BetterHelpReviews of betterhelp.com

They advertise and look like a UK based service, but the counsellors are only available in US times. Not at all convenient.

I signed up to give it a month's trial to see if the service will work for me. The payment was advertised as £35 and cancel at any time. After I complete the payment information and am about to start my session, I see that I have been charged £140! Why on earth would I be charged nearly 4 months of service from the get-go? This is unacceptable and I will be taking steps to get the payment back through the bank. Imagine having such a predatory practise when you preach you want to help people.

The idea is brilliant, the execution of it is terrible. Betterhelp requires an upfront subscription payment, I was "matched" with a therapist who finally got back to me a week later letting me know that she's not accepting new patients. I then requested a new therapist (who I'm not picking myself) who's matched to me days later, and he wastes the next few days by not being upfront about only doing live sessions, which requires more money to be paid... without any sense of real help or connection. He never asked me for anything other than a time to set up an appointment. I didn't feel like he cared, so why would I pay more money for a waste of time? I'm currently requesting a full refund for the lack of service, because I did not recieve anything that I agreed to pay for. There's webinars which are scheduled on dates and times, but you get less than a weeks notice of it. So if you work or have other appointments, you miss them and never learn from them. There's no real organization, I'm not even sure how they are matching people, because clearly their whole system is messed up. It honestly just feels like a scam at this point, I strongly suggest going with a different option. This is more of a headache and hassle than it's worth. Oh! And it's not covered in any sense by insurance. Some real therapists (not part of better help) see you for a full hour or more of uninterrupted time every week, cover lots of topics, options, advice, resources, etc.; and insurance can cover all of it! I tried this out because of the social distance requirement from the pandemic, I was greatly disappointed. I'm going back to real therapy.

Customer service is hit or miss. They charge you right away and you expect to be matched with a counselor right away, but I had to wait 2 weeks. Meanwhile, they provide several group webinars on skill building, etc. this review is for my only 1:1 session, with Counselor W.H.: It was bad experience and caused me to feel worse because she was not fully present or prepared. Examples: 1) Requested a video session, she changed it to a phone session because she decided to take her dogs on a walk in the sunshine. 2) I had filled out my goals sheet beforehand, but her initial questions reiterated the questions on the goals sheet, giving me the impression that she didn't pre-read what I'd written. 3) At one point, her dog(s) got away from her, and she had to corral them and put them in her car. I was speaking at the time, and it was extremely disconcerting and offensive to know that she was not fully present because she had to focus on her dogs. I stopped talking and had to wait for her to get her dogs and put them away. She apologized, but I kept thinking to myself, “What kind of therapists walks her dogs while conducting a session?” When I emailed BetterHelp customer service with my complaint (verbatim) and asking for a credit, they promptly closed my account and told me that online counseling wasn’t for me. Ok, I am in crisis, dealing with issues, and you send a form letter to reject me? Horrible! Here’s the bulk of the email they sent: Unfortunately, based upon the answers that you provided when signing up, we have determined that online counseling may not be the best resource for you. This decision reflects the ethical recommendations of the major counseling associations. Online counseling is still a fairly new approach and is not considered the most effective form of care for everyone. In order to ensure that you receive the most appropriate and effective care possible, you may consider scheduling an intake with a licensed counselor who can provide you with in-person counseling in your area. You can find many available counselors by clicking here. If you are in a crisis or need immediate help, please call 1-800-273-TALK (24 hour hotline) or in case of emergency, call 911 or use these resources. We are deeply sorry, but unfortunately we had to close your account. Any initial sign-up information that you provided has been closed in our database to protect your confidentiality. We have processed a full refund for your recent payment of $380 USD. Please allow 5-10 business days for this refund to show in your statements.

If you have health insurance BetterHelp is a scam, advertising on all your favorite podcasts and popping up in your Facebook ads. I signed up when I was having a really hard time as Covid hit, having heard of it on my favorite podcast. I didn’t know where to find help and I was caught in the advertisements. Do your research, understand what is offered in your community and by your insurance, even by telehelp, before getting scammed with this.

Worst experience. Scam

The first therapist I talked with would send messages but never respond back when I asked for a call or a video call. BetterHelp supposedly provides messaging, calls and video calls any time of the day, and I don't expect a reply within a few hours each time, but I think it's wrong if they just brush away and ignore your request for a call each time. I thought that I was paired with the wrong therapist and therefore requested for another one. Yet again, I couldn't find the help that I really needed and therefore quit BetterHelp altogether by the end of that month. BetterHelp sent me a mail asking if I would still continue trying their service, and as I saw that my second therapist had sent a message trying to check up on me, I tried to reply back. However, even to reply back, I had to recommence the service and pay the monthly fee, which isn't the easiest way for a customer to ease back into their service. I would have appreciated another week of free trial to truly see if things would work out better this time than to be demanded payment promptly. BetterHelp is in no way affordable and I wouldn't recommend it for everyone.

I hated it. $200 a month to get 4 chat messages and cookie cutter replies. It was like my therapist didn't even read the messages. I would recommend you go to normal therapy online instead of wasting time with this BS.