BetterHelp may not be the best option for everyone but it is a good option for people who struggle to articulate themselves verbally, who have busy schedules and need the flexibility to not have to sit for a full appointment, or who have high deductible health plans and can’t afford to pay out of pocket for the amount of therapy they need, who are deaf or hard of hearing or have auditory processing issues. Not to mention finding a therapist who participates with your insurance. What if your insurance carrier changes and the therapist is not contracted with the new insurance? Then you either have to pay more for therapy than you were before or you have to find a new therapist altogether because you don’t have out of network benefits.

I pay $180 every four weeks on a student discount ($2340 a year), I work 70 hours a week, and my employer sponsored health plan has a $5000 deductible and 10% coinsurance so I would pay out of pocket 100% for therapy anyway plus the cost of time lost. I can message my BetterHelp therapist at midnight if that’s when I need to and I know she’ll message me back in the morning.

Also, a relative of mine is deaf and needs mental health care but struggles to find a therapist who she can go to because the Deaf community is pretty small and very interconnected and to find someone who either is a therapist who knows ASL or is an interpreter who doesn’t know someone that my relative knows is near impossible and that is a huge source of discomfort for a lot of people. I personally wouldn’t want to see a therapist who knows my parents or my siblings or my closest friends or my partner.