E-therapy is the same thing as electronic therapy or online therapy. Online therapy is a form of therapy that connects mental health clients with their therapists via secure online therapy platforms. HIPPA-compliant online therapy platforms like BetterHelp offer online access to mental health seekers who prefer to chat with licensed therapists.
Therapy professionals online offer 24-hour access to therapy sessions with teen counseling professionals, marriage and family therapists, licensed clinical social workers, and other licensed mental health professionals. These licensed professional counselors have thousands of hours of hands-on therapy experience. Online therapy sessions are conducted via online video, chat, phone, and audio.
When you're seeking online counseling or online therapy, it's important to make sure you're getting high-quality treatment with licensed, professional counselors and other licensed mental health therapy professionals. It's not enough to be connected to a secure therapy platform via chat, phone, or audio. You're sharing your personal information and troubling issues -- you want to make sure you're getting excellent treatment. This article will cover the top picks of platforms that offer counseling for couples, licensed marriage and family counseling, as well as depression, grief, and individual counseling options. BetterHelp – Without a doubt, BetterHelp is my favorite online therapy service. I have been a member for many years, and I have built a wonderful relationship with my online counselor.
BetterHelp separates itself from other online counseling services by offering unlimited online therapy sessions between you and your therapist. You can communicate with your counselor via live chat, telephone, text messaging or video chat. Presently, there are over 18,000 licensed and certified therapists available on the platform, each possessing a minimum of 2,000 hours of real-world experience. You are not locked into any lengthy contacts and you can cancel anytime.
BetterHelp is fully HIPAA compliant and secured by 256-bit encryption. MyTherapist.com is an online counseling/online therapy platform that specializes in online referrals for psychologists, therapists, social workers and counselors who all have either a Master's or Doctorate degree in their field. Each has been certified by the state in which they practice and have at least 2,000 hours and three years of experience.
They offer text messaging, live video or phone chats, phone calls, and video conferencing. Some of the specific topics they provide include grief counseling, parenting, depression, relationship issues, stress and anxiety, LGBT issues, family therapy , post-traumatic stress disorder, addiction, and eating disorders. E-therapy, distance therapy, and online counseling are all examples of virtual counseling. Virtual counseling provides mental health clients with access to psychotherapy sessions online using online video and audio capable platforms. Two leading therapy apps that have a strong online presence are BetterHelp and Talkspace.
Read the above online therapy review to learn more about these leading providers that have a strong online presence in the world of online therapy. The national average cost of therapy in the United States is between $65.00 and $200.00 per hour. Some of the costs of therapy sessions can be covered by health insurance. Talkspace, another leading therapy provider, offers online therapy services that start at $99.00 per week. For mental health issues that are not life-threatening, online therapy or online counseling is effective. When people take part in popular therapy modalities like cognitive behavioral therapy and relationship counseling -- the results are the same as in-person therapy.
Some insurance providers cover the cost of online therapy and mental health services. For example, popular insurance provider Blue Cross Blue Shield offers online therapy coverage as a part of their behavioral health benefits package. It's up to the insurance provider how many therapy sessions your plan will cover. If you're planning on using insurance to pay for therapy online -- check with your health insurance provider to find out how many therapy sessions are covered in advance.
Many insurance providers offer therapy plans that cover the costs of cognitive-behavioral therapy online on HIPPA compliant therapy websites. Not all insurance companies cover the costs of online therapy via secure therapy websites. Check with your insurance provider to learn if video conferencing or chat sessions are covered in your plan. If you're suffering from mental health issues including depression, anxiety, burnout, or post-traumatic stress disorder , you may be a good candidate for affordable online counseling.
Getting therapy or counseling online is also recommended for couples taking part in relationship counseling. Leading therapy providers like BetterHelp and Talkspace provide clients with access to a 24-hour therapy platform to connect and communicate with your licensed counselor. Professional therapists practice popular therapy modalities like cognitive-behavioral therapy , exposure therapy , and many other talk-based forms of psychotherapy that are used in face-to-face counseling. This website has over 1,000 therapists to choose from, and an average of 30,000 visitors per month for phone and video sessions.
