Online therapy can be a convenient, affordable, and accessible alternative to in-person therapy. It also works: As a licensed social worker and mental health professional (and as someone who goes to therapy), I know how helpful it can be to
talk issues through with a trained professional. Research says that online therapy is just as effective as in-person therapy, especially when using tried-and-true approaches like cognitive behavioral therapy and treating anxiety, depression, and PTSD.
I’ve spent the last three years reporting on the best online therapy services. During that time, with the help of a team of researchers and testers, I’ve reviewed 55 different online therapy companies, supervised thousands of hours of testing, and pored over thousands
of survey responses, all while evaluating important things like pricing, insurance acceptance, and services offered.
What to Expect from Online Therapy
♦ Who is it for? Someone who wants to work through challenges, improve their overall wellbeing, or receive help for a mild or moderate mental health condition. It is not for people dealing with serious mental illness or who are in crisis or suicidal.
♦ Will insurance cover it? Maybe. Most companies list the insurance plans they accept or let you search for your plan when signing up. We’ve noted the online therapy services on our list who accept insurance.
♦ How does it work? Generally, to get started, you fill out an intake form or questionnaire. Be sure to read through the privacy policy to better understand whether it is HIPAA-compliant (HIPAA is the law that protects personal health information) and
whether it shares any private information with third parties; we recommend opting out of data collection. Then you'll schedule an appointment to talk with your therapist over video call, phone, or text.
♦ What’s the time commitment? Sometimes you can start feeling better within a few weeks, and other times you might need to work with your therapist for months or even years.
♦ Does online therapy work? That depends on your commitment to doing the hard stuff, the skill of your therapist, and the services offered by the company. There’s no guarantee. But, if you find the right therapist and put in the effort, you’ll be
surprised at how effective it is.
How I Review Online Therapy Services
I’ve spent years testing and surveying real therapy users and reviewing their experiences to help rate and share the best online therapy services. You can see a full breakdown of our online therapy research and testing process on Verywell Mind. Here is an overview of how I capture and evaluate firsthand experience and survey data.
Firsthand Experience
I had 65 different people sign up for talk therapy with all 55 online therapy companies reviewed. Over the past three years, I’ve published 153 reviews (here are our reviews for BetterHelp and Talkspace, for instance). I had my testers try
out each company's therapy services, and if the company offered other services (like couples therapy and kid or teen therapy) we tested those too.
I asked each tester to try each service for at least a month, which usually meant between two and six sessions at
each company. I also asked testers to switch therapists partway through, if possible, in order to get a holistic idea of the offerings and quality of each company. My testers were located all across the United States and abroad, meaning I gained extensive
information about each company's services in a variety of areas.
User Surveys
I surveyed more than 8,000 therapy clients who are currently using one of the 55 online therapy companies tested or who had used one in the recent past, as well as users of 27 different online therapy directories. I asked users to evaluate
each company's services, from their therapist's qualifications to whether they found a therapist who met all their needs to how they'd rate the company overall—all told, I gathered 350 different data points.
Medication and Online Therapy
Therapists, whether online or in-person, are not allowed to prescribe medication. (In a handful of states psychologists can, but this is the exception.) For the most part, only psychiatrists and psychiatric nurse practitioners can prescribe
medication to treat mental illness. If an online therapy company also offers psychiatry or medication management services, that means that they have prescribers on staff, separate from their therapists.
Psychiatry services are generally more expensive than
therapy services, and the follow-up sessions are shorter than therapy sessions (usually around 15 minutes).
When looking for online psychiatry, make sure the company in question offers this service—they will advertise it as a separate service from online therapy.
While signing up for the company, you will have to indicate that you are looking for psychiatry or medication management. From there, the company will usually match you with a prescriber.
