How much does BetterHelp cost: Ultimate pricing of this Online Therapy
By: Mahmuda Afreen / Read more about us.
When you can’t afford the cost of an in-person mental therapy session, BetterHelp is the best one there. This online therapy platform costs $35 to $90 weekly depending on the type of service you have chosen.
It’s easy to sign up and pay for any service you like from the website by answering a question. And they will suggest you an experienced therapist to get going with your sessions.
However, you are always free to request for changing the therapist. Moreover, the text messaging, audio messaging, and live sessions offer a vast opportunity to get you rid of the mental issues.
BetterHelp Therapy per Month membership cost?
On average, Betterhelp Therapy costs from $60 to $80 per week. As the service works on a monthly subscription, the monthly costs range from $240 to $320.
However, the weekly cost can go down to as little as $35 regarded that you go for a yearly subscription for a long-lasting therapy. The lowered cost makes it more of a budget-friendly option.
| Service type | Minimum weekly cost |
| One month subscription | $60 |
| Three months subscription | $45 |
| 12-month subscription | $35 |
As the above chart shows, a 3-month or quarterly subscription can let you save up to 15 bucks per week on this online therapy platform.
However, the cost mostly depends on four things including –
- The type of service you are choosing
- The duration of the sessions or subscription
- Insurance coverage
- Location.
Now, let’s have a quick look at the following chart that shows us the monthly expense depending on the selection of any subscription.
| Service type | Monthly cost |
| One month subscription | $240 to $360 |
| Three months subscription | $180 to $300 |
| 12-month subscription | $140 to $260 |
The cost reduces as you subscribe for a lengthier session. Moreover, you are allowed to cancel the subscription anytime if you don’t feel the need of continuing the Therapy.
It costs half of the in-person therapy sessions monthly. If you meet a mental therapist face to face, it can cost you $150 to $300 per session. Consequently, the monthly cost can be thousand dollars depending on the number of sessions.
At the same time, BetterHelp approaches the clients at a cheaper rate and offers the most reliable possible service.
The Monthly subscription includes three different types of sessions with the counselor including –
- Weekly one live video session
- Unlimited voice calling
- Unlimited text messaging.
What if you can’t pay the monthly subscription fee?
Financial aid is the best option you have when you are almost unable to pay the monthly high subscription fee. However, it’s not going to make the BetterHelp online therapy entirely free; rather offers a discounted price.
When you are there to make the payment on of these services offered by the platform, there will be an option as financial aid. The person needs to answer a few questions there to check the eligibility.
- Monthly income
- Job
- His current position
- The number of kids etc.
After answering these particular questions, if the person is selected for financial aid, he or she can get any services at a discounted rate.
Types of Therapy: What are the Therapy options in BetterHelp?
However, this online counseling service started the journey back in 2013 along with Alon Matas, who is the founder and president of BetterHelp.
He has created this online platform to create a bonding between experienced therapists and patients. The mental health need allows the patients to interact with the counselors through live video sessions or simple text messaging.
What treatments are offered by BetterHelp to their patients?
The expertise of counselors is one of the key features of this very platform that provides the most reliable service according to the patient’s need. You can easily communicate with experienced therapists and have chat sessions or live sessions.
These are the few treatments offered by the platform.
- Cognitive-behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Mindfulness therapy
- Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Solution-focused Therapy
- Trauma-focused Therapy
- Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)
- Motivational interviewing
- Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
- Client-centered Therapy
- Psychodynamic therapy
- Family therapy
Individual counseling:
When you are an adult of 18 years or more, you can consult any of this huge number of therapists from BetterHelp to get your mental issue solved.
Couples Therapy:
Individual Therapy is another type of counseling offered here. If you having relationship issues in your marriage life, it’s a great time to get the right type of counselor according to the need.
Teen counseling:
BetterHelp doesn’t basically offer Teen counseling as the minimum age requirement for the users is 18 years. However, there’s a sister website to provides counseling to teenagers.
For which problems BetterHelp offer online Therapy services?
The company has experienced professionals in this field who have at least three years and 1,000 hours of working experience.
For example, mental health therapists and marriage and family therapists work for individual and couples issues respectively. Meanwhile, trying to select therapists based on your need is key.
- Anxiety and stress
- Trauma and grief
- Mood disorders
- Depression
- Relationships
- Childhood abuse
- Substance abuse (substance use disorder)
- Eating disorders
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Parenting
- Chronic illness
- Family conflict
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorders
- LGBTQIA+ issues
BetterHelp Sessions
The sessions from this online Therapy platform typically last for 30 minutes. However, the user is always allowed to extend the session duration by contacting the therapist.
Even a lengthier session can be as long as 50 minutes to 60 minutes. Meanwhile, you can get four sessions in general.
- Phone call
- Video call
- Text messaging
- Live chat
Phone session
It’s a safe and easy way to contact the therapist and discuss the problems. All you need is to schedule the time of the session. However, it’s not like you have to share any phone number with him.
Everything done here is by the BetterHelp app, there isn’t any privacy concern as well.
Video session
Joining the therapist through a live video session is pretty similar to arranging a face-to-face meeting with your therapist. The rule is to join the meeting room at the appointed time.
