Every company is founded with an aim, either to bring money or to change this world for the better. But not every company can boast of such intentions as those of BetterHelp, an online platform for counseling with a doctor concerning your mental health. But that is what its owner claims when explaining the main idea behind creating this platform and how he understands they would help people who struggle with life challenges. Did it turn out good or is BetterHelp a scam just to get money from you? This is what we are going to shed the light on.
The basic principle of the BetterHelp work is giving people mental help online by enabling them to message or schedule a virtual appointment with a therapist that would consult them on the issues concerning their mental state and health. It was a sincere wish to make the lives of such people easier and change society’s opinion on them for the better. As many of those who have to deal with mental disorders or currently find themselves in a dark period of their lives are simply embarrassed to turn to a doctor in real life or do not know where they can get professional help. Others do not have enough money to visit a special clinic or lack time to schedule a meeting. The way to change this situation was creating a site where you could get help online and save time, nerves and money.
Later the founders of BetterHelp reached out to famous YouTubers who specialize in discussing problems concerning mental health, for example, Philip DeFranco and Shane Dawson. They wanted to spread the information about the platform among those users of social media who probably needed it and show them there is a way out of their suffering.
As the company claims, they receive hundreds of thousands of positive feedbacks and reviews from people who found their answers during the conversation with counselors on the site. Alon Matas, the main founder, explains that the massive positive energy he feels from people who his company was able to help inspires him and always shows that his work was not useless. However, in the past months, BetterHelp has become an actively discussed center of controversies and scandals with accusations in paid reviews, fake counselors and ineffective help. So, is everything as perfect as the founder describes?
It has all, probably, started with a huge advertising campaign that BetterHelp started on the base of YouTube. Suddenly dozens of social influencers and bloggers started to be talking about the platform, some explained how useful it can be for people struggling with mental disorders, others even claimed they have been using it. And it all brought people to a conclusion that is praise was a part of their contracts with a site and all that praise is fake. If you read the comments under the videos that contained BetterHelp reviews, you will find thousands of people commenting on their real experience of using the site and describing the problems they faced.
When you are a social media influencer, you should be ready that all your actions are being watched by drama channels ready to expose you at any moment and chose who you are collaborating and being sponsored by very wisely. When for some people spilling the tea is just a kind of entertainment, for others it became a trigger for a serious discussion. The topic of BetterHelp scam seemed to finally reach the surface and many facts about the site’s legitimacy appeared.
We are going to present to you some of the main complaints of the users below:
Even though BetterHelp claims to be a platform where you can get help from a licensed counselor, the site doesn’t check the credentials of people applying for this position. Some user even claimed they tried to register as therapists to prove this accusation and manage to get a position and access to counseling people! However, they did not continue with trying to give anybody special help as that would violate all social norms concerning people who are mentally ill.
Other big BetterHelp scandal was based on a buzz about the platform selling the users data to third parties and that from the very beginning it was a platform for collecting the information about mentally unstable individuals later used for the AI training or selling to the health companies interested in the data.
Many of the criticism applies to the technical part of performing the assistance. Users claimed they were still charged for using the site during the 7-day free trial period, either immediately after registration or upon receiving the consultancy from a therapist. As well as there were cases of people being unable to reach out to a counselor until the last day of the trial period which means they had to pay from the continuation of the conversation anyway if they wanted to get professional help.
Also of some doubts concerning the professionalism of the online therapists, some feedbacks state that counselors were behaving rude, advising to just turn to a local therapist or simply did not appear for the scheduled online appointment.
What is about the positive comments on the site and where did they come from? Many of the feedbacks you see at the AppStore seem very suspicious, do not have real names of people, including usernames only instead, they are short and quite similar in meaning saying that «BetterHelp is awesome and it has helped me! » or «I enjoyed the app and can recommend it».
We would like to start by saying that the company did agree there were mistakes in the work of the site and they did everything possible to correct them. On the contrary, any of the feedbacks and negative comments were verified. They are more like gossips that were being spread around by the drama channels to get hyped on the buzz and receive new subscribers. Many of the bloggers and those that suddenly began to speak up against BetterHelp seem to just talk the same things they have already heard from other resources, distorting the information and adding inexistent details to get more feedback and increase the hate towards the platform. Most of them did not even use the site and were just passing the information to the audience without being competent in the issue. For many of them seem to cling on to the train of hype and hoped to get new followers by discussing popular topics.
Secondly, the accusations of the site selling the data of users to other parties are completely not grounded. No one of those who used this argument blowing it to the global conspiracy theory gave any proofs for their opinion. As Alon Matas states, they are just a company designed for helping people with mental disorders. Users pay to get access to therapists and the counselors receive payment for advising from a professional point of view.
However, the fact that anyone can sign up to be a counselor and the system doesn't verify the person they are hiring to work as a therapist is tremendous.
So, is BetterHelp legit? Our final verdict is yes. It is a site that is trying to change the world for the better more than just make money. However, the realization if the ides lives a lot of room for improvement and if you seek professional help, better turn to a live therapist.