What is better between Online-therapy and Betterhelp?
By
OptimistMinds
As a BetterHelp affiliate, we may receive compensation from BetterHelp if you purchase products or services through the links provided.
Author bio
The Optimistminds editorial team is made up of psychologists, psychiatrists and mental health professionals. Each article is written by a team member with exposure to and experience in the subject matter. The article then gets reviewed by a more senior editorial member. This is someone with extensive knowledge of the subject matter and highly cited published material.
This article will discuss which online therapy platform is better between Online-therapy and Betterhelp. The article will show how each of them works, and what you should consider when making your decision.
What is better between Online-therapy and Betterhelp?
If you are looking for online therapy, and are trying to understand if Online-therapy or Betterhelp are the best ones for you, we will help you decide now, based on some aspects such as the services they offer, the pricing, the plans they have, and how they help you choose a therapist.
The services they offer
There are many differences between the services each of the websites offers. To choose from them, you should focus on the one that seems to make you more motivated, and engaged in your process of healing, since both of them will put you in touch with CBT therapists.
So when discussing the services provided by each of them, know that Online-therapy will give you a course that is divided into 8 modules to help you learn more about the condition you have, and how to cope with it, based on the CBT line.
It will also provide you with worksheets that can be done by the client along with their therapist, so they can give you the proper feedback. It also offers you tools for journaling, in which you can write about your thoughts and short-term goals.
The website also offers much meditation, and yoga videos, along with the possibility to do live messaging, chat sessions, and even video calls with your therapist. In Betterhelp, their most valuable service is the huge number of professionals they have, that are open, and experienced to deal with any type of mental health issue.
It also offers the chance of live chat, calls, and video calls with the therapist, and it is open to help teens, adults, and even couples that are struggling.
The pricing
It may be that you are questioning which website to use based on the pricing of each of them. What you should know is that in that aspect both websites are competitive, and also affordable. What you should consider is what each of them offers for the plan you can afford.
In that context, you should know that Online-therapy is divided into three pricing. You will have the basic plan that costs $31.96/weekly, the standard which is $47.96/weekly, and the premium plan which charges $63.96/weekly.
In the basic plan, the client will have access to 25 CBT worksheets with daily feedback from their therapist. In the standard plan, you will have that, plus live chat with your therapist, and messaging support. The premium plan combines all that was listed above and adds two live chat sessions each week.
Betterhelp will have plans that will go from $60 to $80 a week, and you can choose how you want to be billed by them. It can be weekly, monthly, or even quarterly. Know that on this website if you go long term, the prices will be cheaper, and it is only in the most expensive plan that you will have unlimited texting, video sessions, and even phone calls.
The plans Betterhelp has
When comparing the plans each website offers, it seems that through the Online-therapy plans the client with the most basic plans will have access to more activities when compared to the client that has the basic plans on Betterhelp.
While first, the client will have a lot of tools to assess their state, and to keep them motivated in the healing process, but also is a great tool for feedback between therapist, and client. In Betterhelp the basic plan will often mostly offer unlimited messaging.
So if client ever needs one on one time with their therapist, they will need to subscribe to more expensive plans, and the most expensive one is the one that will allow you to have a video session with the therapist.
How they help you choose a therapist
Both websites will have their particular way of helping you choose a therapist. In Betterhelp they will ask you a lot of questions as soon as you log in, those will help them understand your history, and what are you looking for in your therapy process. That will allow the website to direct you to the right therapist based on the AI’s crossing of information.
But it is not because they assigned you one therapist, that you need to stick to it. The website allows you to change the therapist at any moment, even before you start the process. As for Online-therapy, it focuses more on the matter that brought you to look for help.
As you get on the website, you will answer questions that will determine what condition you are going through, if it is depression, anxiety, or any other mental illness. Through that, the website will recommend you a therapist, but on this website, you can also send a request to ask for a change of therapist.
What is Online-therapy?