They have an 80% success rate for those clients who used Breakthrough as directed. They provide online therapy or counseling for many mental health issues, such as anger management, depression, anxiety, postpartum depression, bipolar disorder, and addiction. You can search for a therapist by specialty, insurance type, provider type, or location.
Their plans start at $50 per hour, which is a bit more than the other mental health resources mentioned, but this may be due to the broader insurance acceptance. They are recommended by The New York Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, Oprah Winfrey, and The Boston Globe. All you have to do to start is to answer a few questions online, and they will match you with a licensed mental health professional within 24 hours.
The next step is to chat with your therapist by messaging live or using face-to-face therapy. If you're not comfortable with your provider after trying messaging therapy -- you can change counselors any time you want, no questions asked. The service offers an online therapy platform for individuals, couples, and teens. The only type of online therapy that is covered by health insurance is the kind offered through telemedicine providers, such as Amwell, MDLive, and Doctor on Demand.
Generally, the therapists on these platforms are physicians, psychiatrists, and psychologists, and they only treat people through video-conference. Due to how similar these services are to in-person therapy, many health insurance companies cover these interactions. Depending on the type of plan you have, you may only need to pay a copay, which can be significantly less than the cost of an online therapy app.
Some health plans don't cover mental health services outside of psychiatric care , and, if they are, the insurer may limit the number of sessions they will cover. Unfortunately, none of the online therapy services included in this list are covered by health insurance. Though the industry is growing and evolving, many insurance companies have not yet acknowledged the effectiveness of text-based therapy. Online psychotherapy offers many advantages like benefits for the therapeutic process and the therapeutic communication itself, also by being more convenient than traditional settings of psychotherapy. Both many patients and therapists seem to be satisfied with the use of online psychotherapy.
Not surprisingly, this kind of psychotherapy is increasingly being used. Online psychotherapy might even improve and extend the therapeutic relationship. Of the six video therapy services we tested, only Doctor On Demand requires all of its therapists to be psychologists with a doctoral-level degree, either a PhD or a PsyD.
When clients and therapists meet to discuss issues, these confidential meetings typically last between minutes per session. The length and frequency of sessions is set by you and your therapist. The convenience of getting online therapy allows you to choose the best times for you to chat with your therapist via live phone, audio, video, or secured chat sessions. Therapy sessions can last for as little to ten minutes to as much as an hour. Shorter sessions are great for quick check-ins or pick-me-ups for people taking part in individual counseling, relationship counseling, or teen counseling online.
If you read the above therapy review then you already know that online therapy provides an always-on online presence that makes it easy to get therapy on your own time. The cost of therapy sessions or counseling sessions, online or in-person, can vary and depend on several factors. Important factors that can influence the cost of therapy sessions are location, conditions treated, and other factors.
With the advent of the Mental Health Parity Act -- insurance providers are legally required to offer coverage for therapy services. The therapy service provided has to as affordable as medical health benefits. In a nutshell, while your insurance costs and coverage for therapy may vary, they must remain within the same specified out-of-pocket costs guidelines as medical health care. For example, physical checkups in a doctor's office can not cost substantially more than therapy sessions with licensed mental health providers. Some health insurance providers cover therapy services and therapy sessions online while other providers will only cover the costs of in-office therapy. There are free, low-cost, and sliding-fee scale therapy options available for anxiety, depression, relationship counseling, and other mental health-related services.
Public health departments and other community service-based organizations can put you in contact with free, low-cost, and sliding-fee therapy options with licensed therapists and counselors in your area. Ask your therapist if they offer sliding-scale therapy, or inquire with the online platforms mentioned above about free trials or reduced pricing. One of the biggest and most discussed disadvantages of using psychotherapy is the risks with regard to privacy, confidentiality, and data security. Online psychotherapy creates new challenges to therapist competences which brings about the need for new forms of training and education, especially technological competences regarding many technical issues that might occur.
