Our First Study!
The day has finally come! Our first study was published today in the Journal of Mental Health. It was independently conducted by Dr. Baumel of the North-Shore-LIJ health systems in New York City. This article is peer-reviewed, which means that the research was reviewed by peers and approved by them for publication.
You can read the full article here and a summary of it here. This study was done several months ago and was designed to assess the therapeutic alliance levels that listeners achieve with members and guests. It was also designed to measure how people compare 7 Cups with therapy done by licensed mental health professionals. The results - to me - are amazing.
First, therapeutic alliance is just a fancy term for the guest/member feeling like listeners really care for them and are on their team. The guest/member feels understood, validated and accepted. When you look at what works in psychotherapy studies, the number one indicator of people getting better is the strength of the therapeutic alliance. Our listeners - and these were not special listeners or even pre-selected listeners - performed at excellent levels - levels in other studies that are consistent with what license mental health professionals achieve in one hour of face to face therapy. What is particularly interesting is that these levels were achieved via messaging in 19 minute long conversations with non-licensed listeners (i.e., listeners that have not gone to school for 8+ years).
Another interesting piece is the comparison of 7 cups to traditional psychotherapy. People that have used 7 Cups and also participated in traditional therapy were asked how does 7 cups compare to therapy? Is 7 Cups way less helpful, less helpful, the same, more helpful, or much more helpful? Again, to me, the results are amazing. Overall, 69.4% of 7 Cups members and guests reported that 7 Cups was equal to or more beneficial than psychotherapy.
Remarkable right? I'm extraordinarily proud of our listeners and the great community that we have built here. It is indeed a therapeutic community.
We have 4-5 more studies underway right now and we'll soon be opening our doors to more researchers. You can read more about our open research initiative here.
This is really amazing. I feel immensely proud of the site and the community, and it feels great to be a part of it. Here's to more smiling faces and happy lives. 
That article says how I feel when I have successful chats 1 to 1. Thanks for validating and supporting our experience, Glenn, by sharing this article.
This is heart-warming for a listener, but not super-surprising. Apparently the connection between the therapist and the patient counts for more than the specific therapy type they use.
Here is an interesting discussion about it, at a psychiatrist's blog:
https://slatestarcodex.com/2013/09/19/scientific-freud/
Glen, overall it's clear that the users sampled found the help they received here comparable to traditional psychotherapy in terms of emotional support. That's a very good thing!
I cannot see, however, support for your claim that, "Overall, 7 Cups members and guests reported that 7 Cups was slightly more beneficial than psychotherapy." Baumel states merely that they are perceived as comparable:
Oh, and thanks for providing a link to the full paper. Always more useful than the press release or abstract! It was also fascinating to see things like what themes were most common in chats...
@squib good catch! I was not trying to overstate the results. I had meant to include an equal to or more beneficial statement in there. I edited to provide clarity :). And you are welcome!
@GlenM I don't think you've added clarity; rather, you made a statement that is true in literal terms but possibly even more misleading. Yes, it is true that in the study sample, "Overall, 69.4% of 7 Cups members and guests reported that 7 Cups was equal to or more beneficial than psychotherapy."
But it equally true that, overall, 70.2% of 7 Cups members and guests reported that 7 Cups was equal to or less beneficial than psychotherapy.
The fairest statement is that there was no significant difference between reported satisfaction with the emotional support provided by 7 Cups and psychotherapy.
@squib Wow! That's a very impressive analysis!
This is very exciting news!
Yay!! So proud of this community! Keep it up everyone! :D
this brought such happy tears to read that first post :) im proud to be a listener here
so happy!
Just Amazing!
Mind.blown. *explosion sounds* (I'm from the teen side) I feel like since both the member and the listener are both within the same age group, they can relate better to issues as supposed to a member and a therapist who was you're age in the 80s(no offense to members on the adult side)