Online Therapy

[whelk]

Anyone any experience of using it? Keep hearing adverts for BetterHelp and wondered if any good. 
 

[Turkish]

Surely this place is all the therapy anyone could need?

[Lighthouse]

I prefer a straight jacket, electric shocks and a large, butch matron when I go a bit loopy.

[whelk]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

Surely this place is all the therapy anyone could need?

Alas no good for my daughter. Wouldn’t want her near all the weirdos

[Holmes_and_Watson]

5 hours ago, whelk said:

Anyone any experience of using it? Keep hearing adverts for BetterHelp and wondered if any good. 
 

A while back I read some articles about people contacting a variety of online mental health sites, with pre determined issues, as established from existing therapy. Then they honestly interacted with the online platforms. The results were... not great.

BetterHelp weren’t one of those, but I saw some links to them from searches at the time.

Not to understate how serious mental issues feel to the individual, in the wider view there's a severity of conditions. BetterHelp, from then at least, did not operate on any level approaching higher levels of severity.

Anything requiring that level of support, really isn't their business model. And the reason I remember them, is that it was crystal clear it was a business model. They monetised the heck out of it.

Selling your data to third parties, upfront time bound payments, underpaying therapists (a number of whom were just doing this as a handy side line anyway, resulting in mixed levels of focus on what they needed to be doing for that sideline), lack of credentials/ experience/ varying approaches.

They, like lots of other companies, happily inundating platforms with ads, and using paid influencers (and considering the subjects, dealing with issues of trust with their users). I guess they are having another push here.

A quick search shows plenty of 1 star reviews. Lots of 5 star ones too, but I'd be looking to check the veracity of some of them (again, like I would for lots of companies).

Having such services available, using zoom and skype where local solutions aren't an option for whatever reason, seems like it could be a great help to a lot of people. No doubt, there are some very capable therapists available on the platform too.

From the few folk I know to have used it, the information I got was a bit mixed. Getting a good fit with a therapist was a common trend. But I guess that also means it's not hard to switch if you want to. From there it ranged into it not really going anywhere/ not a good fit for some, to it doing what it needed to do at the time. Which I think is pretty good, myself, even if that person didn't take it too much further. 

Edited January 28 by Holmes_and_Watson

[Holmes_and_Watson]

21 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

I prefer a straight jacket, electric shocks and a large, butch matron when I go a bit loopy.

Yes, I forgot to provide offline alternatives.

 

[moonraker]

9 hours ago, whelk said:

Anyone any experience of using it? Keep hearing adverts for BetterHelp and wondered if any good. 
 

Yes, and I would recommend them.  PM me for more info.

 

 

Edited January 28 by moonraker