How does it work? Betterhelp Inc…
After filling in a questionnaire to ascertain what particular flavour of psychological you are, you’re coupled with a counsellor, who you can mercilessly swap for a different one at any time. (I got Dr. Laura Dabney, from Virginia). You then kick off an instant messaged treatment session that both you and your counsellor can drop in and out of, and which could, in theory, continue up until among you eventually died.
What does it cost?
You get a totally free seven-day trial – similar to a complimentary Netflix or Amazon Prime trial, other than with way more questions about what your childhood was like. After that, it costs from , 24.50 a week for unlimited message-based counselling and one ‘free’ phone session with your counsellor monthly. Yeah, I do not get how it’s free either, but whatever.
How much is BetterHelp monthly?
If you discover the idea of baring your soul to a complete stranger a bit awks, filtering that through instant messaging might be helpful. You won’t get the exact same connection as with in person counselling, but the semi-anonymity may make it much easier to open if you’ve been consuming 2 bottles of rum and dancing around in your dead nan’s bridal gown every night.
She initially established the scale of my anxiety, what triggers it– social circumstances, fulfilling people for the very first time– and after that dived headlong into my fractious youth (divorced moms and dads, stretched familial relationships, bullied in junior school). She was quite nosey tbh, however then that’s her task, isn’t it?
In general, the service is remarkably slick. The discussion can be a little stop-starty sometimes, but it was really a far smoother and more on-tap experience than I anticipated. I even got quick responses to messages over the weekend, which was unexpected.
Talkspace vs Betterhelp
The truth you can edit messages prior to sending them suggests you’re not likely to blurt out something unguarded and revealing in the heat of the minute. Extensive moments of realisation might be hard to come by if you can’t get an unwinded flow going.
Who do I think it might it benefit?
Anyone with a low-end mental health concern who’s cool with getting counselled in a very internet-y, 2016-y method. If you’re living under the blackest, bleakest cloud possible and need serious attention (and potentially some meds), probably isn’t for you Betterhelp Inc