Technological competence is not only needed by the therapist, but also by the patient. New communication skills are needed and particular attention must be paid to the development of the therapeutic relationship regarding the many boundary issues that might occur. Difficulties herein are put up by new access and availability issues and the loss of therapeutic control. The comparability to in-person treatment might be questioned and some fear danger to the image of psychotherapy.
Online, new forms of misuse are possible and charlatans might utilize this kind of psychotherapy to achieve financial gains. Other feared disadvantages of online psychotherapy are the dehumanization and stigmatization of patients, patient dependence, and loss of patients' autonomy. New adherence issues might occur regarding the ease of ending an online session. Online supervision and teaching and the use of social media raise further ethical questions. Extensive costs might be faced by patient and therapists, when using online psychotherapy, for example, to set up the new technologies.
Last but not least, the negative influence of technology itself might endanger its users. The service can be standalone or an adjunct to traditional psychotherapy. The various terms used to describe such services generally refer to psychotherapy delivered remotely using some form of communication technology. These terms may differ slightly according to professional context or technological modality. Talkspace – This was the first company I joined when I began my search for an online therapy service many years ago.
Talkspace allows you send an unlimited number of messages to your therapist with all plans. If you are on the premium or ultimate plan, you are guaranteed a weekly face-to-face video conferencing session with your therapist (from iOS/Android device). Talkspace allows you to choose from over 5,000 licensed and state-certified therapists. Talkspace is HIPAA certified and covered by certain health insurance companies.
Use coupon code "SPRING" to save $100 off your first month of service. The number of sessions in a mental health treatment plan are client-specific and are based on a number of factors. Depending on the clients mental health state and diagnosis, a therapist or clinical social worker may adjust the number of recommended sessions for a client. The therapy treatment plan is normally developed between the mental health client and the licensed therapist that have thousands of hours of hands-on therapy experience.
Your therapist will develop a treatment plan for you based on several factors. One of these factors is the answers to the behavioral health questionnaire you were asked to provide during your initial session. Now that you've read about some of the best online therapy sites out there, you can make an educated decision about which one you'd like to explore. Online therapy is a convenient option for those of us who lead busy lives and can't make it to a local therapist, and is also covered by health insurance in many cases.
Rather than waiting until the next session to connect with your therapist, you can message online therapists between meetings. You've read about Talkspace, BetterHelp and more of the top sites that offer online therapy. You now have more information to make an educated decision as to which site fits your needs.
Contact your health insurance provider directly to learn if your plan covers behavioral health services. All therapists are licensed and include accredited psychologists, licensed marriage and family therapists, licensed clinical social workers, or licensed professional counselors. Counseling sessions take place with your therapist via video conferencing, phone calls, chatting live, and exchanging messages. Providers offering unlimited access allow their users various forms of digital communication with their therapists. This may include phone, text, live chat, message boards, video messages, and audio messages. Although the therapists might respond only a few hours, and sometimes a couple of days, after the messages have been sent, there is still an ongoing dialogue that allows clients to communicate exactly how they feel in real-time.
The therapists then respond and provide support, often referencing previous live sessions or messages. According to mental health professionals and the American Psychological Association -- over 43 million Americans suffer from mental health disorders. Anxiety, depression, anger management, and substance abuse are top reasons why people seek mental health care services with a licensed mental health professional. The large number of people suffering from mental health issues means that about one out of every five people is affected by the negative symptoms of stress, anxiety, and mental illness.
The subject of mental health sometimes holds a bit of stigma or embarrassment for some people, making it hard to convince them to get the help they need. A study conducted by the Berkeley Well-Being Institute and published in 2019 would seem to indicate that services like BetterHelp with online counseling are just as effective as face-to-face sessions. While people use BetterHelp for many different reasons, the study noted a 70 percent decrease in symptoms of depression as reported by participants during the study period. The study found that BetterHelp was as effective for patients without prior traditional psychotherapy experience as it was for patients with previous exposure to face-to-face psychotherapy. BetterHelp is among the largest, and certainly most recognized online therapy services in the world. Their platform connects users with licensed, professional therapists via video, phone, chat and messaging tools.
