Terms of Use

1. These Terms, and your agreement to them

These Terms of Use govern your use of the TheraTalk application and website (the "Platform"), operated by SoulSync Ventures Private Limited ("SoulSync", "we", "us"). By creating an account or using the Platform, you agree to them.

Please also read our Privacy Notice, which explains how we handle your personal data, and our Cookie and Similar Technologies Policy. Together with these Terms they form the agreement between you and us.

If you do not agree to these Terms, please do not use the Platform.

2. What TheraTalk is

TheraTalk connects you with counsellors for sessions by chat, audio call or video call. We provide the technology, the booking and payment systems, and the support around them.

Please read this part carefully.

• TheraTalk is not an emergency service. We cannot respond to emergencies, and we are not monitored around the clock.
• TheraTalk is not a substitute for medical or psychiatric treatment. We do not diagnose conditions, prescribe medication, or provide inpatient or crisis care.
• No clinical assessment takes place before a session. When you request a session, our system gives you the list of the available counsellor who offers the mode you have chosen. Nobody reviews your circumstances beforehand to decide whether counselling is the right form of support for you.
• Counselling outcomes cannot be guaranteed. Nothing on the Platform is a promise of a particular result.

3. If you are in crisis

If a counsellor forms the view that there is a serious and imminent risk to your life or health, or to another person, they may act on it including by contacting your emergency contact or an appropriate service. Our Privacy Notice explains this.

4. Counsellors/Buddies

Counsellors/Buddies on the Platform are independent practitioners engaged by SoulSync under written agreement. Your contract is with SoulSync alone. You do not enter into a separate agreement with your counsellor.

Before a counsellor is admitted to the Platform, we carry out the following checks: verification of stated qualifications, verification of professional registration where the practitioner holds one, reference checks, background checks, and supervision requirements. We do not warrant beyond the checks we perform.

Counsellors are required to work in accordance with our Code of Ethics and safeguarding protocol, and to hold your information in confidence.

Counsellors exercise their own professional judgement in sessions. We do not direct the content of counselling.

5. Eligibility and your account

You must be 18 or older to use TheraTalk. We ask for your verifiable parental consent or any other identity related document. If we become aware that an account holder is under 18, we will close the account.

You must give accurate information, keep your login credentials secure, and not let anyone else use your account. Tell us promptly at privacy@theratalk.in if you think your account has been accessed by someone else.

6. Sessions

7. Credits, prices and payment

TheraTalk operates on a prepaid credit system. You can purchase a credit package and use the credits to pay for sessions. The cost of each session is calculated based on the counsellor’s applicable per-minute rate.

• Credit package pricing: The price displayed for a credit package is the total amount paid by the user. All prices are in Indian Rupees (INR) and include applicable taxes. We do not add any separate convenience fee or payment gateway charge at checkout.
• Payments: Payments are processed through our payment service provider. Your card, bank and other payment details are handled directly by the payment service provider and are not received or stored by TheraTalk.
• Validity of credits: Purchased credits do not expire. The applicable counsellor rates will be clearly shown before you book or request a session. If we make any changes to our credit packages or counsellor rates, we will inform you before the changes take effect.
• Gift credits: Credits received by redeeming a gift code are promotional credits. They can be used for sessions in the same way as purchased credits. However, as these credits are provided as a promotion and are not purchased by you through the Platform, they cannot be exchanged for cash or refunded as money.

8. Cancellations, no-shows and failed sessions

Where a session fails because of a problem on our side, or a counsellor does not attend, you may ask for the refund to be made to your original payment method rather than to your credit balance. Contact us at support@theratalk.in .

9. Refunds and your credit balance

Refunds for cancelled and missed sessions are processed automatically to your credit balance, as set out above.

If you close your account, any credits you bought with money and have not used will be refunded to your original payment method. Write to support@theratalk.in and we will process it within 5 working days. Promotional and gift credits are not refundable as money.

We do not charge a fee for closing your account or for a refund.

10. Session recording

The audio of your sessions is recorded for clinical quality assurance and to generate written session summaries.

We will ask for your agreement to this before your first session, separately from your agreement to these Terms, and you may withdraw it at any time.

Recordings and summaries are held confidentially and are accessible only to your buddies. The detailed retention schedule (Clause 11) can be read from our Privacy Notice.

You may ask us for a copy of the recording or summary of your own session. There is no self-service option for this in the app, so please write to privacy@theratalk.in and we will provide it. Our Privacy Notice explains your other rights over your data.

The Platform does not provide a feature for you to record a session to your own device.

11. Ratings and feedback

After a session you may rate your counsellor from one to five stars and leave written feedback.

Your written feedback is private. It is seen only by your counsellor and our administrators, and it is not published. Star ratings are combined into an average score shown on the counsellor’s profile. Individual ratings are not published.

