Bad Therapy and Mental Health Apps

[Lady Wolfshead]

I just watched a video by one of my favourite YouTube creators (Kiki Chanel) about Betterhelp - a counselling service online. She discussed the problems with Betterhelp and showed many reviews of people talking about their bad experiences.

Here are some issues with Betterhelp:
- based overseas and not Hippa compliant
- issues with getting refunds for automatic payments
- inadequate privacy policy and sells data, including to Facebook
- many counsellors are unqualified
- employees/counsellors report many issues including pressure to work long hours, low pay, no compensation for cancellations and more
- many users report inappropriate behaviour by therapists during video chat, including driving, running errands and even using the bathroom.
- many users report unprofessional behavior by therapists such as talking nonstop about their own problems, voicing judgments, or expressing doubt over a client's abuse or sexual assault.
- social media "influencers" are paid to push Betterhelp and receive a kickback for each person who signs up.

Obviously some people have had good experiences with Betterhelp due to getting matched with a good therapist. But the company itself is shady as hell and really isn't even that cheap.

Mozilla (the company that makes open source software such as Firefox) rated many mental health apps from best to worst in terms of privacy policies. Betterhelp was one of the worst, labelled "super creepy." You can find their ratings below:
https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/categories/mental-health-apps/

Clearly the reason that people are turning to services like Betterhelp is because therapy is so expensive and can be hard to access.

The best option is to look up qualified counsellors through a governing body in your area. Or Psychology Today has a searchable database. Some of these therapists may do phone or online appointments, but at least you will know their credentials (a master's in counselling psychology is best IMO).

Comments?

 

[Lady Wolfshead]

Also accredited therapists in your own country will be covered Hippa laws.

 

[Lady Wolfshead]

Just had to add that I watched the very end of the video and learned of something EVEN WORSE that was done via a company called caredash - they mined the information about real, qualified therapists from the legitimate counselling websites, including the photos and credentials of the counsellors, posted the information on their own site, then when you click for an appointment it tells you that therapist is not available for an appointment and directs you therapists on BetterHelp. Talk about bait and switch.

 

[Waves]

I just watched a video by one of my favourite YouTube creators (Kiki Chanel) about Betterhelp - a counselling service online. She discussed the problems with Betterhelp and showed many reviews of people talking about their bad experiences.

Here are some issues with Betterhelp:
- based overseas and not Hippa compliant
- issues with getting refunds for automatic payments
- inadequate privacy policy and sells data, including to Facebook
- many counsellors are unqualified
- employees/counsellors report many issues including pressure to work long hours, low pay, no compensation for cancellations and more
- many users report inappropriate behaviour by therapists during video chat, including driving, running errands and even using the bathroom.
- many users report unprofessional behavior by therapists such as talking nonstop about their own problems, voicing judgments, or expressing doubt over a client's abuse or sexual assault.
- social media "influencers" are paid to push Betterhelp and receive a kickback for each person who signs up.

Obviously some people have had good experiences with Betterhelp due to getting matched with a good therapist. But the company itself is shady as hell and really isn't even that cheap.

Mozilla (the company that makes open source software such as Firefox) rated many mental health apps from best to worst in terms of privacy policies. Betterhelp was one of the worst, labelled "super creepy." You can find their ratings below:
https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/categories/mental-health-apps/

Clearly the reason that people are turning to services like Betterhelp is because therapy is so expensive and can be hard to access.

The best option is to look up qualified counsellors through a governing body in your area. Or Psychology Today has a searchable database. Some of these therapists may do phone or online appointments, but at least you will know their credentials (a master's in counselling psychology is best IMO).

Comments?

Yrs online services in USS are bad. It is a greedy business. In person is more accountable. In my humble opinion. It is hard seeing so much falling apart in this country.

 

[Lady Wolfshead]

Yrs online services in USS are bad. It is a greedy business. In person is more accountable. In my humble opinion. It is hard seeing so much falling apart in this country.

