BetterHelp Reviews - See What Customers Are Saying

I had a great therapist assigned to me. He was compassionate. Bright, caring, and helped a great deal. My problem was dealing with the BetterHelp staff. First, they will not speak to you on the phone. Then they refuse to furnish information necessary to get insurance claims paid. They did not have any problem taking over $1000 from me, but would not help in any way to get it reimbursed.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

Two of my "matched" counselors ended up becoming relatively non-responsive (i.e. 24+ hour response time), and unable to communicate with me efficiently enough to set up new video chat appointments after the first call. One or two of the other counselors who had marked on their profiles that they had video chat availability ended up writing to me that they were not offering video chat services. The video chat service, in my opinion, is one of the most valuable services offered through BetterHelp. That I could not obtain reliable access to that service, after having paid for a month-long subscription and attempting contact through several counselors, reflects badly on the service. BetterHelp offered to give me another free week after I sent them a message about my issues, but since I had easily lost two weeks' worth of support due to my issues, I did not find the compensation adequate enough for my needs or ability to trust the service. So, I quit.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I started using BetterHelp because it was free with my insurance; however, it doesn't feel right or helpful.

In its defense, I have never received counseling of any type, but the two counselors with which I've interacted felt distant and superficially sincere. In a way, BetterHelp feels like a forum for providing counselors an opportunity to connect with clients for the counselor's benefit (I'm guessing monetarily) rather than a forum for patients to connect with counselors.

I realize the last sentence seems inherently problematic, but I stand by it. My first counselor was not available for phone of video chat. When I expressed my desire for those options I was told "I don't do that," and "my profile said that before you picked me". Which (for the record), I did not pick her. The website paired us up after I requested a gay, male, counselor with experiences in relationship and intimacy issues (this counselor was not male or a member of the Queer community or knowledgeable about male intimacy problems)...interesting...

My second counselor (picked by me) was available for phone and video communication, but had limited opportunities (scheduling more than a week out for any appointments, and 2 or more weeks for some times). Though she was also not gay, or male, or a member of the Queer Community, I picked her because she has a Ph.D. (one of my current struggles) and experience with "men's issues" (thinking this was a euphemism for Erectile Disfunction). Ultimately, I found out she "phoned-in" her Ph.D. by having a third party collect data for her, though she was proud to tell me she "didn't pay for [the third party] to do her data analysis". She also didn't have a clear grasp of qualitative research, which is my current area of focus.

Both of these last paragraphs are about the people, and not the service, but in many ways, they go hand in hand. BetterHelp is a platform that connects people. If the pool of possible applicants is rubbish, [spoken in best Yoda voice]...so too the service shall be.

It's important to know the platform on the computer and the phone look and work great! They send you notifications, you can schedule and discuss online, and journal your thoughts and feelings. Ultimately, it should be great. But if you're looking for a deep, and meaningful connection with someone who wants to understand you or provide additional support, this might not be the place.

For example, I have no idea how counselors are paid on this platform, but I received several "hallmark-esk" motivational greetings from both counselors which held no bearing on my current situation. One example was...

"Write in your journal every day. Focus on writing your story. Write down three things you are grateful for every day. The three things I am grateful for today are: my amazing family and friends, my love for writing, [and] my faith."

Seriously?! Which card/commercial did she take this from? Are you getting paid per text? Because I haven't talked to you in a week. Also, I requested a non-religious counselor. Not that my counselor can't be thankful for her faith, but she did use it as a lens through which to understand my relationship...which was ultimately problematic as we have differing views on open-relationships, polyamory, and marriage. The counselor was accepting of my beliefs and respectful, but our interactions required continual correction regarding the fundamental nature of relationships and marriage, etc.

My irritation with specific counselors aside, her message has nothing to do with me or my care. I objectively do not journal and have not talked to my counselor about journalling. I can extrapolate the expression "Write your story" to my life, but in the same way I can extrapolate any promotional slogan: "Just do it", "Dew the do", and "Have it your way". These sentences are effectively superficial pleasantries which make me feel I'm not unique in any way.

Overall, BetterHelp feels like a great opportunity for individuals looking to make some money on the said as a counselor, and therefore, the candidate pool of counselors is pretty shallow.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I am physically and mentally disabled. I go to in-house therapy every two weeks and I see my psychiatrist every month. It's expensive, I read the reviews and I was hooked. I called my therapist from BetterHelp. Maybe I can't get better. This may work for others but not for a pensioner.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

When I was signing up for BetterHelp - the first very question was reflected in two buttons: "I am seeking Individual Therapy" or "I am seeking Couple’s Therapy". I chose "Couple's Therapy".

After I was assigned with a therapist after TWO WEEKS - I scheduled a session with her, and I assumed I will start the first session on my own, and then my wife would join on a second session.

The first session went well, but when I asked the doctor as for how do we proceed since the goal was a therapy for me and my wife as a unit, she was surprised to even hear that I’m requesting a therapy for a couple, and told me that BetterHelp assigned me as a patient to her for individual therapy, and that she will cordially agree to see me and my wife just one time as a "favor".

