Earlier this month, Dr. Kathryn Ambeau logged onto LinkedIn to alert fellow psychologists to a shocking discovery she made about her personal information online that might also affect her colleagues.
An emotional support platform known as 7 Cups had created and posted a profile of her to its website without her consent, as if she might be available to provide therapy to the company’s users.
The profile, which used her maiden name Lawing, presented details about her therapeutic approach and expertise below a button that read “send message.” But Ambeau had no relationship with 7 Cups and, in fact, had never heard of the company.
While 7 Cups maintains that its directory is vital to helping people search for mental health care, Ambeau, other therapists, and mental health experts say they believe it misleads consumers and falsely affiliates providers with the company.
Ambeau provided Mashable with a copy of the unauthorized profile and an outdated profile she’d paid to post years ago on a reputable online directory hosted by the industry publication Psychology Today. The 7 Cups profile used language that repeated or was remarkably similar to her Psychology Today listing.
Credit: 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 7 Cups’ directory. Her post has garnered nearly 150 comments and 400-plus reactions.
It also prompted a surprising back-and-forth on LinkedIn between 7 Cups and therapists calling out the company for its tactics.
In a series of public posts and comments that appeared on LinkedIn last week, 7 Cups defended its directory, declined to proactively remove provider profiles that were posted without permission, and admitted that it doesn’t have accurate contact information for all listed therapists.
Emotional support platform 7 Cups beset by trolls
According to public and private complaints from therapists who’ve attempted to test their own unauthorized profiles, 7 Cups also appears to subsequently direct prospective therapy clients to its own “active listening” services. This offering is not staffed by licensed mental health professionals but rather platform volunteers.
The company’s CEO, Glen Moriarty, declined to comment about the matter to Mashable and did not respond to specific questions about how and when the directory was created.
In a LinkedIn post addressing the controversy, 7 Cups argued that its “local support” resource guide, which includes area therapists as well as support organizations like food 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 received over the directory. “We disagree because we think we should be able to have therapists in the local support section.”
The public debate between providers and 7 Cups may seem like a contretemps to outsiders, but experts say it’s an egregious example of a much broader problem in mental health: the so-called ghost network.
“It’s a big barrier for people to get the help they need.”
Such online directories, often created by insurers, contain outdated listings of mental health providers who typically no longer accept insurance, or don’t even practice anymore.
But consumers don’t know that. Instead, they go from listing to listing, emailing or calling therapists who seem like a good match, only to cross them off the list — if they ever hear back from the provider at all.
“It’s a big barrier for people to get the help they need,” says Laura W. Groshong, director of policy and practice for the Clinical Social Work Association (CSWA). It’s common, she adds, for people to “give up” after they encounter a ghost network.
The problem with ghost networks
Insurers typically compile listings as a service to plan members. In order to participate, providers must opt-in.
But if insurers don’t regularly update their listings to remove providers who’ve since stopped accepting new patients or insurance, or who no longer practice, or prompt providers to change their availability, a ghost network of dead-end listings takes shape.
A 2024 survey of therapists conducted by the American Psychological Association found that 53 percent of respondents didn’t have openings for new patients and a third didn’t accept insurance.
The problem of ghost networks drew renewed Congressional attention in early 2023 when three U.S. senators challenged major insurers, including United Healthcare and Aetna, to explain how they were addressing ghost networks, as required by federal law.
Mental health providers may also choose to belong to publicly available directories for a fee. Therapists, for example, frequently submit their profile to Psychology Today, and those listings often show up high in online search results.
In general, Groshong says that most provider registries require some kind of state oversight to ensure that professionals are indeed licensed.
“Our licenses are valuable,” Groshong, who is a licensed independent clinical social worker, 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.”
‘Incredibly deceptive’ tactics
What makes 7 Cups’ directory unusual is that a number of therapists listed never consented to their inclusion. Some believe their profile was built with repurposed content from their Psychology Today listing.
One estimate produced on LinkedIn by a software engineer working in the digital mental health space found more than 130,000 therapists’ names in 7 Cups’ directory. Only 67 of those appeared to have a “verified” listing by 7 Cups.
The company allows listees to “claim” their profile for a $30 monthly fee, in order to obtain referrals from potential clients, an offer that Ambeau says felt like “extortion.” While 7 Cups invites therapists to officially join the platform via a single button, it requires therapists who want their information removed to go through a multi-step process.
Under each therapist’s name, 7 Cups has placed a “send message” button. Groshong says this presentation gives consumers the impression that they’ll be contacting the therapist listed.
Yet in a recent comment posted by 7 Cups on LinkedIn, in response to mental health providers angry about the directory, the company admits that it does not have verified contact information for each therapist. Instead, it uses a “service” to find the provider’s email in order to send them referrals.
In tougher cases, 7 Cups says there are ways of “triangulating the data” to confirm someone’s identity. 7 Cups didn’t elaborate on what kind of data it uses to verify contact information for an individual it believes to be a therapist listed in its directory.
If the company can’t successfully match an email to a potential provider, it will send a test message to the email address it’s obtained, with the hope of receiving an affirmative response. That strategy raised concerns amongst therapists on LinkedIn that such outreach could violate a prospective client’s privacy. If all else fails, 7 Cups says it informs the prospective client that it can’t find the therapist.