Messaging the Therapist
One of the greatest features that are included in this online therapy platform is interacting with the therapist through text messaging. However, in that case, you can expect to get a reply from the professional the entire day.
The counselor is supposed to answer the client’s text at least once a day. If you are someone who isn’t that much comfortable with audio-video calls, text messaging is a good method to try out.
Moreover, you are allowed to text the counselor 24 hours a day and tell what you are feeling. Whenever that person replies, he’ll suggest you do something for the betterment or appreciate the betterment.
Live chat session
Live chatting is kind of similar to text messaging, but here you are subject to getting an instant reply from your therapist. First what you need to do is arrange a therapy session by consulting with the counselor.
After that, you will share the problems within the allotted time and the counselor will answer your questions with the solution. The good thing about this chat session is that you can interact without seeing or hearing him.
Moreover, the texts remain in the chat room as long as you have the subscription.
However, two more options are offered by BetterHelp for the betterment of the clients.
- Groupinar
- Journaling
Groupinar offers up to 20 live seminars each week for better interaction. Moreover, the live seminar link is provided in each of the participants’ email addresses if accidentally he or she can’t join in time.
On the other hand, journaling means gathering your thoughts and feelings regarding your progress. Although it may appear like sharing something on social media, only those who are allowed to see can see this.
BetterHelp cost with Insurance: Is the Therapy covered by Insurance?
Although you might think of using health insurance like Medicare or Medicaid provider to get insurance service from BetterHelp, it’s not there.
The reality is that the therapy platform suggests no insurance as the services are already cost-efficient.
Compared to in-person therapy sessions or any other online therapy, they offer a cheaper rate both weekly and monthly.
Meanwhile, financial aid is there to help you reduce the weekly expense rate a lot. If someone is chosen for that particular service, he is subject to get a discount on the actual cost.
Is BetterHelp’s online Therapy worth it?
It’s hard to answer whether the online Therapy platform is worth the cost or not because it’s a controversial topic. Now, to solve the controversy conveniently, we’d like to categorize who needs the service and who doesn’t.
Why should use BetterHelp Therapy?
When you are shy about interacting with unknown people whether it’s a therapist or someone else, online Therapy seems to fit you most. More reasons are there letting one choose it.
- Need not sit face to face with somebody.
- Has the messaging option for convenient interaction.
- Select either video or audio depending on your preference.
- Communicate with the therapist anytime.
- Deciding the right time for chat sessions.
- Group therapy option.
- Cost-efficient than traditional Therapy.
Who shouldn’t use BetterHelp Therapy?
In the opposite circumstance, you may not like interacting with an expert online other than in-person meeting for such a serious issue. In that case, you should think twice before choosing online Therapy.
Some other reasons behind not choosing BetterHelp are –
- Can’t have complete trust in online Therapy.
- Dislikes chatting through either video or audio calls.
- Unsure about privacy.
- Changing therapist frequently is a pain.
- Not having a fast internet connection.
- If the mental health condition is severe.
The cost always remains on the lower end for Betterhelp when it’s compared to traditional Therapy. But if the user personally thinks that the expenditure is worthy of what he’s getting, then it’s truly worthy.
BetterHelp vs. Talkspace cost
Both BetterHelp and Talkspace offer specialized counselors to work with clients having mental anxieties and frequent panic attacks. But BetterHelp appears as the winner here in terms of cost.
Talkspace charges $65 to $100 and sometimes more per week, whereas the charge ranges from $60 to $90 for its competitor. At the monthly expense, Talkspace will comparatively charge you more.
However, Talkspace offers counselors for teenagers as well as the minimum age requirement to get the Therapy is 13 years, which is 18 years in BetterHelp.
Is BetterHelp a safe therapy platform?
Yes, BetterHelp is a safe therapy platform because it uses a personalized chat room for each of the users to let him or them interact with the personal therapist.
Moreover, no one has to share any personal information for video or audio calling as the App itself is made for all of these chatting options.
Pros
- Low-cost than in-person Therapy.
- Financial aid to reduce the weekly cost rate.
- Letting you change therapist anytime.
- Allowed to cancel the subscription anytime.
- Choosing from a vast number of therapy options.
- A free trial of 7 days.
- 24 hours of messaging opportunity.
- Experienced counselors with 3 years and 1,000 hours of experience.
Cons
- No vacancy for mental Therapy for teenagers.
- Doesn’t provide any doctor’s prescription.
- It’s not a mental problem curing process.
- Sometimes it’s hard finding a suitable therapist.
BetterHelp online Therapy vs. Traditional Therapy
The expenditure of a single session of Traditional Therapy can let you bear the entire month’s cost of Online Therapy. The platform charges no more than 360 bucks per month.
On the other hand, the average rate for a traditional, face-to-face therapy ranges from $150 to $250. And you can expect to pay more up to 100 bucks per hour if there is an extension of session duration.
Therefore, online Therapy from BetterHelp appears more of an affordable option than traditional, in-person Therapy.
Cost analysis
The cost to get involved in this online mental therapy platform depends on the type of service you choose to go for. The website offers a vast number of services to choose from.
Meanwhile, there’s financial aid option for reduction of the actual cost that works as a replacement for Insurance.
Another key factor that impacts the entire week and consequently the monthly charge is where you live in.
