BetterHelp Reviews - See What Customers Are Saying

All I asked for was a conversation and all I got in return was allegations that I was dishonest, that BetterHelp was for people who had "less severe mental health issues." The irony in all of this is that I was asking for help resolving communication errors and I thought a relationship counselor would be the one to talk to. Instead, I got 3 messages for the whole week, none of which were about my issues, all of which were her telling me she thought I wasn't forthcoming and had mental issues, and then finally she said she didn't like my tone when I asked her what she meant...right before canceling our scheduled live session...so she REFUSED to even listen to me to see if all her predictions about who I was as a person were even right! Absolutely insane that this person is a relationship counselor when she refused to even listen to me and just sent accusation after accusation. What an absolute scam! The great irony is that I was seeking help with my communication skills, which I told her, and she refused me due to my communication skills. Seriously, how is this person a counselor?

Length of Use: 3–6 months

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

I tried two counselors with this service. One seemed underqualified and curt, the other was totally checked out, ending sessions early, chatting for 20 minutes when I'd scheduled a video session, talking to her child during my therapy, etc. For the amount you pay per session, I expect more.

Length of Use: 3–6 months

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

I signed up, the first week I didn't get to have any sessions. Second week I signed up for a video chat session. The counselor informed me the system wasn't working so she could only do live chat. 16 minutes into the live chat we got booted out and she said "that happens sometimes", so it was a waste of a session, I got nothing out of it. So I told her next time I want an hour-long VIDEO session. 15 minutes before this session she messages me she thought it was a live chat, not video, so she didn't bring her equipment, so did I want to do a live chat or reschedule. When I told her this is ridiculous, this is what happened last time, she showed no remorse and told me to find a new counselor. All of this for $80 a week? No thank you!

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

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

Very high price to pay to receive rude behavior from a professional therapist with over 10+ years of experience. I believe she’s a scam artist or this website is a ripoff. I’m very unhappy.

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

Wish I could give no stars. My therapist stood me up and wouldn’t respond for days after she missed sessions. People come here for help and being abandoned by your own therapist does the complete opposite of that.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

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

The therapist would not speak to me even after I emailed him repeatedly. I think he just wants the money. Maybe one day I will find a therapist that cares enough to try to help me. Or maybe I’ll just have to endure a sad pathetic life.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

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

In this month period, I had two counselors. The first was good for the most part, except she was doing some coursework and I didn’t feel like I got any info from her, but she did try at least better than the second one. The second one, although she had a Ph.D., she made me feel like I was talking to an inexperienced person who would not comment on any of my traumas besides saying “okay” like say something else! She only laughed when I laughed and that was it. She cut my meetings very short, the most was 20 minutes max. I feel like I wasted money, time, and effort. Very disappointed because I was always pushing myself to go to therapy to heal, but instead I got the opposite!

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

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

I feel like it was a complete waste, the counselor canceled twice on me on the day of the sessions. I went for help and instead got disappointment.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

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

Never get a chance to talk to her. Bad attitude! Irresponsible!

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

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

I paid $260 for this service and as of 1 month I have not communicated nor spoken to a single individual. They are not here to help you, only to get your money.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

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

If you want an online or in-person therapist who does not take the time to listen or read before responding and is dismissive immediately if you voice any concerns about feeling unheard, then this is the therapist for you.

I found her rude, dismissive, and I have never felt so unheard by a therapist before.

I only changed therapists because I moved and had a lower income and I feel like she waited long times to reply and wouldn’t ask questions that related well to what you had said before.

In fact, it was the opposite.

I don’t write reviews often but needed to because my experience was so bad.

Overall with her style of online therapy, you would pay less and get more out of seeing an expensive therapist in person.

This app is a great idea and I am happy they have platforms like this but therapists like Natasha are what will give them a bad name.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

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

I would suggest to everyone to stay away from this company. They provide no services. The thing is a scam and a ripoff. They are disrespectful and abusive of clients who have psychological problems.

I would never recommend them.

Length of Use: 3–6 months

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

The rating is actually zero stars. I specified I wanted a non-religious therapist and was initially matched with an overtly religious person. I changed therapists, picked one from my matches, and her first initial response to me was that we wouldn’t be a good match since I’m LGBTQ. This service is tricking people into thinking they care about mental health but the reality is far from that. Never again will I use this service. Nor will I ever recommend it.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

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

My first therapist cut our first session short (only 15 minutes), then after our 2nd session, she went on vacation (time in which I was charged), and then did not show up for the 3rd. I was reassigned to a counselor who only offered live chat. She took so long to respond I cleaned my office while waiting. She completely disregarded my actually stresses in favor of telling me things I already knew (which I shared with her, only to be ignored completely). Would not recommend this service to anyone.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

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

I had the most unpleasant experience ever with BetterHelp. My counselor logged me out of a session I paid and waited for because she said texting was not her style of therapy. Texting is an option offered both on their platform and clearly stated as a modality in her profile. The truth is that she could not admit that 1) she did not read the entries I was asked to write daily in the journal, 2) she did not work on the questionnaires she had given me to complete therefore when I asked for the results she insisted on changing topic (I am literally embarrassed for her), 3) she said I was upset when I was absolutely not - I was only trying to understand why our relationship could have not been equal; she just needed an excuse to leave, and 4) and she did leave; I was left alone in the chat room wondering what the heck just happened. You don't do that to a vulnerable person. She should have her license removed.

