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7 Cups is turning 13 on July 7, and we’re celebrating #13YearsofCare with a special birthday AMA featuring Glen, our founder, and members of the Community Team.
This is a chance to ask questions, reflect on the journey of 7 Cups, and hear more about the heart, history, and future of our community.
Live Event: Wednesday, July 1 at 12 PM EST
Who can attend live: Adult users only, teens can use this forum though!
Questions: Please submit your questions in advance by replying to this forum post
We’ll gather questions from this thread before the live event. Some questions will be answered during the live session, and responses will also be shared here on the forums so community members can still take part even if they are not able to attend live.
Please keep questions kind, respectful, and community-centered.
Drop your question below and help us celebrate 7 Cups’ 13th birthday together.
Update July 1, 2026:
We had a great session and Glen, @Heather225 and I enjoyed answering your questions. Here is a compilation of what Glen had to say for all the submitted questions:
@jesusredeemedme2425: Was there anything specific that made you start 7Cups? Not just a desire to help people, but a specific event in your life, etc?
Glen: I had a pretty difficult childhood and early adolescence. I know what it feels like to be in a lot of pain. Over the years, I had a number of mentors look out for me. I didn’t want people to feel that pain alone. Listening to someone is the easiest way to help them feel heard and not alone. It is how we give love, hope, and compassion to others. It is a simple, but very powerful intervention.
And all of you have received that or given it here, so you know exactly what I’m talking about. Thank you! 🙏
@LightWinter3974: What are you doing today to self-care💖?
Glen: I exercise daily and journal quite a bit. I also pray several times a day. Last, I talk with people that love me.
@sereneMango2512: What are the major challenges that 7 cups team thinks we struggle with and what will we be doing in the upcoming year for them?
Glen: We have been working on 7 Cups for 13 years! We have come very far, but we still have a very long way to go. Ideally, we’d be able to optimally help each person that walked through our “front doors” by matching them with the best listeners, groups, exercises, forums etc. All of the “digital therapeutics” or “nutrients” that could best help them heal and grow. This is a problem we are still trying to solve. We have made a lot of progress and with more tools / capabilities coming online we should be able to accelerate that progress. We are hard at work at it and will keep at it until we get there!
@Remina: Where do you see 7cups in 10 more years?
Glen: Great question! I wrote this post in 2015: A Letter from 2020: What I Imagine Mental Health will look like in 5 Years: https://www.7cups.com/forum/siteupdates/GlensNookCommunity_547/ALetterfrom2020WhatIImagineMentalHealthwilllooklikein5Years_32207/
It was fun to read it again. We have made measurable progress on 7 Cups and as a field on much of these points. One thing I didn’t see coming at all was the impact of AI. It just wasn’t really a thing back then. We had a very basic version of Noni, but she was mostly just a happy dog that smiled at you. She was based on a basic decision tree technology. JITT, moderation, AI for research etc. wasn’t even on the horizon.
My guess is that AI will continue to become increasingly powerful. On 7 Cups, we will use it to better help us support one another.
I like to think of 7 Cups as a deep and big forest where we all flourish. There are many happy animals and critters running around. All of the trees get plenty of sun and water. There is a deep joy when you walk through the woods. I imagine our forest getting more beautiful, diverse, and lovely over the next 10 years!
@Tulipsmile: What is one core value or lesson from the past 13 years that you believe will continue to guide the future of this beautiful community?
Glen: There is a saying that “we are smarter than me.” It is kind of hard to capture, but our community - made up of all of us - is brilliant. The way we have co-created 7 Cups as a safe haven for people all around the world. I try to listen to all of the signals, because I deeply value and admire our community. My hope is that our collective intelligence will continue to help us make gains in better helping people.
@cheerfulKiwi1776: What is something you learned out of this continuing journey here on 7 cups? What did 7 cups gave to you?
Glen: I have learned 1000s of things from this community. You can find them all here in my section called Glen’s nook: https://www.7cups.com/forum/siteupdates/GlensNookCommunity_547/.
I try to capture all that you have taught me. Another good place to check out is the Way of the River community. This is organized in a course or programmatic way of all the things the community has taught me over the years. You can find it here: https://www.7cups.com/forum/wayoftheriver/
The community has given me hope, love, and courage. You all have made me a better person. I am very thankful for the kind messages, prayers, and encouragement. Running 7 Cups is one of the hardest things I’ve done in my life. All of the deposits you make in my emotional bank account help.
@cheerfulKiwi1776: Also another thing. Why are therapists only for adults and to be paid? Do you think that 7 cups will ever have any paid version (I hope not)??
Glen: We are not in a position to do teen therapy. Maybe in the future! 7 Cups will always remain free. 99.8% of what we do is at no cost. .02% of people upgrade to premium or to talk to a therapist and that is what helps us keep the lights on. It has always been a struggle to financially support 7 Cups. It still is, but I remain hopeful that we can figure it out so that it isn’t as challenging.
@GnomedBinary: Are there any tips you would give today's listeners that you wish you gave to listeners 5 years ago?
Glen: I wrote this post called Care is Electricity a couple of months ago. You can find it here: https://www.7cups.com/forum/siteupdates/GlensNookCommunity_547/CareisElectricity_381633/. I wish I had had a deeper understanding of this idea 5 years ago. It would have simplified things considerably for us. Back then, I still thought that we needed to optimize the tech more. And I think I needed to go through that to better learn key lessons. At the core of it, I think caring is what heals.
@Samuriheart: Do you think 7Cups will stay online based or advance in years to come?