Each profile does include a disclaimer well below the “send message” button noting that the therapist is not employed by the company.
“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 seems to contradict 7 Cups’ public comments that it attempts to send referrals to therapists who haven’t claimed their profile.
Groshong says the listings operate as a bait-and-switch, and that some of 7 Cups’ actions may run afoul of federal law.
Groshong has heard from CSWA members who’ve tested their own unauthorized profile to see what 7 Cups sends in response. Those individuals received an acknowledgment of their inquiry but were prompted to pay for one of 7 Cups’ tiered premium memberships. That fee includes upgraded features on the company’s free emotional support platform.
They were also told that while they waited for a response from the mental health provider, they could try chatting instead with a “listener.” These individuals, whose identities aren’t vetted, are not credentialed mental health professionals.
Last year, Mashable’s extensive investigative reporting on 7 Cups found serious issues with predatory, abusive, and trolling behavior within its community of listeners and members.
“It takes less than 2 minutes to connect with someone who can help,” read the prompt about 7 Cups’ listeners, sent to a therapist who tested their profile.
So far, a handful of testers who’ve brought their cases to CSWA or posted publicly on LinkedIn say they have not received the referrals 7 Cups claims it would send.
The company replied to a related thread on LinkedIn explaining that the influx of removal requests from therapists upset about their profiles delayed its ability to forward referrals.
Groshong calls 7 Cups’ directory tactics “incredibly deceptive.” She believes that consumers will assume that the therapists listed are freely associated with 7 Cups, and part of the company’s network of providers.
Then they’re directed toward “listeners” who don’t have licenses to practice mental health treatment, which Groshong worries may be deeply confusing — and potentially harmful — to consumers.
Therapists, who feel their reputation and business are at stake, may also pay a steep price as a result of being included in 7 Cups’ directory, Groshong says.
A failed model
Despite pressure on insurers to prevent their directories from becoming ghost networks, at least one other private company besides 7 Cups has used publicly available mental health provider data and created a directory with it.
In 2022, the online therapy company CareDash created unauthorized profiles using information from a government-maintained national database of licensed providers. When consumers looking for a therapist clicked on “check availability” for a specific provider, they received a message that the provider “has not provided a way to schedule online through CareDash.”
They were then redirected to different providers, including some practicing on BetterHelp.com, which apparently paid a commission to CareDash for referrals. Upon discovering CareDash’s use of their name and information, affected licensed mental health providers raised alarms about the business practice.
In 2022, the American Psychological Association (APA) sent a cease and desist letter to CareDash as a result of member complaints. CareDash subsequently shuttered its website and discontinued its business. The APA argued that CareDash’s directory constituted false endorsement and false advertising, in violation of federal law.
Dr. Marnie Shanbhag, senior director for the APA’s office of independent practice, told Mashable that directories created without providers’ consent and participation mislead consumers.
“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.
While she declined to comment specifically on 7 Cups’ directory, she agreed that advertising emotional or peer listening services to someone who made an inquiry for professional therapy might give consumers the false impression that those things are “equivalent.”
In general, Shanbhag says she hopes companies in the digital mental health space that want to create directories would act ethically, with sensitivity, and “most especially” with providers’ consent in order to serve consumers well.
“You’re talking about the mental health of people, and you’re talking about incredibly vulnerable people,” she says.
Getting off 7 Cups’ directory
Mashable interviewed three therapists who successfully removed their profiles from 7 Cups after appealing to the company. They also contacted state and federal regulators. None of them had ever received a referral from 7 Cups.
Sarah Meharg, a licensed clinical social worker based in Washington, D.C., believes 7 Cups used her Psychology Today listing to create its own profile.
She not only contacted 7 Cups directly but also filed a complaint to the Office of the D.C. Attorney General in November 2024, which resulted in her profile’s removal from the website. In 2022, she similarly petitioned CareDash to remove the profile they created of her.
Another provider, Lisa Taylor-Austin, says she submitted a removal request to 7 Cups in November 2024, then followed up with a cease-and-desist letter after it remained online. In addition, she reported the company to the Federal Trade Commission and the attorney general’s office in Connecticut where she practices. In late March, she published a YouTube video warning prospective clients about the directory, which has since been viewed more than 8,000 times.
Kathryn Ambeau says it took nearly 72 hours for 7 Cups to remove her profile. She also reported the company to state and federal officials.
Ambeau says she was incensed to discover that she’d unwillingly become a part of a ghost network that may have deceived consumers into believing she was available to treat them.
“It’s grossly unethical,” she says.
The CSWA has provided guidance to members who want their profiles taken down. Groshong says the organization also plans to send a letter to 7 Cups’ legal representatives demanding that the company cease using their members’ information without permission.
Groshong says ideally, 7 Cups will make clear to consumers the difference between its own listeners and licensed mental health professionals and not refer prospective clients to providers they didn’t intend to contact, or to the platform’s own services.
“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.”
While those looking for a therapist may find countless listings via an online search, trust in the results is key, as the debate over 7 Cups’ directory demonstrates.
An insurance directory of covered therapists can certainly be helpful when it’s well-maintained. The APA also suggests those searching for a licensed mental health provider request a referral from a primary care doctor or ask someone they trust, like friends or family members, for a recommendation.
Source : Finding a therapist can be hard. Ghost networks make the problem worse.