When I contacted support about it - they told me to register at their sister site Regain Us, which turns out to be 3 times more expensive.

I wrote support that I’d like to continue therapy at the BetterHelp site, not their sister site, to what I signed up for - a couple’s therapy, and now I’m waiting for a response from support.

Also, BetterHelp has terrible regulations about the length of a session.

Supposedly, they advertise that you get weekly hour-long sessions which makes sense for me pricing wise, because $360 for 3 months was supposed to buy me 1 session a week for $30, which is the same as what I would pay for therapy through my Health Insurance (Aetna) for a copayment for each session.

However, when I did a session with a doctor, and it was an hour long, then when the whole question arose about a couples therapy and seeing me and my wife for a next session, and I also brought up a length of session - Dr. Garceau got snarky and irritated writing that it is "up to her schedule to extend a session to one hour or not" and that she has a feeling "I will never be content."

In which universe do you pay one price, and you get twice longer, or twice shorter amount of service?

This is a very awkward policy, and doesn’t make sense. And how is this ok for a therapist to say to her patient that she has a feeling that I will never be content? That’s an awful thing to say to someone.

I might just stick to a therapist through my health insurance. Thanks, BetterHelp, for your poor customer service and poor regulations for turning me off from your platform!

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

The advice was helpful, but a monthly subscription for therapy seems flawed. It put a lot of time pressure on to write lengthy, detailed emails to unpack issues, but the weakness of a text-based platform is that the important stuff didn't always get emphasized and miscommunication or lack of context was a problem.

I had one phone conversation with a therapist over about 2 months of therapy. More got done in that 30-minute phone call than all the text communication. But, for cost-effectiveness, I think I would have gotten better value just paying by appointment and having real conversations rather than text-focused communication.

Length of Use: 3–6 months

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

The therapist was terrible. She only wanted one kind of therapy, which isn’t for me. She assigned lots of homework; I felt as though I was completing a workbook. Not helpful or therapeutic at all. Pass on this app.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

Why waste money when you have a counselor who is always busy and you need to accommodate them? I’m not paying money to accommodate my counselor all the time! Basically, I’m paying for a counselor to tell me to seek help elsewhere and to work around her very busy schedule, she does not have much availability ever.

Length of Use: 6–12 months

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

BetterHelp isn’t cheap. If you need a daily text buddy, this may be ideal. If you want real therapy, this is probably not the route for you.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

It was tough finding care. You have to "assign" yourself to a therapist before you can see their availability. Sometimes you just want to talk to someone "soon". Would be great if they could match you with someone random for a quick "venting" session.

There were some technical issues and I never got notified that my therapist had responded to my message.

The first therapist I got paired with came to our second session entirely unprepared. He forgot we had met just 5 days prior. He got an attitude with me when I brought up my concern. His excuse was that he sees 60 patients a week. But he should have just spent 30 seconds reviewing our chat history (right there in the therapy room) before joining the session.

BetterHelp serves quantity, not quality.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I’ve opened up to 2 therapists now and I feel as if my concerns and anxiety issues are kicked to the curb. I would like to work through things but when the therapists don’t have time or lack basic communication, it’s very hard to move forward.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend

So far I haven’t found any well-qualified therapists, some of them are late for the sessions, some of them simply forget. Lack of experience dealing with people who are stressed every day is kind of obvious. Very disappointed.

Length of Use: 3–6 months

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I admire what BetterHelp sets out to accomplish, but the existing model isn't effective. The premise is, you tick checkboxes of issues you'd like to focus on and they automatically match you with a provider. Unfortunately, you don't get to actually choose a therapist based on their rating – all you get is a vague description in their bio.

Unlimited sessions are nice, but ultimately, to keep costs low they tend to have high churn from underpaying therapists. Overall it's good if you just need someone to listen. It would be better if users got more choices in qualifying/interviewing/getting the correct match for a therapist instead of automatically being assigned one when you want to change.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

If you want to talk with a therapist in a hurry, BetterHelp is fine. If you want therapists who show professionalism, wait until you can get one through insurance. I've tried three different therapists through BetterHelp and they've all been flakey to one degree or another.

Length of Use: 1–2 years

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I don’t think this is like real therapy. I feel like it’s more like you got a friend you can talk to once a week and that’s pretty much it. I don’t know. I just feel like for over $200 it was not worth it to me. I thought this app would be more convenient but it’s just like a having someone to talk to for 30 minutes and then that’s it. The two therapists I talked to it just seemed like they were playing their role, but that was pretty much it. I didn’t get much out of it.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I came here thinking that I was going to find someone to help me but so far I’ve had nothing but issues. My first therapist assigned had a very tight schedule, which is understandable, so I had to look for someone else. And then this person didn’t even show up for our session. It’s hard enough to seek help and now to have this experience gets me more frustrated and stressed than I was in the beginning.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

The BEST fast access to therapy I've ever had. Got it right when I needed it. Love the options of live chat (like the old msn days), phone, or video call. This made it really accessible for me as someone who easily feels judged and becomes more concerned about the therapist's opinion than my own.