Glen: 7 Cups will always be online. Do you mean will we ever be IRL or in-person? I have thought of different ways of doing in-person sharing circles kind of like AA/NA has meetings, but I’ve not been able to figure it out in a way that would be fully safe. I’d love to do it, but it is challenging to figure out how to do it.
@HealingwithMinionn: What is your plan for volunteering? Will it be harder to be selective in the future?
Glen: We want anyone who wants to be able to genuinely help others to be able to provide care to people. We believe that both giving and receiving care is important. We will likely have more advanced and targeted training in the future. Right now we have the Academy (7cups.com/academy [/7cups.com/academy]) and Just-In-Time-Training. These are excellent, but you can imagine a future where we have feedback in real time. We are working on this now with an AI client simulator - an AI that acts as a client - with Carnegie Mellon University. If it works, then we will roll it out for anyone to access and learn.
@comfortingmusician08: Have you considered allowing voice recordings/voice call as an option? It may benefit members to be able to openly talk if they're comfortable rather than text for certain topics.
Glen: We have thought of this, especially as a premium feature. One challenge is that it is much more difficult to moderate audio/voice interactions. For example, if a person uses inappropriate language, then we can easily block those words from going through. If a person uses it as voice we wouldn’t be able to block them from saying inappropriate words.
I do think this is a good idea and am interested in what you all think about this as a premium option?
@KindnessMatters2020: Are there any plans to optimize using AI to enhance listener training?
Glen: Yes, as discussed earlier we have AI-based clients that will be used to better train listeners. This tool will give the listener real-time feedback on how much trust they’ve built with the client. Additionally, they will be able to get real-time feedback on how they might have used a better message to create more trust/empathy. Last, there will be a score of the overall conversation with specific feedback on ways to improve. This should be very good!
@MeilleureAmie: What inspired the name '7 Cups' specifically? I'm a tea person myself so I won't complain :p but I'm still curious.. why tea over coffee, when it used to be '7 Cups of Tea,' and does the number 7 hold any particular meaning?
Glen: As you noted, we started off of 7 Cups of Tea. I loved this name too. See the poem below. We shortened it to 7 Cups because, in general, shorter URLs are better.
7 Cups of Tea is actually the name of a famous ancient poem. The suggestion is that each cup provides a different level of healing. It’s important that our community feels that 7 Cups of Tea is a place where you can sit down and have several cups of tea with a friend. It isn’t just a one-time meeting. You can touch base as much as you like. Click here to listen [https://vocaroo.com/1bHp9ErfSOeL] to a reading of the poem by @fristo
7 Cups of Tea, by Lu Tong (795 - 835 CE)
The first cup kisses away my thirst,
and my loneliness is quelled by the second.
The third gives insight worthy of ancient scrolls,
and the fourth exiles my troubles.
My body becomes lighter with the fifth,
and the sixth sends word from immortals.
But the seventh—oh the seventh cup—
if I drink you, a wind will hurry my wings
toward the sacred island.
Translated by Christopher Nelson
@Luminity125: Will we ever have a voice chat/voice note option? Some people prefer that and suggest using other apps for that reason which is against the guidelines.
Glen: Yes, see above! I’d welcome your thoughts on it.
@Luminity125: Will therapy on cups ever be free and/or be available for teens too?
Glen: Unlikely that therapy will ever be free as therapists typically charge for services. Although many therapists on 7 Cups lead group discussions and engage in the forums. I think this helps quite a bit!
@Yourmikasa: is there any tips for us listeners that you wish that someone would give you too when you are new there? And how the members should respect a listener, and how a listener should respect a member?
Glen: I think just being very warm and welcoming. Many people coming to 7 Cups are in a vulnerable spot. If we can be accepting and kind, then that goes a long way towards helping people feel safe. Once a person feels safe, they can begin to build trust and heal.
@CommunityModAnne: What’s the most surprising or unbelievable thing you've witnessed happen here since founding 7 Cups? Something you never thought would happen here.
Glen: It is really hard for people to *see* and *understand* us. They look at 7 Cups as a sort of miracle or a series of miracles. And, in some ways, they are right. We are a series of miracles. Something like 7 Cups shouldn’t really exist and yet we do.
I would have thought that people would better understand us because we do exist. Instead, because we do not fit a pre-determined category it is VERY hard for them to see us. It is almost like the category has to exist first so that they can see us.
That really surprised me and continues to surprise me. I’ve become better over the years at describing us (e.g., a gift economy etc.) but it still only has minimal impact. I’m still trying!
@PatienceImpatiens: What’s the strangest and weirdest thing to you about a thirteen year old organization?
Glen: 13 years is pretty old for an organization. Only 15% of tech companies make it this far. In some ways, I look at what we’ve built as a community and as a platform and I think - wow we have accomplished a lot! In other ways, I look at how much progress we’ve made and I wish we would have made a lot more progress. It is this strange paradox of seeing how far we’ve come, but also wishing that we would have made it a lot further. An odd toggle.
I do the same thing in my own life. I always wish that I would have figured things out sooner.
The truth is that the problem is the path and things happen, I believe, when they are supposed to happen. Though I wish we would have done a better job at helping more people I don’t really see much of what we could have done better. We just had to discover / learn things along the way.
@lindorcarameltruffles: How does it make you feel knowing that 7 Cups continues to grow and expand?
Glen: It feels really good. 7 Cups is my fifth child. All of you have helped raise it with me. It was a little baby in the beginning. Lots of crying and not really a “mind” yet that came online. Now it is super smart - much smarter than me - and incredibly compassionate and impactful. I’m really curious to see how it evolves from here.
