4 Reasons Why I Like BetterHelp Online Therapy So Far

And 2 complaints.

This is the sequel to my review of my 2 years' experiences on Talkspace, a platform I ultimately decided to leave.

This review of BetterHelp is a preliminary one, because I decided that given all the things going on (i.e., a pandemic, political unrest, racism), I needed to revisit therapy.

I’m not affiliated to them in any way other than being a paying client. I’m offering my perspectives just because this journey of navigating online therapy has been a wild one, and I found that watching other’s Youtube videos and reading their articles really helped shape my own choices.

You don’t have to be alone in this journey, even the “pre-journey” into therapy.

This is my first week on BetterHelp, so instead of the in-depth review of my whole experience, this is more about the features that I’m liking so far, and how I envision them to support my journey.

I’ve subscribed to a 3-month package (priced at $45/USD per week), and will definitely do a wrap-up summary in 3 months. Stay tuned for the update!

Throughout, I’ll make comparisons to Talkspace not because I necessarily think that Talkspace is worse, but rather because that’s the baseline that I’m working from. This is important to consider because what fits for my mental health might not fit for you, which is why I want to be open about specific experiences so that you can draw those conclusions for yourself.

Here are four things I like so far, and two complaints.

#1: The plan makes more sense to me

Whereas Talkspace’s pricing is tiered by having video sessions added on top of a base plan for unlimited texting, all of BetterHelp’s plans are the same, and what differs is the number of months you’re subscribing to.

All of BetterHelp’s plans thus include:

• unlimited text, video and audio messages (asynchronous)
• weekly live sessions (chat or phone)

This same plan costs less weekly if you subscribe to 12 months rather than 3 months, and you can certainly try out just one week to begin with, although it will cost almost twice as much. It’s like how 10lbs of potatoes might only cost you $5 but if you buy one (1) single potato for one (1) recipe, it’ll certainly cost you $1.88.

I personally landed on a 3-month plan. I reasoned this out because it usually takes about three months to make change and really carry it out, and I want guidance up to that point of really internalizing new skills. The 12-month plan was too long, despite being cheaper; the 1 month-plan felt too short, and costed $20 more per week. The three-month plan ended up being my Goldilocks “just right”, being affordable but also not too long of a commitment.

#2: Weekly Session Chat option

While BetterHelp also has a phone option, I decided to try their chat option, where you can type to them rather than talk to them. I’ve had my fair share of phone therapy sessions, and I find that if there’s nothing visually engaging me it’s hard for me to focus. (That’s also just me and my weird visually distractable brain.)

Let me start by saying that I love the features of the weekly session chat. Unlike other asynchronous texting options (offered in BetterHelp and also on multiple other apps, like Talkspace), having a live texting chat is so different.

Specifically, the most powerful feature that made it more like an organic conversation is that you can see as people type, as they type. So instead of seeing “XXX is typing…” as we do in other texting apps, therapy or otherwise, you see exactly what they’re typing, so it doesn’t feel like you’re waiting around to see what they’re writing.

If you think about it, that’s exactly what we do if we had a phone chat. It’s not like they finish saying everything, send it over, let me listen to it, and then I do the same vice versa. This “peek into what the other person is typing” helps create a flowing, uninterrupted conversation.

Sure, one side effect is that you can’t change your mind or edit what you’re saying without clearly editing what you’re saying, but that’s also the same when you speak. If you mispronounce a word, they’ll hear it instantly.

Yes, having someone see you typo or change your mind is weird, but I found that it was important not to censor myself when reflecting in therapy.

Being able to notice and acknowledge and work with those automatic thoughts is what we’re paying the real money for.

#3: Journal section — for rants and keeping track

I love the journal section because I envision it being a space where I can dump my thoughts, and then, afterwards, decide whether I want to send that entry to my therapist.

Sure, with other apps I was able to just do that on a separate Google doc and then paste it within the main chat. However, when that same information is sent in-line into the conversation, I found that most therapists I worked with became overwhelmed. The therapists I worked with thought that they had to respond to every sentence, and write a whole paragraph back too, even if I clarified that this was just an attachment. I found it conflicting to be asked to journal and to attach the journal and then be told that the journal was too much, you know?

I ended up forgoing this sharing just to not overload the therapists I was working with. This was counterproductive because they were additionally asking me to complete journalling, and journalling was actually a huge part of my existing coping strategies. So not being able to share that with the therapists I’m working with was a barrier for me.

The strength of journaling and sharing journal entries with a therapist, and for yourself, is that you can see the themes and patterns in your automatic thinking.

Having a system that separates whether something is just a “huge, complicated thought” that needs to be addressed in chat today versus something more of an appendix to consider tendencies over time — that was important to me.

#4: Daily check-in chat

This is actually the same as any other online therapy platform. I do like having daily check-ins. However, daily check-ins can be heavy and emotionally draining if the messages you’re getting daily are about dismantling your most catastrophic thoughts, or some other thing your brain needs full mental bandwidth to tackle.

Because of features #2 (weekly chat sessions) and #3 (journal/rant system that is separated and treated like an attachment for slower review), this takes the burden off of the main chat. This allows the main chat area to be what it needs to be — a daily check-in on simple mental health and self-care status. Daily check-ins such as:

How are things going and what’s one thing we can do to better your mental health today?

Or,

Did you get a chance to try out the exercise? Let me know if you have any questions. Attached is a variation of that exercise that might be more helpful given what you’ve told me!

So in my opinion, the strength of BetterHelp so far is the compartmentalization and organization of different aspects of therapy, so that information isn’t just in one place. That way therapists don’t feel overwhelmed by the organization, and I don’t feel like I have to bite my tongue or queue important revelations for later.

Complaint 1:

The daily check-in chat has a terrible text editor. Imagine this — when you hit the spacebar after a word, the space won’t show up until you start typing the next word. It’s so frustrating it’s almost comical.

It’s just a tiny UI complaint. But I truly spend an inordinate amount of time wondering why that happens. Luckily, live chat sessions happen in a much better designed separate window. I just wonder why the main chat can’t have the same UI as the pop-up live chat, y’know?

Complaint 2:

This is actually the same complaint I had about Talkspace, and about in-person therapy: I wanted a BIPOC therapist, or at the very least, someone trained in working with BIPOC.

My previous experiences involved working with therapists who claimed they had a range of experiences working with BIPOC but ended up perpetuating racist stereotypes and microaggressions. It left me wondering how those other clients were feeling after sessions, or after working with them.

So I made it a deliberate effort to check all the boxes and make special notes to be referred to a BIPOC therapist. I ended up with a white therapist, which was disappointing. When asked, my current therapist did claim to have experience working with BIPOC clients. Only time will tell — stay tuned?

But rather than being a characteristic of BetterHelp (although all platforms and mental health clinics should do their own reflecting), it’s a characteristic of a wider issue that mental health clinicians aren’t trained enough in working with diverse populations. I’m really holding out on hope that this will be an exception though.

I’m really curious how things will go over the following few months, and if you are, stay tuned! If you have any questions, free free to tweet me.