Betterhelp is not actually based in the US. I agree local is more accountable

 

[Waves]

Betterhelp is not actually based in the US. I agree local is more accountable

oh. I thought it was developed by American entrepreneurs

 

[Waves]

oh. I thought it was developed by American entrepreneurs

BetterHelp was founded in 2013 by Alon Matas and Danny Bragonier, and acquired by Teladoc, Inc. in 2015. BetterHelp maintained its brand name post acquisition and continues to provide online counseling services to consumers. Mountain View, California, U.S. says US headquarters and origination in us online so I just assumed. Sorry

 

[Lady Wolfshead]

BetterHelp was founded in 2013 by Alon Matas and Danny Bragonier, and acquired by Teladoc, Inc. in 2015. BetterHelp maintained its brand name post acquisition and continues to provide online counseling services to consumers. Mountain View, California, U.S. says US headquarters and origination in us online so I just assumed. Sorry

I apologize. It appears the company was started overseas but is now headquartered in the US. It is a multinational corporation operating in many countries.

Here's an article that explains more about HIPPA and Betterhelp:
https://lifehacker.com/do-therapy-apps-really-protect-your-privacy-1847983029

 

[AvidFan]

I know good and bad things about BetterHelp as I know both people who have used it and people who work on it as therapists. The person I know had to go through a huge amount of steps, providing qualifications, insurance details, professional membership proof, an interview and even a criminal background check to be accepted on to the platform. This was in the UK, where anyone can just set themselves up to call themselves a counsellor (with no qualifications, insurance, or anything - literally make a website and say "I'm a mental health professional" and there's no law or anything else to stop them seeing people unless they call themselves a psychologist or psychiatrist and one or two other protected titles.) So the chances are using BetterHelp is at least better (ha ha) than running into someone like that.

I've heard a few people have great experiences on BetterHelp, and found they got matched with a really good therapist, but also some of the horror stories too. In terms of therapists, the average fee in the UK for a private therapist is £60-£80, BetterHelp pay about £22.50 per session, and they encourage people to work millions of hours (if you see 50 clients a week its very lucrative, but the UK recommendation is 20 clients a week - BetterHelp actively encourage therapists seeing an unhealthy and unethical amount of clients just to get paid decent money.

The main problem is that BetterHelp has the cash to splash in terms of advertising. When they hold the first 5 spots on Google and are everywhere from TikTok to Youtube to Mental health websites, people who are simply struggling and want some help are sitting ducks to be pulled into this kind of thing. They make advertising videos on Youtube and Tiktok that look very much like it's just genuine people recommending the site when in fact it's an advert - and their adverts are everywhere. In general people don't know about Google advertising etc, it's been proven that if something is at the top on Google, people trust it and will click on it, never mind there's a bunch of other directories and other therapists below. If it's not in the first 10 results on Google you can usually forget and BH have the funds to take up these slots. They even have branch off websites with other names, like PrideCounselling for the LGBT community so they get even more exposure even if people are put off by BetterHelp itself.

Unfortunately they have also made so many inroads with their marketing that therapists in private practice are starting to see their work dry up as everyone flocks to BetterHelp thinking it's... well, better. So in the end they end up joining BetterHelp themselves and working for a quarter of what they'd normally earn as BetterHelp has hoovered up all the clients and the cycle perpetuates itself.

It can work, but it's bloody dodgy, the Uber of therapy I've heard it described as - poach all the therapists and then pay them as little as possible while hoovering up profits. It's awful in my opinion but they have a lot of customers and therapists cornered. Hopefully things will change as more things like these bad practices come to light.

 

[Astrid78]

To find a therapist using sites like you suggest one must know the zip code (in the states) of the town the therapist is in, well I don't know every damn zip code in the country. Not everyone lives in a big city with plenty of options and must resort to using online services. Not all local people are better either, ffs the community mental health where I live told me they aren't the best place to go for help, then refused me because I dont qualify for medicaid. Now you tell me how that is any better?

 

[AvidFan]

Mental health provision is, possibly always has been, in a mess.

 

[Lady Wolfshead]

Yeah I'm not saying there are other, affordable options but I think it's good to be informed. I did also see a site on how to keep your data private on mental health sites. I'm not sure if it involves putting in a fake address, etc.