A Therapist’s Review of Betterhelp: What are the Teletherapy Apps?

Have you ever thought about seeking out teletherapy for your own mental health services? Are you wondering if there is a teletherapy app you can use? This post is part of a series that explores different teletherapy apps that you may be interested in trying for your own mental health services.

I will start with the Betterhelp, a very large online teletherapy app. At the end of this article you will know what the teletherapy app Betterhelp can do for your teletherapy mental health services.

Even going through the process of signing up for one of the bigger teletherapy apps can feel like a lot! Like anything in life, it starts with one step. Our first step today is researching the biggest and most well known teletherapy app Betterhelp!

Before we continue, therapy is a highly individualized process, so for that reason I am not recommending you sign up for Betterhelp for your therapy until you have gone and done as much research on them as possible. This article is meant to be a starting point for your own research.

For now, I simply go over the pros and cons of the teletherapy app Betterhelp along with an overview of the services they provide as reported on their website.

Betterhelp Review

Betterhelp is a teletherapy app that allows you to be matched with therapists depending on where you are in the world. It is the largest teletherapy app out there, so I was looking forward to learning about the mental health services that they offer!

Betterhelp offers mental health services for individual counseling, couples counseling, and teen counseling. When you sign up, the site will lead you through some questions that are on a depression screening instrument call the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9).

This questionnaire is a very basic and low level screening tool for depression, which is a good starting point. The max time you will wait to be matched with your counselor is about 24 hours according to Betterhelp’s site. They charge weekly ($60-$90 USD) for their services that include unlimited video and text messaging, unlimited calls, and weekly therapy sessions with your counselor.

Pros

Pretty cheap for what you get- The price for Betterhelp compared to out of pocket therapy is actually quite cheap for the mental health services you get from it. Weekly charges are accrued from $60-$90 USD, which comes out to roughly $240-$360 per month.

This includes weekly therapy sessions, unlimited texting, video messaging, and email access to your therapist, as well as free therapist changes whenever you want–facilitated by Betterhelp.

Very accessible no matter where you are- After looking at Betterhelp’s services above that I listed, I noticed that these are some intense services for a therapist to provide for what you pay! You are able to always text, call, email, or video message your Betterhelp therapist 24/7 no matter where you are physically as long as you have an internet connection.

I did not see any specific limitations to this on the website, which leads me to believe that your Betterhelp therapist really is a much more accessible resource to you than your traditional outpatient therapist.

No Diagnosis- Why would this be a pro?? Well, let me give you a snapshot of what diagnosis means for you. Diagnosis, contrary to what folks might say, actually does not do a whole lot for you in mental health treatment.

It serves more as a label vs an actual tool in treatment so that we therapists can bill insurance companies. If you would like to learn a bit more about the issue of formal diagnosis in therapy, check out this article.

What I like about this teletherapy app not allowing its practitioners to diagnose is that it gives me the sense that they are more interested in treating you as the client instead of attempting to label you. Without the need for that formal diagnosis, precious time in session can be devoted to actually figuring out why you are seeking therapy and individually tailoring your treatment for you.

Essentially, this means your therapist can focus more on you and less on appeasing the outside powers that may be mandating your therapy to keep you in services.

Cons

Does NOT take insurance- The most obvious con of this teletherapy app is simply that they do not take insurance. The only ways you are able to pay for your monthly Betterhelp subscription are paypal and credit card.

This is likely a major barrier for most as it is highly common to use your insurance for mental health services in the US. At $60-$90 per week, that can add up to quite a bit over time depending on the type of therapy you are looking for. More short-term teletherapy services will be cheaper than longer, more supportive forms of teletherapy. However, check to see if you qualify for their financial aid!

24 hour access to your therapist- Okay, I know I said this was a pro just a second ago. But as a therapist, if my clients had 24/7 access to me, it could actually indirectly harm our therapeutic relationship.

Just like any other profession, if we are always working or on call we cannot be as effective for you as you might need. This can also lead to blurred boundaries with your therapist, which is HIGHLY detrimental to your ability to work with your therapist.

Boundary setting is incredibly important for everyone. In my first session with clients I set the boundary of my limited availability very firmly and provide 24/7 crisis resources if my client feels they cannot wait to talk with somebody until our next appointment or feels like they are in a crisis.

We therapists will not always be available to be accessed in the later hours of the evening or on weekends, so offering more resources for you should be the priority in this case.

Only really takes people with mild-moderate depression symptoms- From initial landing on the page to going through the signup process, Betterhelp does a pretty decent job of making sure you know that they do NOT think you are appropriate for services if you are one of the following:

-Currently in crisis
-Have severe mental health needs–needing intensive residential psychiatric care
-Does not have internet (obviously)
-You are mandated under a court to be in counseling
-You are a child
-You are thinking about self-harm or harm of others

Now, I am not getting after Betterhelp for having these standards. In fact, I applaud them for setting their boundaries for who they are equipped to see. Most of these recommendations I agree with for teletherapy mental health services. However, the self-harm and harm to others piece is a little vague for my liking since this is a pretty big reason a lot of people seek out therapy.

Thinking about self-harm and harm to others is NOT the same as actively self-harming or harming others. The wording makes it sound like they are only able to take people with mild-moderate depression with no suicidality or self-harm/harm to others tendencies.

Having said that, Betterhelp simply is advertising itself as only having capabilities to work with you if you have at worst moderate depression symptoms.

If you are interested in learning more or signing up for the teletherapy app Betterhelp after reading this article, feel free to click the Betterhelp picture above!

If you are in Michigan and are interested in talking about your own therapy or what to look for in a therapist, send me a message using my contact form!