Tending the chair
Tending the chair
Hearth is built for the things you don’t say out loud elsewhere. That puts a particular weight on us, to handle what you bring with the same care your Keeper does. Here’s how we do it. Plainly, without legalese.
Hearth is small and run by hand right now, so this page describes what is true today, not a roadmap. If something changes, this page changes first.
What you say stays here
Everything you bring to a Sit (your video or audio call) or write in the Long Talk (the message thread with your Keeper) is between you and your Keeper. We don't share it with other Keepers. The founder reads your intake to make the match, and is told if you raise a safety concern, so you are never left alone with it. We don't sell any of it, and we don't use it to train AI.
Plain about security
Today the Long Talk is an email thread and Sits run on Google Meet. Both are encrypted between you and the server, but neither is end-to-end encrypted, and email is stored by the providers that carry it. We would rather tell you that than borrow words like "HIPAA-comparable". When we move to a private member space, this page will say exactly what changed.
No trackers in the room
There are no Facebook pixels and no Google Ads tags on this site. We count page visits with PostHog, set up to store no cookies, record no sessions and capture nothing you type into a form. Your Sits and Long Talk never touch any analytics at all.
You own your story
Email privacy@dearhearth.com and we will delete your intake, your match record and our copy of your Long Talk within 30 days. The Long Talk is already yours: it sits in your own inbox, and you can keep it or delete it whenever you like.
Where your information lives
The hardest part of building Hearth is not the encryption. It is choosing the people who hold what you bring. We treat that choosing seriously.
Every Keeper completes a background check, a structured interview, two reference checks, and a 120-hour pre-launch training. We accept fewer than 1 in 12 applicants.
Keeper training covers active listening, trained sensitivity to context, scope boundaries, and crisis protocol. The most important thing they learn is what is not theirs to handle, and how to walk you to a clinician when it is.
Every Keeper meets with a Lead Keeper monthly for case review and supervision. We take peer support as seriously as a clinical practice takes its own, without pretending it is one.
Keepers are paid contractors, not gig workers. Living wages adjusted for their region. We do not optimise for cheap support; we optimise for consistent, slow, careful support.
We’d rather tell you what Hearth is not than let you discover it in a moment that needed something different.
Hearth is not a crisis service. If you are in immediate danger, please call or text 988 (US and Canada), call 116 123 (UK Samaritans), or text HOME to 741741 (Crisis Text Line, US). We have a full list at /crisis.
If a Keeper notices something that needs a clinician (sustained suicidal ideation, an active crisis, abuse, anything outside peer support's scope) they pause the Sit gently, share the right crisis line, and help you find clinical care: Open Path Collective, Psychology Today's directory, or your own doctor. They offer to help you write that first email, there and then. They do not disappear. They do not pretend they can hold it.
Keepers do not practise as licensed clinicians at Hearth and do not have the same mandatory reporting obligations therapists do. But we follow the law in your jurisdiction for child safety and immediate danger. We will be honest with you about what that means before your first Sit.
Eight things we will not do
We will tell you what Hearth is not, clearly, repeatedly, without apology.
We will not invent therapy credentials our Keepers don't have.
We will not gamify your healing with streaks, badges, or points.
We will not run dark-pattern cancellation flows. One click. No exit interview.
We will not raise your price after you've signed up. Locked at your tier for as long as you stay.
We will not sell, share, or rent your data, to anyone, ever.
We will not let an algorithm match you. A human does it. By hand. In 72 hours.
We will not pretend our Keepers can hold what only a clinician can. When you need one, your Keeper helps you find one.
Found a security issue?
Email security@dearhearth.com. Responsible disclosure is welcome. Please give us a reasonable window to fix before publishing.
Privacy questions
Our Privacy Policy spells out the legal detail. For anything not answered there, email privacy@dearhearth.com.
You can pull up a chair knowing the room is built carefully.
Begin the First Sit →