Oren Frank, the CEO of Talkspace
Oren Frank, an Israel native, is Talkspace’ co-founder and CEO from 2012 to date. Talkspace is a company that deals with counselling services on parenting, relationship, anxiety, among others. It is an online platform that’s leading for its mobile services on psychotherapy. The company has enabled many people globally to access affordable therapy. Over 500,000 customers have benefitted from Talkspace connections to licensed therapists which were impossible before joining the platform.
How Talkspace started
Oren was a senior executive in the marketing and advertising industries. He worked at McCann Erickson WorldWide as a creative strategist and among the best in the media-marketing sector. Though it was a successful advertising career, Oren terms it as sinning and feels that he’s amending his mistakes by helping people in Talkspace.
Roni was working at Amdocs as the company’s software developer for six years. In 2000, she studied Computer Science in Interdisciplinary Center in Israel and obtained a bachelor’s degree.
Oren, together with his wife Roni started Talkspace online therapy in 2012. Having been through a relationship crisis themselves and finding help from a couples’ therapy, they decide to help others. Roni left her work to join University and study Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy and obtained a Master’s degree in 2013 from New York Graduate School of Psychoanalysis.
Talkspace is a mobile app, and online therapy website the connects clients with therapists anywhere and at any time. Roni is the head of clinical services at Talkspace leading over 1500 licensed therapists.
Talkspace is a mobile app, and a platform that offers therapy online by connecting clients to licensed therapist sat any place and time.
The passion for addressing the issues of stigma on mental health, costs, and access to treatment caused Oren and Roni establish Talkspace. Their experience with psychotherapy that helped stay married and get two daughters encouraged them to start a platform that would help others heal their marriages.
During an interview, Oren said that stigma was an issue that was complicated. Factors causing it are not well known but majorly lack of education and knowledge on mental health issues and its solutions.
One of the missions the founders of Talkspace have is ending the stigma on mental health by letting the world know that each person has struggled with mental health at a certain point in life. Just as any ailing body part needs a doctor to see it, so does the heart when its broken need a therapist. Talkspace, therefore, becomes the solution for all and sundry who need a qualified therapist to offer the right treatment. When people receive the therapy and heal, they become better advocates of mental health issues.