BetterHelp? A bunch of criminals! Shame on you! Scamming people and making profits on their misery!

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

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

BetterHelp has been horrible, difficult to schedule, and unresponsive on getting assistance scheduling after counselor cancellations. Super bad.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

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

I had a psychotic episode about a month before I ended up on BetterHelp. After my episode I had a hard time getting in to see someone without admitting myself to an inpatient unit. My dad suggested this app to me. I had one Zoom session with her and all I had to say to her was “sometimes I feel like I’m 5” and she from there said “oh maybe you’ve got some multiple personalities?” And from there I literally dissociated constantly just from the thought of it. I was having headaches and I was very very sick. I couldn’t keep food down and when I asked her why this “therapy” process felt so unnatural she just said that it was from the dissociation and would be very short with me. I ended up in the hospital having what they now think was a bipolar 2 episode but it was triggered by the seed she seemed to plant in my brain. I could’ve easily lost my life with the way this “therapist” handled me. This app SHOULD NOT be used to treat severe mental illness and I’m almost wondering if it isn’t connected to something much darker than just “helping people”. Stay away from this app.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

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

I keep getting new therapists and having to do an intro session with them. You get one session per week and it's not cheap.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

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

BetterHelp shared with me a therapist who does not do telemedicine and she is not trained in the modality I requested. She is trained in CBT. In case you do not know it, CBT doesn’t particularly work.

I have PTSD from trauma and this is not a modality where I have even spoken to a tolerable therapist. I find that odd considering I spent three hours writing just a few sentences about every close friendship I have and it took me over three hours and I was far from finished. I can almost promise that I have better coping skills than any therapist you have. I am not sure why they sent me this authoritarian nightmare. I decline.

If you are a trauma victim, do yourself a favor and find a modality that actually works. Do not let them victimize you with that drivel. Find a counselor who at minimum is qualified in Internal Family Systems. You will be on to the healing process quickly and process exponentially more quickly than CBT. CBT does not work.

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

Do you know how hard it is to find a culturally intelligent, queer-friendly, trauma-informed, BIPOC therapist in Texas who specializes in trauma, PTSD, and grief? Someone who is capable of doing therapy around inner child healing? It's darn near impossible.

At 38, I'd finally reached a place where I had done so much work on myself on my own and processed and coped with the complex trauma that I've endured, and navigated suicidal ideation, depression, grief, and sexual abuse trauma, and I was TIRED. I knew that I'd gone as far as I could carry myself and it was time to seek help.

COVID had done a number on so very many of us, and I'd been laid off, in March of 2020, and had been applying like a fiend for jobs left and right with zero luck. I was on the last stretch of my savings and I knew I had to save as much as I could, but I desperately needed help. So, I said, forget it. I'll go donate plasma to bring in the money to afford the help I needed.

I will say this - BetterHelp was AMAZING. They worked with me to get me a reduced rate for therapy that was like $40/week. Which was life-saving for someone like me. And for that...I will be forever grateful to them.

I'd been on BetterHelp for the better part of a month trying to pair with a therapist that could meet me in a place where I didn't feel like I was going to have to provide education for the experiences I bring to the table, but who already was familiar, culturally speaking, and well-versed in the type of work I was needing.

Ultimately, this proved to be far too challenging of a task and here are a handful of examples of what I had to go through.

I scheduled a session with a fourth counselor over a week in advance, and the day of, at 3:50 am, she canceled our 11 am appt. No apology and flippantly said, "You can reschedule for a later date (her next available date that aligned with my schedule was another 2 weeks out), or you can just pick another counselor. Either or." Let's break this down:

1) "Either or"? She actually said, "either or." I don't care who you are...that response is far too flippant. It's not either or. This isn't a coffee date. This isn't an Instagram Live demonstration. This is a therapy session. Most often, people reaching out for help are not in the best place. So, it's not "either or." A lot of people reaching out for therapy have major issues with people letting them down or not following through in their life, so this is super irresponsible of a counselor with zero acknowledgment of how disappointing that would be.

2) "You can switch to a different therapist." Please refer back to the part of this review where I lay out why as a queer, WOC, whose needs fall smack at the intersection of PTSD and grief, "matching with another therapist" isn't just as cavalier and simple as that.

3) Contacted at 3:50 am to cancel an appointment at 11 am on the same day, especially when most people wake up a little later on weekends, and aren't going to see that so readily, is just cutting it far too close. Now I know things happen, family emergencies are real, you have zero control over this stuff, and the family emergency very well may have blown up at 3:45 am that day and 5 minutes later she was canceling appointments.

