How Stage-Matched Peer Support Works

A short quiz places you in the right community based on your life event: divorce, grief, job loss, illness, new parenthood, recovery, empty nest, or financial crisis. We ask a few questions to understand where you are — how long you have been in this, and roughly where you are in the experience. No diagnosis. No labels you did not choose.

There are no wrong answers. The placement is a starting point, not a verdict. If it does not feel right when you arrive, you can change it any time. The quiz takes about three minutes, and no account is required to complete it. You can see your results before you decide whether to join.

Your identity is separate from your placement. You choose how you appear to others: by a username you create, anonymously as "Someone at your stage," or by stage alone. Your real name is never shown to other members.

“You choose how you appear. We don’t know your name.”

Each life event has six stages, from Just Starting to Thriving. Your stage is based on where you are in the experience — roughly how long you have been in this and what that period tends to feel like — not on an assessment of your emotional state or readiness to move forward.

The six stages run from Just Starting through to Thriving. You can read about each one on the What stage am I? page.

Stage-matching is the core of how DeeplyHeard works. Rather than placing you in a general grief community or a general divorce forum where you might be sitting next to someone three years into rebuilding while you are three weeks in, you are placed with people at the same point you are. The conversations, the questions, the kind of support people need — all of it tends to align better when the stage aligns.

The community feed is chronological. No algorithm decides what you see. You can post under your chosen username, anonymously as "Someone at your stage," or as your stage alone. You can also just read. Many people find that enough, at least at first.

“No algorithm decides what you see.”

Your journal, mood tracker, and milestone timeline are completely private. No one else sees them. Not other members, not us. They exist for you.

The journal offers stage-aware prompts if you want them, or a blank page if you don't. The mood tracker shows your emotional landscape over 90 days. The milestone timeline lets you capture the moments worth remembering: the first day something felt lighter, the conversation that helped, the small thing you made it through.

“No one else sees them. Not other members, not us.”

There are no streaks. No badges. No reminders designed to create anxiety or obligation. Major life transitions do not move on a schedule, and DeeplyHeard is not designed to pretend otherwise.

You can go quiet for a week, a month, or longer. When you come back, your journal is where you left it, your stage is unchanged, your community is still there. Nothing has been reset. Nothing has been lost. There is no penalty for disappearing and no reward for consistency.

The platform does not push you. It waits. When you are ready to engage — to post, to read, to write in your journal, to check in on your mood — it is here. When you are not, that is okay too. Some people use DeeplyHeard daily. Some people come back every few weeks when they need it. Both are the right way to use it.

“The platform doesn’t push you. It waits.”