Disclaimer- If you sign up with this link I’ll make a small commision and you’ll receive 20% off your first month.
With face-to-face therapy costing an arm and a leg to get access to these days, online options are popping up all over the internet to offer more accessible and in a lot of cases, more affordable therapy. The internet is making it so much easier to have access to important conversations you may otherwise not be able to have in person. In my online-therapy.com review, I’ll talk about my personal experience using this site.
I’ve seen some come and go but few seem to stand the test of time. Online-therapy.com is one of those. A few others to mention include websites that do the same or a very similar job, Betterhelp and Talkspace. These are the most common online therapy sites online right now.
However, Online-therapy.com caught my eye because they looked slightly different. I’ll go into why further down in my online-therapy.com review.
Sign up today and you’ll receive 20% off your first week. There’s also a 14 day money back guarantee!
I first started to look into online therapy after my doctor recommended that I try cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) by going and seeing a therapist in a random office block somewhere. I was only a teenager and was going to be put on a waiting list that was up to six months long! Although it probably would have been more like three months, I wanted to find out if there were any online therapy options.
That’s when I came across the world of online therapy. As time went on, I began to do more and more research into the subject to find out if it was affordable or if online therapy worked to begin with. Luckily for me, I would have been able to get therapy for free offline but it seemed like the wait would be far too long and especially so if you were someone that was desperate to talk to someone.
Over the years since then I’ve looked into different online therapy websites to see which one would be the best. I went deep into research because on the face of things, most of these online therapy sites look very similar. And, a lot of them don’t show their pricing structure on their home pages until you sign up with your email address and fill in a quick survey so you can be matched with a therapist to best suit your needs.
I’ve written about a few online therapy sites before, one of them being Betterhelp. After looking into that site it appeared that it was one of the top-rated sites going and one of the cheapest, however, from what I’ve found, these online therapy sites don’t vary too drastically in price and online-therapy.com seems to be just as good and in some cases better.
Online-therapy.com review – does online therapy work in general?
The first thing everyone wants to know is, “does online therapy work?”. After all, just because the therapy is online, doesn’t mean you don’t have to pay for it and so you’re going to want to find a site that does the job you want it to do.
Here’s what a couple of studies found about online therapy and it’s effectiveness;
- A 2014 study found that online therapy is just as effective in treating depression as offline therapy
- A 2018 study found that online cognitive behavioural therapy was just as effective as treating depression and anxiety offline and after a follow up one year later it was observed that the positive effects were still present.
Aside from this, I’ve personally heard positive stories from people I know who have used online therapy. Of course, you may be able to find studies that counter these ones but it seems as if online therapy works for most people.
One of the reasons some may prefer face-to-face therapy is for the human interaction that you don’t get online.
Is online-therapy.com legit?
So now we know a bit more about having therapy online in general and if it works well or not, let’s look at online-therapy.com in particular, one of the leaders when getting your therapy online. Online-therapy.com is a legit company that employs qualified therapists. The company was started in 2009 and has since garnered thousands of positive reviews from customers across the globe.
As well as getting your therapy on their website, they also have an app in the Apple store and Android store. That means you can talk to your therapist on your phone through text messaging, voice or video chat, just as you can on your laptop/computer. For me, a company having an app gives them more credibility.
Here’s how online-therapy works;
Once you land on their homepage you can roam around to find out more information and what’s included in their service. When you’re happy that you want to sign up you’ll need to fill out a quick survey that will ask you what you’d like help with. These include;
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Addiction
- OCD
- Panic attacks
- PTSD
- Self-esteem
…and many more. Online-therapy.com’s therapists and psychologists can help you with a variety of mental health issues or concerns.
Then, you’ll be asked for your gender and how you prefer to be contacted by your therapist.
Online-therapy.com Review – My Experience
When I first signed up for online-therapy.com I found it really straightforward and easy to do. All you need to do is follow the steps I talked about above. There are about five pages to go through.
Once I entered my name and password I was greeted by an automated message buy my therapist David. This was a nice touch as he explained that he was going to guide my through the worksheets and sections that you can fill out at your own pace.
It’s worth mentioning too that at the time of signing up we were living through the coronavirus pandemic (still current) and within David’s message he mentioned that because the world is going through such a rough time, One-therapy.com would be offering their resources for free!
Take a look at the screenshot below;
To get access to the free resources I’d need to select a subscription. Read on to find out how much online-therapy.com costs and what’s included.
What’s included in online-therapy.com?
Online-therapy.com offers the obvious (online therapy!!) but you also get access to resources on the back-end too. They refer to this as their “toolbox” which you can work throughout your own pace when you’re not speaking with your therapist. This is what makes online-therapy.com different to other therapy websites like Betterhelp or Talkspace.
Online-therapy.om’s toolbox is unique and I haven’t found anything else like it.
Here’s what’s included when you sign up for their service;
- 25 worksheets
- Yoga and meditation videos
- Action plan
- Online journal
- Eight sections to work through
- Access to therapist
- Forum
There’s also access to ‘tests’ which basically determine what kind of specialised service you may benefit from.
