BetterHelp Reviews - See What Customers Are Saying

BetterHelp has been counseling on my time. It is way more frequent than once a week. And if I need something more than just messaging BetterHelp offers other forms of communication for me to be able to get in contact with my counselor.

Length of Use: 3–6 months

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

Love how easy and accessible it is to be used at any and all times but really wish they would find a way to add 3-way calls, advanced scheduling, and insurance coverage. The fact that I can't schedule further in the future is really mind-boggling to me, that seems like an easy add and would make it easier for both sides to use. Also, 3-way calling makes couples counseling a lot harder.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

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

I really liked my overall experience. It was nice being able to have sessions throughout the day and the comfort of my home. And not having to travel. I just didn’t feel like 30-minute sessions once a week or enough to really dive in and make a difference. You can buy additional sessions but the cost starts to add up.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

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

I tried it for 3 months and it has been beneficial. I first tried one psychotherapist and that did not work, then I tried another therapist and it was helpful.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

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

I like the fact you can choose your therapist and they're matched based on your needs. I got lucky with the first match! Some of the system functions could be better though. Sometimes it's a bit laggy, which can get frustrating. Also, if the therapist can't make it you can't cancel the appointment. But they do provide financial aid if needed, you fill in how much you make and such and they'll calculate how much you pay based on that.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

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

I know that the company has a bad reputation for many reasons, not the least of which is how much they pay their therapists, but when my company offered free sessions through BetterHelp it was too good to pass up.

My therapist has been a thoughtful and collaborative partner who has reaffirmed my faith in therapy and the journey of getting better.

Length of Use: 3–6 months

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

My therapist was great, the customer service isn’t. There is no customer service phone number. All communication is done through email. This to me is shallow and cold. Like most companies and institutions these days, the customer service is poor.

Length of Use: 6–12 months

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

BetterHelp is a good service but it should find discounts for students at least. They need to reduce their prices as it is a good service but can be very pricey.

Length of Use: 6–12 months

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

I like my therapist, and the bargain 3-month plan is great. But suspending the account from time to time has been most frustrating. Definitely lost money on "missed sessions" that should have been "suspended sessions."

Length of Use: 2+ years

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

I’m loving BetterHelp but there are a few things that bother me.

I didn’t feel like I got any notice about my bill and when I went to go meet my therapist I couldn’t. I didn’t have enough funds in my account to pay as I was getting paid the following day. When I went to log in to meet with my therapist that I scheduled it wouldn’t let me.

At first, I thought she wasn’t showing up but that was so unlikely of her to do. As I was typing her to ask if everything was okay she messaged me asking me if I were okay and she was waiting for me. I tried sending her a message that I couldn’t get in and that I was trying to figure it out but it wouldn’t let me. I then was stressing out that one, I left her high and dry and couldn’t even tell her what was going on. And two, it was very unsettling to me that I couldn’t reach out to her myself. BetterHelp did ask if they could message her for me saying that my account was not available and honestly I don’t even know what they messaged her but I do know it didn’t come from me and I was left feeling awful about so many things.

Then a few days went by and I just went to go see my BetterHelp account and all of a sudden I was back on. No message, no nothing letting me know my account had been charged again. No message saying I was back in business, nothing. Just saw the money went through and I was able to message again.

The next meeting that I had with my therapist was about me saying how sorry I was for leaving her high and dry like that. I also told her how stressed it made me feel not being able to let her know what was going on. And I really had no clue that was happening. For someone that is very highly sensitive and doesn’t like disappointing people. This can create even more stress that they (I) don’t need.

I didn’t get a notice that I would be getting charged soon. No notice that I didn’t have the funds, nothing. I had to go to my scheduled meeting to find that out. Then not to be able to do that on top of feeling awful and not having the opportunity to say sorry or whatever, that was lame. It was also lame that once I did have the funds in my account, BetterHelp didn’t notify me that they charged my account and that I was able to message and continue sessions with my therapist again. I’m just glad I remembered to go and check a few days later to find out I was back in action.

Everything else has been great. I love my therapist and I love being able to do this all from home and when I can, but the billing part and notifying customers of their accounts could use improvements from what I’ve experienced. It made me stress even more and I didn’t like having that feeling and then to have to explain myself to my therapist about that, it totally sucked and I hated how it made me feel. She totally understood but also didn’t really know much either about all that. She just got one message saying I wasn’t able to pay my funds or something like that. I know it wasn’t much that they told her. I mean she couldn’t even message me so then she’s wondering if I’m okay. If I were doing her job that would be really hard just getting cut off from your client when you’re trying to help them with whatever issues they are going through. I could be wrong about all this but for me I know I would be very concerned if my client was okay.