BUT the app was faulty for 8/10 sessions with problems with the connection, microphone, kicking you out if you swipe off the page even for a second when using the live chat option, and more. It's also pay-per-month/week rather than per-session so you could be wasting money if you can't book a session every week.

AMAZING customer service via email (with Mia) who helped with all issues and found me a new therapist who is the best (Jasmine Blue).

But the faults make it unusable for me. Hope you have a better experience and find the help you need.

Length of Use: 3–6 months

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

It was a mix between really good counselors and then just a lack of responses so it wasn’t worth my money. The system didn’t seem to inform my counselor when I responded so I’m unsure if it was her or the system but in the end getting one response a week, if that, wasn’t worth it. Definitely a good place to let everything off your chest though.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

Getting therapy is hard, period. Firstly, you need insurance. Your schedule needs to work. You have to wait several months to find a specialist, then you may find out you do not click with them.

I was needing a little help and due to schedule constraints, finding it was pretty much impossible. BetterHelp was my next best option. So I tried it for a couple of months. The therapist I was matched with was pretty good, and I enjoyed being able to write out my thoughts to gather myself. I felt really good about it for the first month.

The second month, I was finding this app to be a little bit of what I was afraid of happening. Firstly, the rate you needed to pay for the services kept increasing. Second, the nature of having an application like this means that you innately have less boundaries. I think if I was really in the midst of a crisis, this may have been beneficial. The constant ability to have contact with your counselor became more of an annoyance rather than a benefit.

If you really enjoy privacy like I do, this is actually not your best option. You have the privacy of being behind a screen, but you never really get left alone. Unlike talk therapy, you can't leave everything in the therapy room. You have to drop everything to be in therapy mode when your counselor messages you, no matter what you're doing--this became bothersome after awhile. I got to the point where I was dreading talking with the therapist because the contact was so frequent I really ran out of things I needed to talk about. For most people like myself, I would recommend this as a last resort.

The issue is that they actually have very good therapists and the idea is wonderful and well-intentioned. However, the nature of a counseling application really does not utilize these therapists in the most optimal way. Good in theory, but in practice, the application turns out to be intrusive, inconvenient, and cumbersome.

If you need an option and have exhausted yours, however, I would recommend this. I'm glad I tried it, but it's not for me. There are people who can switch gears easily, but for me, I was never in the mindset to do therapy if I was receiving messages from my therapist at random hours of the day.

Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend

The app is good and provides a good service. I guess it depends on your counselor but I personally found that mine replied quite slow.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I really struck gold with my counselor, Adrienne. My major issue is the lousy video connection we’ve had during our sessions. I would only recommend because it’s a good service to have available. But the video sucks, the quality needs improvement. There’s also a delay in speech sometimes, which is frustrating when you have to repeat yourself, or you’re talking over someone. At first, it was confusing whether you use Magellan or BetterHelp. I went with BH because I got the exact type of counselor I was looking for.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend

I was originally matched with a therapist who had a full 2-week wait time for video chat. I was refunded my first week and switched counselors. I still had to wait a full week for video chat with the second one and they are only 25 minutes. That being said, I think it's worth the money if you only need a touch up per se. Also sucks that they charge monthly upfront.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend

I love working with my counselor, he often checks in to see how I'm feeling and will offer ways to get through a rough day.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend

BetterHelp.com is the most wonderful website for counseling. It has improved my life in ways I never imagined. I, however, have gotten to know my counselor and the website does not pay him well. It also says that my counselor works less that he actually does. It is not fair to counselors.

Length of Use: 3–6 months

Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend

BetterHelp is affordable. Many therapists are accomplished and the possibility to switch if the fit is not great is wonderful.

I like the different options to communicate with therapists. It really depends on the therapist if, how often, and how quickly they'll respond to messages.

I have had it twice now that a therapist leaves BetterHelp and I can't continue with them for different reasons. This is devastating when you're in therapy and really finally feel a click with a therapist.

Length of Use: 6–12 months

Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend

I changed therapists. The first one was not a match for me. But it seems the second one is really competent in her field. So, I've recommended this site to a couple of people I feel would benefit from it. Therapy is an acquired taste need. The experience we have will make or break our willingness to accept the support. That's why it's important to find the right "match". This service offers a great deal of options. I'm still exploring them. So far, so good! A little salty though, but somewhat worked.

Length of Use: 3–6 months

Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend

I might be old school but I am looking for a traditional therapy model using modern technology. I have zero interest in texting a therapist. I don't like that the pricing model is so inflexible. For example, if you want to have bi-weekly one-hour sessions, you should only be billed for 2 hours, not a full month. I also want to be able to schedule in advance and for more than 30 minutes. What can you accomplish in 30 minutes? A full, clinical hour is optimal to really get to the nuts and bolts of issues.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend