What’s it Really Like to Work as a BetterHelp Therapist? 

I'm leaving BH at the end of the month, and I can offer some current insight into this. The reason the pay seems so variable is because of how they structure the pay program. For the first 5 hours per week, we're paid $30/hr. The next 5 hours is $35, then $40, then $45. However, we are only paid for a maximum of 45 minutes per session, even if we go over. So we're not getting paid 1 hour per session. I'm no math whiz, but if you count your pay by the client session (as most psychologists typically do), then we're only getting paid about 75% of those hourly rates. I earned more with my first 4 private practice patients each week than I did with all of my roughly 25 BH clients. We also have to respond to any interaction with the client "in a timely manner." With about 25 clients, it felt like I was constantly in chat with them all day M-F, and I could have been on Sat-Sun if I hadn't set that boundary. Please don't get me wrong - the clients weren't overstepping or doing anything wrong. The BH platform gave them this tool and they were using it. I just think that whoever thought providing this tool was a good idea has never been a therapist and didn't understand the logistical and emotional drain this feature causes for clinicians.

They don't pay well. No LCSW should be paid $15 to see a client for 30 minutes. It's not worth it. After two months, I decided to leave. Most of my cases ended within that time frame also because the client couldn't afford $300 plus a month and wanted to use insurance elsewhere. It's not cheap for clients and they don't pay therapists well. So that's a huge red flag.

It's like they took the concept of therapy and distilled it down to "contact with a therapist." Contact does NOT equal therapy. I am sad to see that our profession is getting commodified into this. It's almost a BOGO sale or something. Makes me very sad.

To fellow therapists. Please don’t support companies like this. Community mental health and non-profits are now paying therapists close to market rates. Private practices will pay 65% as a standard. Taking work like this produces a market which separates you from your means of service so much so that it nullifies your advanced degree and is a disgrace to your abilities and worth. Stick to agency counseling, self employment as a contractor or start your own small business.

As a former BH client, I hated BH. I was matched with a couple different therapist and none of them felt "professional". One of the therapists I matched with also canceled on me multiple times and I would have to reschedule even though I already paid for that week. So on top of my already heavy mental load I would have to contact billing support to get refunds. It never felt professional to me, and I never felt like I was getting real help. Now, I have found a therapist that I see in person and it's a million times better.

If only Better Help used all that money they put into their legal teams into their therapeutic teams maybe they wouldn't have this issue......🤷‍♀️

I’ve only ever heard horrible feedback from fellow therapists about working for BH. It’s so upsetting therapists are treated in a way that compromises their well being AND the well being of their clients at the same time. It’s WRONG and I hope everyone gets wise to BH’s shenanigans. Because of everything I’ve heard, I would never associate with BH professionally. Thank you Marie!!!

Just to add my own personal experience with BH as a customer on the pile: It helped me turn my life around, but seems more fit for drastic "drop the toxic job, set basic boundaries" things instead of the backstory dive of "Okay, let's investigate where this problem is coming from." kinda things. So, a very strong starting point for those who just need a supportive voice / Push in the right direction. But ill fit to actually deal with vague complex/larger underlying challenges.

So I’m not a therapist but I had my concerns about signing up as a client for a few reasons. The intake screening form is VERY short which can make it unlikely that you would make a good match to begin with. If the therapist you’re matched to isn’t a good fit for you, then as a client, you’re back to the “dating game” of trying another therapist which probably further delays any actual therapy you receive or issues you can resolve. Again, as a client…I filled out the form, including a 10% discount code from a podcast I listen to and then waited to be notified of my therapist’s name and profile. When I was notified a few days later, my therapist didn’t match any of my requests except for being female. So I decided to take a few days to think about it and, what’dya know, I started receiving additional discount proposals! Sign up and we’ll make your first month an additional xx$ lower. When I didn’t reply, they sent me another email with another discount… I let the offer expire because at the price quoted, I couldn’t see how the poor therapist was getting paid anything. My last concern was the max 45 minute session. By the time you spend a few minutes going over how things went last week and then at the end, going over what homework the client can work on, how much actual time is there for actual nuts and bolts? In the end, the sales pitch of how convenient it would be to not have to drive or be in traffic or wait in a waiting room etc were far outweighed by factors I thought were not conducive to a good client or therapist experience. Completely different business and maybe not a perfect comparison but loads of people who crunched the numbers when the first ride share app launched suspected the only ones who would make money were the companies, not the drivers. Could that be the case here too? That’d be my suspicion. In the end, I would prefer to pay more for a well qualified therapist who has the time to take time for me to get feeling better. Hard to picture this being possible at $15-30 per appointment. Therapists study for a long time, then do unpaid internships etc to build practice hours and they, like any other professional deserve to be paid appropriately. Just my 2 cents

I’m so so glad you’re covering this topic. It’s so important!! I shared my feedback on your Instagram pole and was happy to see my comments were shared. I want clinicians to be aware of these items when making a decision that is best (or if BH is not what’s best) for their practice. Thanks for what you do for our therapist community! 🧡🧡

Ohhhhh mannnn lemme share my experience! I worked there for three years and never felt so burned out in my life. Their approach is a breeding ground for personality disorder and goes against everything one should do when working with personality disorders...I got in trouble after setting clear boundaries with borderline and narcs and in the end felt it wasn't worth continuing because I felt so devalued. In my end email to them, I told them the tech world and mental health shouldn't merge unless tech folk were truly invested in mental health

I'm in a clinical counseling master's program right now and had seen the ads for BH. I am so glad to hear more about them from insiders.

I am so glad that I came across this video. Just yesterday, I received an unsolicited email from someone that works at BH. They are offering me free lunch if I attend one of their presentations online talking about what is like to work for them. I have never contacted them or requested any information from them so I found that odd. I went ahead and emailed the person back asking how he/she obtained my email. I was told that they got my information from LinkedIn. It seems as if they are hungry to hire therapists, and that is a red flag to me! I can only speculate that they are losing therapists and are constantly hunting for more!

I am just starting my masters program in CMHC and feel strongly about the potential positives of telehealth therapy services on the clients' side of things. The first version of telehealth therapy I heard of was through BH, mostly because they sponsor so many RU-vidrs. I don't expect every sponsored content creator to know all of the ins and outs of this field, especially when it is still relatively new therapy for therapists themselves with the sudden sharp increase in use of telehealth in the pandemic. Still, I wish more RU-vidrs and other folks considering sponsorship through BH would do a bit more research and watch videos like yours, and the many others out there that uncover the opinions and insights of therapists who have actually worked for the site.

I'm an influencer and I've seen so many BH sponsorships from others it's insane. I've been talking a lot about mental health on my channel but I would never consider promoting them. It breaks my heart to see my favorite RU-vidrs doing sponsorship deals with BH 💔

Thanks for doing the public a service by creating this video. Not only are therapists paid less but they are 1099 workers so you’d have to subtract 25%-30% in taxes and you’re paying for your own healthcare. Seriously you’d do better at your local chic fil a at least they have great benefits and other perks you wouldn’t get at better help. Don’t know why therapists are still working for them. There are so many services that can help therapists with building their own online business. If not that then there are better telehealth platforms out there. What really grates me are the big names in mental health that are using them as podcast sponsors. They should know better whereas celebrities or non mental health professionals who endorse them aren’t as aware of the downsides of this company

Good for you for reposting and not backing away entirely!

As a starting therapist, you can make SO much more by not working for Betterhelp. My first job was working for a group practice (60/40 split) but as an independent contractor I had to do my own marketing. I opted to use the free version of TherapyDen, paid for PsychologyToday, and signed up to be on the list as a provider at my local mental health america and NAMI. I easily filled my caseload!! And I didn't have to sell my soul to this company..plus I got paid more than $30 an hour. If you are new to the field, don't do it!

I've been a therapist with BH for 5 years now. As with most things in life, it's a mix of positive and negative. The main negative is the terrible pay. Even with taking into account that there is almost no overhead, no need to advertise for clients, no billing, etc., etc., it feels bad to make so little money. I will give the caveat that it's mainly true for when you work part-time, like I do. If you see more clients, you earn more per hour. On the plus side, I love being able to see ahead of time who is matched to me and then having the option to accept or decline. I love having everything on one secure platform, which makes it easy to communicate and send clients handouts if so inclined. As for the boundaries aspect, I believe that it's up to each therapist to make sure they don't feel overwhelmed. Set boundaries for how often you'll respond to messages, what you'll do about lateness or no-shows, etc.

BH had a sliding scale when I worked there. $30/hr for the first five hours, then $35/hr for the next five. Except client sessions were 45min each so you had to supplement with BH's worksheets, texting, and if clients wrote in a journal. And clients didn't always do that, that's a lot of homework. It's a lot of work for little money.

Thank you for this video. I quit my full time position at a local cancer center in hopes of doing BH full time and it didn’t work out for me. In order to make the same amount that I was making at my last job, I had to have about 50 clients. A lot of clients no show, and you don’t get paid the first time they no show. They reimburse you about $15 every no show after, which in my opinion is just not okay. The sessions as you mentioned are 30 or 45 minutes max so whatever hourly pay you get is misleading because it comes out to less. They pay you more the more clients you have so it’s very much this factory style of seeing clients- the more you can see, the better (never mind taking your time to work with each client). Clients can also switch at any time which is great on the client side but it’s difficult for therapists to constantly have to start over with new clients, build rapport, and have helpful sessions in only 30-45 minutes.

Ooof, there was a betterhelp ad at the top of this video too - I'm sure auto-generated by RU-vid, but definitely ironic. lol

I’m gonna say what you probably can’t - if Better Help threatened legal action bc you explored the topic and gave your opinion that should say a lot. It’s frustrating they have the best SEO and come up on top. I worry they are becoming fat cats like insurance companies off the backs of therapist. I’d like to see the difference between what clients pay and what the therapist gets. Of course starting a business and keeping the platform they should get a portion of the pay but ….. Also if therapists are going there bc they can’t fill a practice I would question what’s going on there from a client perspective. Ok don’t sue me better help. This is my OPINION.

Kudos to you for giving everybody a space to share the experience! I’ve seen other popular social media therapists advertise for them and it makes me sick to my stomach knowing how they treat the clinicians they hire.

Thanks for posting this perspective. Their marketing is so omnipotent/present that it overrides how exploitative BH and TalkSpace is. Tech corp taking advantage of rapidly rising need for mental health services and exploiting clinicians. It really perpetuates the devaluation of our work and burn out.

Thank you for sharing this. I am not in the field of therapy but was always curious on BH. I never thought deeply about what the therapists go there since the ads are geared to just help the client and ease for client. Burn out is no joke and I feel bad that therapists feel that way.

Excellent video. Thank you for bringing awareness ❤️

Thanks for this video. Shared this in a student questionnaire about digital (psychological) help. Not a therapist but I think their side is easily forgotten when looking at the possibilities of digital care. Especially helpful due to the input of multiple people! So thanks to them as well

As a client on BH, I want to support my therapist because she is truly the best therapist I've ever had. I finally found the therapist who can help me! How do I support her? I'm willing to give her what she is worth, I just didn't know BH treated their therapists so poorly. Do I cancel BH and find her in person?

This is why I provide therapy via my standard rate and my Open Path Collective rate. I don’t work with big tech and I am still able to see clients for $60-300/session.

It is also important to remember that you are contracted, so that means that you have to do your own withholding for taxes. You don't actually get to keep the money that you make because you are not an employee. You are a contractor. This is a very important factor to take into consideration depending on what the taxes are like where you live.

businesses like these should be illegal

I appreciate your work very much. You are a helpful advocate for therapists. That hourly amount does not include the taxes and overhead costs. Continuing ed, liability insurance, mandatory membership, computer costs, scheduling time and progress- processing notes. This doesn't even include some study re: all the complex client needs which we all assume as our own responsibility.

Masterful job of cakewalking given the litigious context. I know one therapist who was sued by BH for simply *in my opinion only* showing their privacy policy and sharing opinions of other therapists. I'm also concerned (my personal opinion) that BH is creating a counseling agency mill. Kind of like Gentle Dental, only for therapists. And, given all that I have heard from others, I'm very concerned with their use of influencers on social media and what that will have on counselors in private practice and the profession as a whole.

I received help from a therapist from better help about a month ago so far I been receiving the help I need. So far the service it well,I'm pretty much getting what I'm paying them. It's been great on my end

Totally agree with everyone’s feedback here. Glad to know I’m not the only one feeling/seeing BH in this light. Additionally, the BH algorithm is so ridiculously flawed. You get emails every week noting “there are 80 people in your area looking for a therapist…” You then as a practitioner turn your availability on only to then get a notification that because you don’t have enough open slots on your schedule you won’t be referred any new patients. That seems to be such a contradictory experience. Oh well…. I don’t have Dr before or PhD after my name so no one cares what I think.

Super helpful!

Ok I can finally tell you why as a seasoned therapist this is the reason (worked 2 weeks ago there) NO RECORDS U DO NOT DIAGNOSE OR WRITE PROGRESS NOTES OR ANY DOCUMENTATION! U do not know the name of the person (last name) there is no assessment you complete or goals etc (normal/mandatory/ethical regulations) in the company. A Ct could not get records bc there aren’t any. Additionally, they want you working 40 hours and sessions are only allowed either 30 or 45 minutes, emails/texts are also a form of therapy there and you have clients texting, emailing, etc repeatedly and you are expected to respond. I could go on and on. The clients sadly are the ones losing out as their physicians are recommending this place and most I encountered had great insurance but not knowledgeable (bc they are not therapists) on how this company is ran. It is heartbreaking that this is occurring. I’m still in shock 🤦🏻‍♀️😳

You can tell by their ads that they're not legit because they use a psychological prompt and preface everything with..."You feel stressed, overwhelmed, anxious etc." And this is supposed to actually MAKE you feel those things so that you use their product. It's not subtle at all and no legitimate therapy service would use that language in that way.

Super helpful! I was tempted to apply for Betterhelp (but I got a bad vibe). I am making more on Alma and Headway… $$$

I began working at BetterHelp in 2020 during lockdown. For me the first year was great. I was given many patients quickly and I learned a whole lot. The rubric for pay depends on the amount of patients that you see. You are paid 30 dollars per session for the first 5 sessions, then 35 for the next, to for the next 5 and so on. The dashboard is open to the patients daily and they can write journals to you and communicate in between sessions. If you do not take care of yourself you can burnout. Depending on the state you reside you have to pay quarterly taxes of up to 37% of your income. Many of my patients were awesome and we fostered good relationships. This is a good job for a part timer. If you try to get a higher salary you will have to overwork and that is not good for our patients.

The problem is that they are charging less than $300/month for therapy. That is a very low amount. It's unsustainable. Someone is going to get the short end of the stick when prices are that low. They pay therapists way too little because their price is too low.

Thanks for posting this. I’m also curious about some of the virtual groups, like Headway and Alma. Alma makes me nervous because of the venture startup capital that went into making it huge; the really high rates they are offering therapist don’t seem sustainable.

Thank you for this video! My mom is a retire LMSW and i was hoping to help her figure out how to get set up. I wondered if we are getting fair wages in her offers and Im glad I could reference it somewhere

Thank you for sharing this vital information. I don't know why anyone would work for BH; or use them as a client. My private practice rates are much higher; I have colleagues who work for Kaiser and make $150 an hour, no questions asked, and with minimal paperwork. Telehealth is everywhere. You don't have to give your soul to BH for burnout and low pay. I've heard that BH spends its money on marketing, and now I'm guessing on legal expenses. Sorry, it sounds like they were trying to silence you. Keep up the excellent work; there are better options for therapists than working for BH.

In person is always 10x better because it gives the sense that your actually being hear and feeling that your getting help. Online can't give you that same sense of connection. We feel more present when it's face to face. We want to find the perfect therapist but it's probably best to focus in finding the right person.

As a former client, I did want to speak to maybe why people and youtubers happily accept sponsorships from them (other than $$). It is not great because if you have never been to or had any sort of therapy experience before, it really does feel awesome and life changing at first! For people who are not great with other humans in meat space or people in therapy desert sort of things have no basis on if this is "good therapy". As for watching other videos like these, it can come off as "this brand new thing is threatening OUR thing and we don't like it!". I admit, I got that feeling a few years ago when I went ahead with BH. I was with them for maybe four to six months when some things started to feel kind of wrong. Like, my therapist stopped doing this mass "thought of the day" mail because they stopped getting paid for sending out things to their clients without a session. (Which is all fine and good, it was kind of a lot for me, but the reasoning behind it made me feel some ick.) I had to remind the person about what we talked about every time, even when she was taking notes or I had sent a little "in our session I would like to talk about blah blah blah" to remind her. So half of your not even half hour session is just rehashing things that were kind of difficult to talk about the first go round, which does not feel like value after a while. Then, I found the free website that they got alllllll of their worksheets from. Worksheets that they would just give a three sentence comment to and forget. So I cancelled after a year of weekly sessions that were basically my therapist talking about their dog and showing me pics of her husband the final two months of it. ::Edited to add:: The text messaging seemed really weird. Like, if I send you an email (which is what their messaging section felt like) outside of work hours, there is no way I would expect a response during those said hours. However, I had my person tell me to stop doing it (verbally) because she had to many to handle and she got marked against if her response was too slow.

I was a client for almost 2 months, and it sucked big time. Every time I had an issue with the attitude of the therapist instead of talking to them, they changed the therapiat. Or the therapists directly changed me without asking. I talked qith like 6 therapists in that time. Was really awful. I will never recommend it. It really shows how badly they are treated, but is no excuse. They all where extremely detached and distant. And most of the questions from them disregarded what I have just told them. I felt so bad, so alone, so stepped over. When I finally lost all hope of improving the service, I sent them all the screen shots and they returned all my money back. My read on it is they know they can't handle it, so they (better help) no longer care to improve.

Thank you for this video. I have an interview this morning and this video, along with the many comments has made me decide to decline this job. I never imagined it was this bad.

I will NEVER work for BH. You would not make it in CA by making 60k a year. You need to make 100k to really make it in CA. It’s also illegal in CA when companies pay 1099. You also pay 25-30% in taxes, so the pay becomes super LOW! There are no benefits, either.

I currently work for them. They gave me SO many clients I had to put myself on pause for new clients. I have loved all my clients. Pay stinks but I loved my clients. The issue I have now is that 3 weeks ago I unpaused myself to take more clients and haven’t received a single one. After many emails of “we match people with the best fit”. My rating is a 5.0 and I pretty much handle everything🤔 I am also still getting emails and calls about “hiring on”. You want me to “hire on” but I already work for you and you can’t give me clients!!!!

I used BetterHelp while I was waiting to see if my insurance was taken and my long-time therapists' new practice. It was terrible. I had a therapist who would talk about herself and her personal issues and encouraged me when I was looking at "end of life" services on Switzerland. She encouraged me to end my life. I'm thankful that I was able to return to my REAL therapist.

I am a customer of Brtter Help and I'm in Australia. I can't say it was a positive experience. The therapist was the problem in my case. I often waited for a week or more to get a message from her. I also just got given a worksheet which I filled out as honestly as I could, but then a couple of weeks later the therapist sent a message that it wasn't done well enough, as if I'd given it no effort, when I was desperate to get help with the issues I was having at the time. The admin were good though and very helpful.

I completely understand the negative sentiments regarding pressures from the company to reply fast and their focus client first attitude. I freelanced for Fiverr they balance on the client side entirely too much. It can leave you feeling unheard and unfulfilled

Such a shame that mental health care is finally becoming more socially accepted, but BH is making the situation worse for so many people.

Marie, is that average pay after your rent now that you're moving into an office space? I saw you charge $185/session so I'm wondering how you make $140 after rent, insurance, business expenses, taxes, etc.?

I worked for a place like BH. I made $14 an hour, was on food stamps, and welfare. Employees were treated like independent contractors. In four years, I never had a vacation until I nearly broke down and was hospitalized. It was horrible what they did to the poor patients and to me. I was expected to see 64 patients a week. Worked off clock for 0 pay. Evil, greedy, godless managers. Thank you.

So i get tbe umpression ypu are only paid for your direct client time? Not admin, nite writing, not reading, planning, research etc?

What if you just start and don’t get paid until you have clients… you are still required to do notes, consults, and training… after 15 consults I only have one client. Is that unusual? I am employed by a company but as an associate it feels more like individual practice and I’m not getting paid anything for all the free back end work.

My program for thearpy has a 5-7 minute skills call if you need to talk to someone outside of your 1 hour therapy it’s a non emergency one & you can call it whenever your stressed it’s not for every time your upset or all the time but it’s to help you and they provide you with skills to cope during the call and I think that would’ve been a better option than the texting all day option better help gives

Wonderful video

when you are self employed and someone offers you consistent guaranteed hours it's gold... even if it's a bit lower pay you just take it to get started and pay bills. I would definitely work for better help if I had the qualifications and experience they require. I have been teaching for years and it's an absolute nightmare to find consistent well paid work.

Hi I only watched about 3 minutes of your video. Something stopped me from watching and I then began this comment. From the video from just 3 minutes into it I see that money is the main reason or your 1st reason for this video. I need desperately a therapist, but Not one who's main concern is money. I do need a compassionate caring person to help me, but in this world where money is way more important than a human beings life and well-being, I just stuff my issues deeper within and bear them alone. It's really sad. People who learn and choose a job to help hurting souls do this only on the bases of money and how much money we are willing to pay them. I know that therapist have to make a living, but if this world were more caring for life instead of an over amount of wealth , our world would somehow be a better place to live and live in. Thank you for hearing my heart

Not worth it unless you (ethically and personally) can AND want to have a case load competitive to that of counselors in state/community health centers (like.... maaaasssssive caseload). Could share a ton of factual information plus personal insights. Totally agree with the person who talked about the pressure to respond specifically and super quickly to clients. The amount of red-highlighted and exclamation-pointed notices/notifications for responding to clients (even if there was no response needed based on the context of the conversation/exchange) made me seriously-bordering-on-traumatic-reaction avoid even logging into the platform. Of course that impacted my "availability" to the clients assigned to me. I could say so much more...

You always start at $30/hr and then each additional five hours worked is another $5 for those hours. Sometimes clients come with bonuses, like you get an extra $5-10 per hour just for those clients.

I’m a client and have a therapist who has a private practice. It’s only expensive in the beginning half of the year, until I reach my deductible. Luckily my health insurance is pretty good and I don’t have a limit on the amount of therapy sessions I can have in a year. I’m currently doing sessions about every three weeks. I was scared to start therapy in the beginning and would bring a doll or stuffed animal with me even though I’m an adult. I still like to share them and currently sessions are still virtual from the pandemic so It’s easy to have one or two with me (sometimes one of my cats joins me as well, lol).

I know my experience may have been a one off, however as I listen to the other side seems like a lot of burnout. I had one session, therefore after my therapist rescheduled numerous of times that by the time I spoke to her again it was a month and two weeks. Instead of just finding another therapist I just dropped it. Couldn’t believe how hard it was to get help even paying out of pocket. Consistency is key, but these are humans/man who pull there pants up one leg at a time such as us 🤷🏾‍♀️ Good Luck out there!!

As a client, i was very obviously matched my first time with someone not in my state. I figured this out by the fact that they only responded to my messages asking for a time to call after 1am, when I’d be asleep. I tried to switch clinicians before my trial was up, and was straightup given someone from india with Indian qualifications. The second time i tried was after they fixed that legal hellhole, the first clinician i matched up with denied my symptoms. Like said “you dont have those” in our messages on the first day. Safe to say their matching system is bad at best, and actively harmful at worst. I, shortly after, learned how unethically they treated the clinicians, and vowed to never use them again.

"Length of text messages" may mean the length of the text message chain or how many text messages you exchanged with your client rather than how many words you used in a single text.

the "being sold gaslighting harder than Putin" comment is sending me LMAO

I do need therapy right now (so I am a costumer and not a therapist) and I did consider using BetterHelp... But I hear a lot of RU-vidrs push for it and get sponsored by it, which makes me think that the service isn't really worth it and from the sounds of it, I might be right on this one. I think its better to be physically there for therapy rather than doing it over the phone/online. It feels so much more personal and private that way.

I liked it. It is cheap and nicely made. (as a client)

They pay incrementally. $30/hr for for the first 5 hours, $35/hr for the next 5 hrs and so on. They only compensate for 45 minute sessions max so if you see 8 clients per day you are only getting paid for 6 hours.

Working for BH has been the highlight of my counseling career. I should say I started when I was semi-retired, during COVID, and recovering from a health crisis. BH allowed me to get back on my feet professionally. I got great clients and was able to use my language skills because I only deal with internationals. BH has a great Library of worksheets. The thing I like the most is the lack of diagnosis. I am free to treat people in all their complexity not their “category. And know that I have a PhD and have taught undergraduate abnormal psychology.

Thank you for being honest and strong and doing this post. BH is such a terrible business and the minute a psychologist or counsellor does a promo for them on RU-vid I will stop watching them.

This is incredibly tragic to see. I wasn’t surprised when Massage Envy did all of this to the Massage Therapist community, we’re not fully considered health care providers so it’s easy for us to be exploited by “fast food style” massage chains. But watching the same thing happen to mental health therapists?! Tragic wild, I didn’t think it was possible.

I work for a platform that's independent contractor work. There's going to be a wide range of payments, quality of filtering clients, and quality of people working on the platform. Knowing and holding your standards and holding your boundaries is important, no matter who you work for. As for messaging, it's similar to any other independent contractor work. Respond promptly, or you'll be reminded to respond, and potentially dinged for not replying. I've been working as an independent contractor for almost 5 years and wouldn't want to go back.

I work for BH- i am currently not taking clients- but when i do "turn on" my availability, i have 10- 15 clients assigned to me within 30 minutes. It's overwhelming!

I have a feeling that the turnover rate of therapists is extremely high. This is the type of job that you do for a couple of months before you get filled up in your private practice. They’ve recruited me a bunch of times. I’ve been in the field for a while and, paid my dues. This is the type of job that is considered paying your dues before you become successful at private practice.

Thank you for sharing this with us. I was thinking about working with them. This helps me alot. By the way you look beautiful 😘

From a consumer perspective I hated how they don't offer a bi-weekly option. I didn't do "better help" per-say but did their couples therapy which is called "ReGain". Another problem with the experience is they don't offer 3way calls. Part of the draw is convenience. I can do a quick therapy session on my lunch break and so can the wife. But that's not how it works.....the couple need to physically be using the same phone at the same time.

30hr (to 35. hr) is for first 5 hours and the pay increases $5.00 every 5 clients. The cap is $75.00 hr, I think.

$30 per hour is accurate but its not per clinical hour, it's for 60 minutes... but you can only do 45-minute sessions so it's $22.50 per 45-minute session and $15 for a 30-minute session. If you allow the session to go over 45 minutes you do not get paid for the extra time. You also need to remember your state license requirements so in my state I would need to do all the admin stuff for free (intake, treatment plan and notes for each session). Really not worth it. The clients pay $60-$90 a session but the Therapist gets $22.50. They also want you to constantly engage with Clients via a chat feature on the platform. If you dont reply within 24 business hours you get a *ding*. You get paid 2 minutes for every 60 words you type to your client. They are a tech company so they have an algorithm I'm sure.

Any thoughts about spring health, thriveworks, or growtherapy?

Is there a meal service on this flight?

For the proposed of this video or for the purposes of your job? Do they threaten to fire you if you agree to their unethical privacy rules?

what is the process of hiring . do they hirie from pakistan and india as well

22.50 for the first five clients. The second five per week you get 5.00 more. And so forth 5.00 for each additional five clients. Up to $70 per hour, so about 52 per the 45 minute sessions. Yes a few pennies for the written texts.

Wasn’t there a video on BH before this one?

lol at the Better Help ad before the video started... >_< haha

Never would I ever. A coworker just stopped working for them as their rates are SO low. They would entice her with bonuses for working extraordinarily long hours, still not worth the stress. I work for a similar’ish but very local company and I get what the insurance reimburses, around $100 and up. Love their support, tech, etc. Small monthly fee

That is absurd! I am just eight months out of graduate school making $29 to $32 per hour as an LMHCA working at the two community mental health agencies that I serve. You know things are bad when a public servant makes more than somewhere that is a private practice. It sounds like nothing more than an assembly line. Run! Run far away from this place and never look back!

I wonder if BH is partially why referrals are down because why dig in and be challenged when you can do “therapy lite”?

I work for a nonprofit serving very marginalized communities. BH contacted us to offer a free month of therapy to our clients as though it were very philanthropic of them. I'm no expert, but isn't one month of therapy with no plan to pay for continued support a detriment? Also not great philanthropy- it's more of a promo.

The therapeutic alliance is so vital for encouraging change and growth in clients. And that's something Betterhelp does not prioritize. They are way too focused on revenue

As a client, I found the customer service to be pitiful. Billing questions went unanswered, impossible to reach a live human at the company. They may put extraordinary pressure on therapists to get back to people, but as a company they have no follow thru. Another exploitative startup model seeking to profit off our continued health care crisis and lack of mental health services in this country.

Thank you

60-80k/yr for agency work in wonderful places to live (lots of therapists, beautiful places). 20% more for lonely rural places. Where I live, there are 950+ qualified counselors popping out of colleges. Plus people move here. In counseling, continuity is king. Life 2023 already breaks up thought to much already. If they don't complete therapy, hurts them, sometime more than not starting.

I tried BH. My wife tried BH. It was very clear to both of us that /neither/ of our therapists were qualified to do what they're doing. She made her therapist cry. Mine was half awake and I swear to God was reading off a prompt. I already have access to the internet, so why the hell would I need someone parroting back the most /common sense/ bs about depression and anxiety. Another beef I have was, the app asks you what you're comfortable with in terms of talking. I picked texting/messaging. So we did that once, and then I was told from then on we're doing phone calls. My cell signal is terrible, and messages tend to go through when phone calls are hit and miss. I'm sure eventually they would have steamrolled their way towards video chat. This is extremely irritating, as such a simple request was brushed aside... I do not like my preferences being ignored. If messaging is not ideal as the main form of communication, don't offer it on the initial questionnaire. Also the fact that they try to /guilt/ you into more sessions when you try to quit /to help your therapist adjust/...lol. No.

I looked into them at one point and saw that they charge like $90+/hr per session but they pay as little as $15 to the therapist o.o What the actual duck?