Thank you for reading this and I hope you can come up with a better solution as I don’t know exactly what that would look like but just maybe better communication about billing and such. Just a thought. Maybe give notice to the person when their account is getting close to being charged and maybe in red bold print bc the tiny print isn’t doing much and I had no clue that my account was going to be charged soon and no clue that I was back on and my charge did go through. Throw me a bone or something cause I didn’t get anything. Thank you and please think about this and consider making the billing information a little more clear to the patients and therapist.

Length of Use: 3–6 months

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

It would be nice if I could pay per session or per week, rather than in monthly chunks. I sometimes don't have the time to connect with my therapist every week, so it seems silly to pay for an entire month.

The only option available is to cancel every week and restart when the time is available. Could use some work.

Length of Use: 6–12 months

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

Overall, I rate BetterHelp a 3/5. It would be 5/5 if I had met my most recent therapist first. She is AMAZING — friendly, attentive, and she asks questions that help me understand my feelings. The first therapist I found, was judgmental, it felt like she wasn’t listening to me, and it was just an awkward experience.

Length of Use: 3–6 months

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

I missed a lot of sessions. I am scared and hate talking about my problems because right now, I have alot of them, I don't know where to begin some days.

But after months and months, and a lot of money paid for sessions that I never attended (which is my fault, I see that), I feel more comfortable with my counselor and am grateful for the sessions.

It would be nice if BetterHelp allowed more than one group session a week and didn't charge so much for each missed one-on-one sessions, because even though it's my fault for missing them, being unemployed and feeling hopeless and depressed every day, it doesn't make coming up with $65 a week easy and sometimes, it is just really hard. These sessions help.

Length of Use: 3–6 months

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

This is a very good app, with a lot of potential. But, the main things that need to be addressed are the fees and journal feature on the app. I don't even use it. It would also be helpful if there were more evening and weekend group sessions.

Length of Use: 3–6 months

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

BetterHelp is great for providing access to quality therapists to deal with your problems; however, it is very poor at managing therapy sessions.

You will sign up for a monthly subscription. Note, that even though it says you pay a fee per session, in reality, you are charged monthly, regardless of if you have the sessions or not. If you or your therapist need to reschedule or cancel a session, you will still be charged on a rigid monthly schedule. The only way to change this is to reach out to their support, who sometimes reply after a delay of several days, or sometimes not at all.

So far I have been charged for 16 sessions, even though I have had less than 10.

That being said, the sign-up process is smooth, they put you in touch with a therapist quickly, and my therapist has been extremely helpful and knowledgeable.

Length of Use: 3–6 months

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

Did you know that a therapist doesn’t know the client's full legal name unless there is an emergency? Whatever the client puts as their name, a nickname, or anything else, the therapist is only given access to that. An emergency has to be brokered through BetterHelp services before the therapist is actually able to intervene in the chance that something dangerous happens. The app also makes it difficult to coordinate care with other personal doctors and professionals as it is more of a gig service for therapists than a telehealth company.

The therapist that I hand-selected: 10/10

BetterHelp app, service area, and ethical issues: 2/10

Length of Use: 6–12 months

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

I put on my intake form that I did not want Christian-based counseling at all. A therapist took me on her caseload. I researched her out of BetterHelp and found that she was a Christian therapist for 20+ years. I decided to give her a chance to counsel and leave her beliefs out of it. I was with her for 2 months and after telling her about how my best friend of 10 years and I quit talking, she decided it was the perfect time to say, “I don’t feel like I can be your therapist effectively because you practice witchcraft and I’ve only ever seen witchcraft lead to a path of destruction.” I asked if it was because she was Christian and she said yes.

She should have never taken me on her case of seeing that I did not want any Christian counseling due to religious trauma. She just added to that trauma. She put my info out into her chat of therapists and asked if anyone would work with me because I practiced witchcraft. Two said they would and the therapist gave me their names and info to research and pick one. I picked the one I currently have and she is fantastic. But she told me I had to request a new therapist as she didn’t have the option to terminate me on her caseload. So I did, and that set me into a weeklong waiting period of waiting for BetterHelp support to see my email.

After talking to my current therapist, I was informed they absolutely have to option to terminate a client on their end. That previous therapist basically just wanted to make it look like I requested a new therapist. And that was proven true with all the language I got from BetterHelp, i.e I’m sorry you didn’t connect and wanted a new therapist and language of the like.

I feel like this was the therapist's fault and then also BetterHelp’s fault in not stressing that part about religious trauma on my intake form. And also, I was irritated with how long it took support to see my email and get me transferred. I ended up being given another therapist and telling her and she had it fixed within 12 hours.

Length of Use: 6–12 months

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

I got a great therapist, and the sessions really helped. There are great features to the website like daily journals and group sessions, which I didn't really get to use but they seem great.

My only hangup was that I only had time for the one-on-one sessions and you're paying no matter how few you use. Just didn't suit my lifestyle and at 60-something euro a week, it's a lot of money with the current cost of living. Delighted I tried it, happy with the outcome, but did struggle a bit to pay it. The different time zones with the therapist is hard to navigate sometimes but I suppose that's how they maximize the number of therapists available.