Online-therapy.com review – Working on the ‘sections’
One of the things that I really love about online-therapy.com is their ‘sections’. These are eight sections that you work through and each one has its own theme towards getting you to think differently through CBT (comprising of a total of 25 worksheets video and audio files). Here’s a rundown of each section;
- Start getting happier today – this is an introduction to cognitive behavioural therapy.
- Looking into anxiety – this includes looking into your problems, and identifying your long term goals
- Problematic behaviour – identifying your negative behaviours.
- Problematic emotions – Your emotional map and challenging your emotions behaviours head-on.
- Problematic thoughts – identifying your problematic and unhelpful thoughts
- Actively working on being happier – your journal and activity plan.
- Rating yourself – your common labels and self-accepting attitudes
- Looking to the future – evaluating your goals
The idea of the sections is to get you to challenge your negative thoughts and emotions in a structured way and is the basis of CBT therapy. If your therapist isn’t available when you message or call them you can always do some work in your sections.
Track the intensity of your symptoms
Each week you’ll get bumped with a test to track how intense your symptoms have been. This then gets logged on your tracker over time so you can look at your progress.
This particular week (on the Monday) I logged my anxiety as 4 due to feeling a little anxious over coronavirus;
Online-therapy.com also has a great forum that you get free access to. There’s a ton of people in their talking about all kinds of things and helping each other out. After scrolling through many topics I found the forum to be very helpful and friendly.
The yoga videos inside your toolbox
As mentioned above, online-therapy.com includes yoga and meditation videos in your toolbox. The nice lady how makes these yoga videos is called Petra. She’s the qualified yoga teacher that works for online-therapy.com.
Truth be told I never thought much of yoga and used to think it wasn’t for me. I like to lift weights and go for long walks to get my exercises. However, after trying some yoga in the toolbox and on Youtube in my spare time I quickly realised what the benefits of yoga were. It feels great to stretch out your joints and I was amazed how tough some of the stretched actually were!
This is a nice addition to your toolbox and simply encourages physical health alongside improving your mental health.
Here’s what their toolbox looks like once you sign up and use the site either on your tablet or smartphone;
Online-therapy.com review – How much does online-therapy.com cost?
Like a lot of the online therapy websites, online-therapy.com prices aren’t on the homepage for you to see. I found that to see their prices, you need to fill out a short survey which identifies what you’d like therapy for. There are three different tiers that you can sign up for and you pay for their service on a weekly basis. Your first week will have 20% taken off with this link.
Here’s online-therapy.com’s pricing;
- Basic – $31.96 / week – You get access to eight sections and 25 worksheets. You will also get daily feedback from your therapist.
- Standard – $47.96 / week – Just like the basic package except you’ll get live video chat and daily feedback through text-based messaging.
- Premium – $63.96 / week – The top tier package comes with the eight sections, 25 worksheets and daily feedback and two live video chats with your therapist each week. You’ll also have access to express replies.
“Express replies” refers to getting your messages answered in a speedy manner which I’ve found isn’t always common on online therapy websites. Some will take days to reply to text messaging so that’s something to bare in mind.
It’s worth comparing online and offline therapy when you’re looking for a therapist. A lot of face-to-face therapists will charge anywhere between $75 to $200 per session so comparatively, using online therapy will normally work out cheaper. If you have just one session a week with a face-to-face therapist you’ll be spending at least $75-$200 four times a month.
Benefits of online-therapy.com
- Easy access
- More affordable than many other offline therapy options
- Accessible
- Able to work at your own pace
- Comprehensive “toolbox”
- Discreet
- Professional therapists tailored to your needs
- Frequent discounts
- 14-day money-back guarantee
- Forum so you can talk to others going through the same issues
Drawbacks of online-therapy.com
- To have fast replies you’ll need to pay more
- May not be able to build the same relationship you would offline with your therapist.
If you sign up for online-therapy.com today you’ll receive a 20% discount off your first week.
Another drawback of using any online therapy is the cost if you don’t have spare cash for yet another subscription. With most online therapies, you be charged each week so it’s important to consider a time frame for using therapy online.
What I like about online-therapy.com is their 14-day money-back policy. This means that once you sign up not only will you get 20% off your first week but you can cancel and get all your money back before the 14 days are up so there’s no risk, just remember to cancel!
My online-therapy.com review – conclusion
I wanted to write this online-therapy.com review because I really like the user experience of their site and I know how hard it is to find the best online therapy websites. It’s not clunky like some of the other therapy sites I’ve come across. It’s smooth and easy to navigate. The unique “toolbox” is interesting and it combines with chats with your therapist to give you a really good way of starting to balance your thoughts and emotions again through CBT.
Online-therapy.com also won’t ‘break the bank’ and is cheaper than therapy sessions offline. The fact that is online means that it’s much more accessible and potentially better for those who are agoraphobic. Going to see a therapist can be daunting so online therapy might be the perfect solution to those who really want to use it.
The internet has helped people in so many ways and it’s exciting to see how it’s changing how people can access therapy more easily. If you can afford it use this link to receive 20% your first week and try it out for yourself risk-free.