BetterHelpReviews of betterhelp.com

I thought this platform would work for me because it seemed like it would allow for counseling that didn't have to be in 'real-time' and could therefore, fit in to my chaotic life. What I found was that counselors won't talk to you unless it's during a scheduled live session. I had tried a few counselors in hopes that this was an anomaly, but after sending over some information about myself and the situations I'm in, what I want to work on, etc, another counselor responded telling me they'd review my messages just before a scheduled live session. In my experience, the soonest available sessions could be found a week or two in the future. After one month, I had the opportunity to have one live session that lasted about 45 minutes. That was one expensive session when you get right down to it. Feeling rejected by a few counselors wasn't exactly the experience I had been hoping for. Advertised: Caring counselors, low weekly fee, flexibility Received: Dismissive counselors, monthly payments, limited availability

I signed up for betterhelp and began working with a counselor. He was nice, but asked very general questions and I didn’t feel like I was getting any insight that I couldn’t find off of google..I went to schedule a phone appointment but he only does phone calls between 9-10:30 pm. He was able to fit me in at 8. The call lasted 24 minutes and I felt like he was giving me watered down advice based on a discounted rate. In response to the horrible anxiety I’ve been having he suggested I meditate for 30 minutes a day and walk on grass in the mornings..those may have been ok suggestions, but it wasn’t the professional advice I was seeking. It’s very difficult to get anywhere on a 24 minute long call, at least in-person you have 50 minutes to talk. Price wise it’s not great. If you have insurance your co-pay in person is about $30 for a 50 minute session vs betterhelp at $45 for 24 minutes. Sure, you can write the counselor, but it’s just not the same. The next day I received a message from him that he would be signing off the site for the weekend. He sent a google article and s note to call 911 if I had any emergencies. I’m sure betterhelp is great for other people, it just didn’t do it for me.

It is about what you would expect - It is fast food counseling.... if you say anything that is controversial .... well... that's it... Can't have a real conversation... Just my opinion..

I have no complaints about my counselor. My complaint is against the customer service. They charge a lot of money for sessions, and bill monthly. I was able to complete a session with my counselor about once a week for necessary EMDR therapy. After week 3, and me already knowing I was moving and wouldn’t be able to continue services with my California certified counselor in another state, I cancelled my sessions. I told my counselor that I appreciated her but since I was moving in a few weeks, it would be better just to resume services with a new counselor once I moved, which she agreed. I received the first week free, and ended up paying for the month I advance, as stated when I signed up for services. However, they don't tell you that if you choose to continue weekly therapy with your counselor and you decide to use the phone, they’re going to charge you fees EACH TIME you speak to your counselor. So not only did I pay for a month of, I don’t know, website and account services (because clearly that isn’t for therapy sessions), I had to pay for speaking to my counselor each week. It’s a ripoff. And instead of saying, “I’m sorry it wasn’t clearly explained to you, let’s figure out how I can help you with this” they explained to me twice why I was charged. Yeah, I got it the first time, but again, I don’t agree and I wasn’t correctly informed of that. If you want to continue on with this, CLARIFY FULLY what people are choosing. But the counselor was nice and very helpful and that is the only reason I’m giving 3 stars.

I started using better help a few months ago and it had been helping me a lot. Counsellor Jono Lee gave me lots of information and exercises to do and though i knew they were stereotyped and not written specifically for me i didn t care because they were helping me. When i started explaining to him real crisis that were taking place, he wouldn t comment on them and just passed them on, i brought this to his attention and asked him more than once to help me. From that point on he continued not to address nothing at all and just spoke to me through metaphors. He would speak in being courageous but when i asked him how he had no answer. Finally he started acting very judgemental and rude so i changed counsellor. The idea i had from him was that he `collects` people with his stereotyped information brochures and i was asking too much of him.

I used better help from May 2018 until early February 2019. Here is what I have experienced. The counselors are alright. I had to switch from my first one to a new one because she was acting unprofessionally, and she inputted her opinion and would argue if we didn't share the same world view. Never had a therapist do this. She also would cancel a lot, and I'd be without a session for the week. My second therapist seemed much more professional. Always on time for our sessions, genuinely did her best to listen and give good tips on how to deal with trauma. I think it takes a lot of searching to find the right one for you. I did spend some time making sure I picked a good therapist after what happened with the first one. Honestly what I really don't like is even if you are unable to have a session that week, you are still Charged the 45. Or 65. I think the logic is that you can have unlimited messaging with your therapist but it's really not unlimited. They're very busy. They cannot and do not respond to you within 24 hours and if they do it is one response. I don't think this is their fault. They have a lot of clients and cannot respond to everyone at once like that. I don't think it's worth it to have to pay for "unlimited" when that's just not feasible for these therapists. If you need help at 2 am, you are out of luck until morning and then some. I was sticking around for the live sessions. I hardly used the messaging function because it was useless to me. When I needed help I would not receive it in the time I needed it. So if you think you're going to be able to have help 24/7, I'm sorry but that isn't how it works. It was nice to try but I will stick to face to face counseling. I'm not charged if I have to miss a meeting that way. All and all I'm not sure if this is a good alternative to meeting someone in person. It doesn't seem to provide anything a face to face therapist wouldn't be able to. And plus, a face to face therapist can deal with someone who is suicidal. This website states they will not deal with that. Some face to face therapists take financial aid, too. Those are my thoughts on Better Help.

I'm grateful that BetterHelp exists, but there are some issues that I have with the site. 1) Cost. Although generally speaking it's on par with the cost of therapy in person, the value you get for your money *highly* depends on the responsiveness of the counselor, and the ability the two of you have to correspond quickly. I've had counselors that respond the same day, or at least within 24 hours, and multiple times on the same day when you're online at the same time (good value). I've also had counselors that respond sometime during that week (bad value). With the "bad value" therapist it can take 3-4 weeks to cover the same stuff you can cover in one 45-minute office visit, and you can't build a rhythm or momentum at all. 2) The billing cycle. The app bills every 4 weeks instead of once a month, even when you're paying for the monthly plan, which is frustrating as heck. It makes the "floating" bill date very difficult to plan for when you live paycheck to paycheck. I've missed deadlines for financial aid applications before, and it's frustrating that the bill date keeps moving up farther in the month - I started the service on the 26th a few months ago, and now my bill date is the 7th. If you're on a monthly plan, you should get billed the same date every month, or within two days of it. 3) The mobile app has most of the features that the desktop does, but not all. For example, you can't apply for financial aid on the mobile app - which means that I've had to message customer service several months in a row to get them to retroactively apply my financial aid to that month as a "courtesy". ALSO, for god's sake, you shouldn't have to reapply for financial aid every single month. Those discounts should be good for a set term - if they're taking your answers on trust anyway, you should be able to specify how long you think your financial situation will continue. 4) You can't download your worksheets to use as reference offline. Not cool.

My counselor was fantastic, but the month-to-month pricing was way out of my budget. I think the rates should be more sliding scale because even after applying for the financial aid, I could not afford to keep up my subscription longer than a few months.