Length of Use: 3–6 months

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

BetterHelp has connected me to an amazing therapist but I believe that she is not compensated enough for her efforts. Some therapists do not respond promptly, or truly care about their clients, and the ones that do do not get the recognition they deserve. In terms of the app, I have had difficulties with it working correctly or connecting me to my providers at times but it works well for the most part. I had an excellent representative help me switch my service plan over, and he responded very quickly, which I was very grateful for. Overall it is a great resource to help people get connected to some really helpful providers!

Length of Use: 1–2 years

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

Obviously, you didn't read thoroughly. I understood from the first moment I visited the site that I would be billed weekly, and that on the first month they would charge a lump sum. I hate when bad reviews that were written by ignorant people affect how people judge a product. You have to read with your eyes open.

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

First things first: I had never tried counseling in my life before trying BetterHelp. So, I have no idea of how in-office counseling looks like.

I have read in many other reviews that the service might be stealing your money if you aren't careful. In my personal experience, I had read that they would charge my card automatically in case I didn't cancel my subscription, so that didn't surprise me, and honestly doesn't look any different to me than how many other online service providers work (Amazon Prime, Netflix, Spotify subscriptions, to name three).

Having the possibility to write to your counselor every day has been really useful to me. I was a bit skeptical at first, but I was having a lot of grief-related issues at the time of my subscription, and the counselor that was matched to me was clearly very professional and an expert on the matter. I was able to fix many things and to get a better perspective on my life in a very short time, finding the energy to take action every day in a moment when it looked like I was on the floor and would never get up again.

In short, BetterHelp has changed my life for the better. I don't know if I'll keep using it for a long time (I'm currently in my fourth month), but the results are so far convincing me that it is money very well spent.

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

I just recently signed up with BetterHelp, and it has been a good experience. Melaney has been a great therapist. She jumped right in with my issues. I was surprised to receive messages on Sunday and Labor Day, just shows how dedicated she is to her clients.

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

After struggling alone through a rough patch, I decided to try BetterHelp.com. What a wonderful concept! I was matched with a counselor that I clicked with right away and received the support I desperately needed at the time. One of the many great features I enjoyed is that the level of communication between my counselor and was as needed. You pay a monthly membership fee, and can "talk" to your counselor as frequently as you need on your own time.

At first, I would have long frequent chats and emails, and now I send shorter updates with successes and have a weekly phone call. I found this to be a luxury since I work full time and have young children. There is no way I could have afforded to see a counselor in person the same way I was able to with better help.com. I also briefly tried their sister site ReGain.us for couples counseling.

I have recommended it to friends and family and would encourage anyone to try it. You can always change therapists or cancel your membership with no questions asked. And with or without insurance, you cannot beat their membership price. My only regret is that I didn't sign up sooner.

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

I have never done counseling online or done counseling at all in my life. When my father passed away, I sought out help online due to the lack of counselors where I am from. BetterHelp has been great! I love my counselor, she’s awesome and has helped me slowly move forward and gain some normalcy back in my life. I felt so lost and couldn’t understand how I was feeling, and she helped me sort my feelings out and gave me the advice to help me move forward at my own pace.

Aside from being billed the $180 for the first three months, my experience has been great. Thank you BetterHelp!

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

I started using BetterHelp based on a friend's recommendation to seek counseling. I have always been paranoid and not trustful of mental help professionals, so I found this method of online assistance more beneficial to my needs. You are able to interact with an experienced counselor without the intimidation of visiting a doctor face-to-face or having to explain a mental health appointment to coworkers.

At first, I explained a lot of details about myself and was not sure if I was getting the right help or not. However, I later realized this information helps the counselors correctly evaluate your individual needs and tailor different solutions that are the most beneficial to you. Also, I realized that the informality of expressing yourself online versus having to potentially share intimate details of your life in person is much easier through this communications medium. It is more beneficial to customers with busy schedules, time constraints or just reluctant to meet a counselor in person.

Having used BetterHelp for a couple of weeks, I recommend it as a beneficial method to assist people in need of any assistance or just a way to improve the quality of life.

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

The best thing about BetterHelp is that I could find there a great therapist - Terry Carreiro. She is an incredibly experienced and professional therapist, who could help me understand a lot of issues, was very supportive, energizing and motivating and gave me practical methods to change my behavior the way I wanted it.

The BetterHelp service is pretty well; easy communication, flexible payment schemes, and decent contact quality.

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

BetterHelp's online counseling is convenient for people with hectic schedules that don't have room for regular 9-5 office visits. Counseling can be via email, group session, or one-on-one video chat; just make sure the counselor assigned to you communicates in a way that works for you. It's also easy to request a new counselor if needed.

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