Please rate honestly and in good faith. We may set aside a rating that appears to have been given maliciously or that does not relate to a session that took place.

12. How you may and may not use the Platform

The Platform exists to give people support, often at difficult moments. These rules protect the people using it and the people providing it.

You must not:

• Abuse, threaten, harass or discriminate against a counsellor or a member of our team
• Make sexual advances towards a counsellor, or use a session for sexual purposes
• Record, screenshot, publish or share any part of a session involving a counsellor without their agreement
• Impersonate anyone, or use another person’s account or payment method
• Attempt to identify, contact or engage a counsellor outside the Platform in order to avoid our fees
• Use the Platform to obtain a prescription, a medical certificate, a fitness-to-work document or a legal opinion
• Interfere with the Platform’s security, attempt to access another user’s information, or use automated means to access the service
• Use the Platform for any unlawful purpose

13. Confidentiality and your information

What you share in a session is confidential. Our Privacy Notice explains what we collect, who can see it, how long we keep it, and the rights you have over it. Where the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 gives you rights in respect of your mental health records, those rights continue to apply.

There are narrow situations like: a serious risk to life or safety, or a legal order in which information may be disclosed without your consent. These are set out in the Privacy Notice.

14. Our content

The Platform, its software, design, text and branding belong to SoulSync or our licensors. You may use them only to use the service. Session summaries relating to you are your personal data, and Section 10 explains how to obtain them.

15. Suspension and closure

We may suspend or close an account where these Terms have been breached, where there is fraud or misuse, where we are required to by law, or where continuing would present a risk to a counsellor or another user. Except where the circumstances make it inappropriate, we will tell you why and give you a chance to respond.

You may close your account at any time by asking us through the app or at support@theratalk.in. Unused paid credits are refunded as set out in Section 9.

We keep records of past sessions after closure for as long as our Privacy Notice provides, and no longer.

16. Availability

We do not promise that the Platform will be available without interruption. Maintenance, faults, network problems and matters outside our control can all affect it. We will restore service as quickly as we reasonably can.

17. Our responsibility to you

We provide the Platform with reasonable care and skill. Beyond that, and to the extent the law allows, we do not give warranties about the Platform or the outcome of any session.

Limit on our liability. To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total liability to you in connection with the Platform or the services, whether in contract, tort, negligence or otherwise, will not exceed the total fees you paid us in the last 3 months before the event giving rise to the claim.

What this does not limit. Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes liability that cannot be limited or excluded by law, including liability for fraud or wilful misconduct. Nothing in these Terms affects any right or remedy available to you under consumer protection law or any other law that applies regardless of contract.

18. Your responsibility to us

If you use the Platform unlawfully or in breach of Section 12 and we suffer loss as a result, you agree to make that loss good. This does not apply to anything arising from our own breach or negligence.

19. Changes

We may change these Terms. Where a change materially affects you, we will notify you through the Platform or by email before it takes effect. Continuing to use the Platform after that means you accept the change. If you do not, you may close your account and receive a refund of unused paid credits.

20. If something goes wrong

Please tell us first, most things are resolved quickly.

Grievance Officer

[Name]

Email

support@theratalk.in

Address

Poonam Estate Cluster-III,A/603, Srishti Complex, Thane, Maharashtra- 401107, India.

We will acknowledge within

24 to 48 hours

We will respond within

15 Days

21. Resolving disputes

• First, directly. Before any formal process, you and SoulSync will try in good faith to resolve the matter. We will make reasonable efforts to resolve a complaint within 30 days of receiving it.
• Then, mediation. If it is unresolved after 30 days, either of us may refer it to mediation before a mutually agreed mediator, conducted in India and in English. Costs are shared equally unless otherwise agreed or determined by the mediator.
• Then, arbitration — where the dispute can lawfully be arbitrated. If mediation does not resolve it, either of us may refer the dispute to arbitration under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, before a sole arbitrator appointed jointly. The seat and venue are Thane, Maharashtra, and the language is English or Hindi.
• Courts. Where a dispute cannot be arbitrated, or court proceedings are otherwise permitted or required, the courts at Thane, Maharashtra have jurisdiction.
• Your statutory rights are unaffected. Nothing in this section prevents you from approaching a Consumer Commission, court, tribunal or regulatory authority where the law gives you that right. Where the law provides a different process or forum, that takes precedence over this section.

22. General

These Terms are governed by the laws of India. If any part of them is found unenforceable, the rest continues to apply. Our not enforcing a term on one occasion does not mean we give it up. You may not transfer your rights under these Terms; we may transfer ours as part of a business transfer and will tell you if we do.

Any use of anonymised or aggregated information for service improvement is carried out in accordance with our documented de-identification standard.

23. Contact

For general support, please contact SoulSync Ventures on support@theratalk.in.