Online-therapy.com is a therapy website that not only focuses on attending to the client’s needs within the therapy session. It is a website that will connect you to various mental health professionals that are specialists in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) but also offers you an extensive array of activities to help you care for your mental health.
In that sense, the website offers self-help courses that contain everything you need to help you identify what is causing your suffering and think of ways to overcome it. It also offers plenty of worksheets, journals, and activity plans to keep the client motivated toward their healing process.
Whenever their clients are dealing with an extremely stressful situation, they can also find yoga, and meditation videos to help them calm themselves down. The website was created as a response to the Coronavirus pandemic, to help connect people that were struggling with their mental health to professionals that were willing to care for them.
What is Betterhelp?
Betterhelp is one of the most known online therapy websites. In it, more than 3000 board-certified therapists are willing to help their clients through whatever mental health concerns they are going through.
Similar to Online-therapy, in Betterhelp most professionals follow the CBT line and are more than ready to help you cope with depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, and any other mental health issue. On the website, it is possible to find therapists for teens, adults, or even couples.
On the website, it is possible to find many ways to get in touch with your therapist. It can be done through live chat, video call, or even call therapy. When you decide to join therapy in Betterhelp you will decide on your package’s billing, be it weekly, monthly, or quarterly.
Why is online therapy good?
Online therapy has become more and more popular for a few reasons. First, the Covid 19 pandemic, which led all of us to intense emotional distress, made us all stay at home. In that sense, even people that were already in therapy realized they wouldn’t be able to go to their therapist’s office.
In that, more and more therapists turn online, so they could continue supporting their clients through this trying time. But that isn’t the only reason why online therapy is so valuable.
It is also a tool that will offer people that are distant from big cities, who don’t have many mental health professionals close to them, the chance to care for the suffering they are going through.
And finally, online therapy seems a good way to make access to therapy more democratic. It is not only people that can pay $200 a session that can take part in therapy nowadays. There are people from different backgrounds and different financial conditions that can all look for help to deal with their mental health.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): What is better between Online therapy and Betterhelp?
Is doing online therapy the same as doing face-to-face?
Yes, doing online therapy will likely lead you through the same process that a face-to-face process would. The most important thing, in both of them, is that you feel you are talking to someone that you feel listens to you deeply, in a caring, supportive, and non-judgemental way.
If you find that and are motivated to explore your feelings, and change, chances are you will be in the process of healing yourself, it doesn’t matter if you talk to your therapist online, or go to their practice.
What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a line of therapy that will focus on helping people to identify the behaviors that are harming them and to learn how to change those.
It is a line of psychotherapy that will try to help you change the negative thought patterns that are often making your anxiety, depression, or other mental health condition worse. There are many types of CBT, and in each of them, the professional will deal with the client’s concerns differently, to help them improve.
When should I change my therapist?
Changing therapists is never a simple matter. You should identify what is leading you to want to change first. That is because, sometimes, therapists may say things for us to reflect on that at first, we may not like.
So if that is what happened, discussing it over with them, and understanding if it is something in the process, will help you make that decision. You can also consider changing therapists if you feel like you are not heard, or even if you feel your therapist hears you in a judgemental tone.
What should motivate me to go to therapy?
Most of the time people will go to therapy because they realize they are dealing with a lot of suffering and pain, and feel like they are unable to deal with that on their own. So if you have come to this point, this may be your first motivator.
Aside from that, you should also be motivated by the possibility that therapy will change you. And even though that is not always easy, this change may mean that you are growing.
Can I be discharged from therapy?
Yes, if at some point your therapist realizes that you have reached the goal you set for yourself in therapy, it may be the time when they will start discussing with you when they will discharge you.
Conclusion
This article focused on discussing which of the two online therapy platforms is better, Online-therapy, or Betterhelp. It also explained how each of them works, and what to take into consideration when making your decision.
If you have any questions or comments about this article, feel free to write them in the section below.
References
Find Hope and Healing Through Online Counseling on BetterHelp
