one. Otherwise the coaches are phenomenal and really help in the moment, although I do feel a little rushed if I haven’t pre-scheduledShow lessCrimsonandgray
Better off finding help that’s not through an app
Everything on the app you can find online. The therapist or counselor (don’t remember her actual credentials) was late at every session and always ended early. I could clearly tell she is not an experienced therapist whatsoever. One session was $145. Really??? And the first session was intake. Some reason the insurance doesn’t cover the cost of the sessions only the coaching on the app I believe. I also had to cancel an appointment and did so like the policy stated within 48 hours in advance and I am still being charged a $125 fee which is a ridiculous high amount for a cancellation fee. It’s sad that America is making money off the health or lack of health from people. I would rather do further research to find a better fit and actually go into a clinic to speak to someone than use this app.Show lessCreatedbyLaLa
Unhelpful, unclear support
Not sure if this is a life coaching app or a therapy app. My insurance (Kaiser) only covers the “emotional support coaching” side of the app and not the therapy video chat, and I expected “emotional support coaching” to be a bit more in depth than what it seems to be. It’s more like life coaching, except the coaches seem to be robots copy and pasting responses and questions. It doesn’t seem like they’re actually personally listening or responding to anything you say, just pasting in canned questions. The support is them asking you questions and sending you links to Ginger articles. Definitely wouldn't pay actual money for this service.
Not to mention I scheduled my initial 30-60 minute intake appointment 5 days in advance only to have my assigned “coach” show up and abruptly/brusquely tell me she didn’t have time for me. Not a great first impression.Show lessdenisemcf7
Ginger coaching app experience
As someone who prefers communicating over text as opposed to talking over the phone (which my other options would have me do in this situation since the pandemic) when I first learned that I could talk with a credited wellness coach over text, I was totally sold on the idea!
I have a sponsored plan (thanks to Kaiser) to cover said coaching via text based chats through the Ginger app, and after having my first session late one night (they have coaches with flexible hours, an added plus) I had a lot of confidence in this approach to have someone help me through my anxiety and depression symptoms at a time and in a way that’s convenient for me.
It’s been a month now since I started weekly sessions with my coach and she’s been super helpful. I connected with her right away and I believe others like me will also have a pleasant experience using this app.Show lessCCT0406
Terrible billing/ administration even for the health care industry.
Billing system is atrocious. They will take over 8 months to bill you for claims and then bill you for every claim for the full year all at once and expect to paid in 2 days. Outrageous and unacceptable.
I switched jobs and had a change of insurance and everything that could go wrong with their system processing the change did. Despite my checking and rechecking and doing everything possible to prevent any mishaps. TWO months into new sessions I now get an email about how ‘they can’t find my new insurance on file.’ I did not want to resume sessions without ensuring everything was covered by current insurance first! I said this repeatedly! This is the worst nightmare scenario! I may now be in the hook for paying out of pocket, when I tried repeatedly to prevent this from happening!!
The ‘care’ team is only average, you might as well just google what you want to ask the coaches, if you like little animations there are better apps for that, and nothing is worth dealing with an administration/ billing team and system that is so disorganized, unclear, unhelpful, and bad at their jobs.Show lessmelindroth
Developer Response
Thank you for providing this feedback. For privacy purposes, we're not able to assist with your specific account here. If you would like to discuss your account details with our support team, please send us a message and we'll be happy to assist.My mental health worsened
I’ve used Ginger for 6 months now, and will never recommend it to anyone. It’s very difficult to schedule a therapy appointment, as their app is glitchy. I have to wait for their member support team to manually schedule my appointments, which they take 1-2 business days for them to reply only 1 time. My therapy appointments have been canceled 2 times. I’ve only had 4, because it takes over a month to get 1 appointment. I find out that my appointment gets canceled after waiting 15 minutes for the therapist to show up. I get no notification that the therapist has canceled. I highly recommend you to find a different alternative to improving your mental health, because dealing with their glitchy app and uncaring support team will only worsen it.Show lessanon282728
Coaches lack personality
I have had this app for almost a month. Out of my three coaches one seemed to show the most support. However others seemed to follow a script. Example I did my check in and had suicidal thoughts on the past two weeks. So it added a new coach who checked in with me. All they did was repeat the same question and the suicide hotline. Then simply asked to close the channel. I would have liked to talk about why I was feeling hopeless and overwhelmed but that didn’t happen. It left me feeling alone and no one to talk with when I needed it the most. It feels like the coaches just follow a script and are more of a robo therapist than an actual therapist. Needless to say this doesn’t help me.Show lessMinitany