All I'm saying is, there's got to be a better way to communicate this. The message had no apology, no empathy for how jarring it may be for someone reaching out for help to be canceled on last minute for an initial session with a therapist, it was just...what it was.

The other thing about BetterHelp is, I understand that for many therapists, BetterHelp may just be a supplemental income source in addition to their own practices, but, the people on here reaching out are real people. With real needs. And we do deserve more.

The second therapist I matched with didn't listen to anything I was saying, kept mispronouncing my name, kept looking offscreen as though something was in the room with her (issues of a session being private).

The third therapist I matched with told me verbatim, "It sounds like you need to learn how to compartmentalize what you've been through and relegate it to the far corner of your mind." Um, no ma'am, that sort of strategy is what has brought me to this point in my life.

She was overly aggressive, was talking about non-therapeutic strategies (like ritual writing things down and burning them to release them) on the first session before we'd even attempted to tackle any issues. What? When I told her I wholeheartedly disagreed with her "compartmentalizing" suggestion, and that I believed it was possible to address the problems and exist in peace with them, she told me I was being combative with her and rejecting all her suggestions and that I was putting a wall up with her. Sigh.

All in all, the process was super draining. Super demoralizing. And left me feeling like counseling is trash and that if I am ever going to move through my grief and pain, it's gonna have to be on my own. Which is a very lonely thought.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

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

I had an unsettling experience working with Professor Felder. First, it was very distracting that he is working in what looks like a bedroom, with an open and messy closet behind him and messy personal effects on a dresser. It felt very unprofessional. During one session the door to the room he was in opened and stayed open for the duration of our session.

I am a therapist myself and Professor Felder's clinical skills were not great. He offered interpretations that did not feel like they fit, and rather than listening he often jumped to conclusions. In our last session, we ended up talking about some of my childhood stuff, including some situations with my parents that felt very difficult and hurtful for me. Then, instead of helping me sit with those feelings, offering empathy, or helping me unpack everything I brought up, he immediately shifted to focusing on my body language (me brushing my hair back from my face, and the fact that I was holding a pen) and said that he had been "baited" into talking about the past. There is a time and a place for here and now interventions but this was not the time or place.

If felt off, and I communicated that to him, and instead of hearing me he doubled down on defending the shift into body language interpretation instead of attending to my feelings of my childhood wounds being ignored. I ended the session feeling manipulated and unseen. I would caution others who are dealing with deeper emotional wounds to choose a therapist who is better at listening instead of having an agenda that plows over your own emotional experience.

Length of Use: 6–12 months

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

Paid for two months to have the therapist cancel the day of the appointment. I have received no help or attention. This company will take your money and leave you feeling even more depressed than ever.

Length of Use: 3–6 months

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

I would give 1 star if I could. I was canceled an hour before my first two sessions and then I was stood up for my "first" third session that I had scheduled. I am extremely disappointed with BetterHelp. I am requesting a full refund and will not be scheduling any more appointments. Being canceled on/stood up for the first 3 appointments is SO unprofessional. BetterHelp has never reached out to me either. Being that this is a mental health site, I am super disappointed in their handling of the situation.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

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

It took a week for an appointment. Fine. I joined a group session. We all were hurting and complaining and exchanging ideas, but we are not therapists. Why didn’t the therapist say anything!? My appointment finally gets here and the therapist canceled me saying I’d prefer video. She doesn’t offer video, so I chose chat. This app has made my mental health WORSE. Thanks BetterHelp!

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

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

They set me up with a joke of a therapist (Marcos Villareal), who didn't seem to listen to me, nor seemed all that interested in my mental health struggle. They also charged me for a week of therapy in April, when I haven't spoken to my therapist since march. This organization is a total joke.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

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

I would’ve thought my therapist was in a parking lot of a Starbucks — the WiFi sucked, and her reception was terrible. Obviously, she was home because I heard 30 cats meowing nonstop. She never made iContact, never gave me any real input, and just regurgitated what I said to her. Sad, absolutely sad. I found better information and more help off of YouTube.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

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

I chose a therapist, Paulette Chobot, and scheduled an appointment. I was looking to finally deal with survivor's guilt/PTSD as I have lost my entire family. I spent 45 minutes sharing my painful past. Once done the therapist said pick a card (really is this magic?). I selected a card, she says this tells me you are creative. What the heck? Ok, I don't want to pass judgment on that nonsense, so I let it go. I asked for a weekly standing appt. She said I am on vacation next week but can meet the following week. The night before my appt she messaged me saying, "I am taking a full-time job and no longer counseling. I won't charge you for tomorrow's cancellation." Really, you are canceling? I wasted $360 on my initial appointment and 45 minutes of a painful first appointment when the therapist knew she was taking a full-time job. I am waiting on BetterHelp to do the right thing and refund my waste of time appointment fee. I will update this review as to their response.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

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