I'd just like to put in my two cents regarding their practices. I'll use therapist as a broad term so I don't have to write out an alphabet soup of certification/degree acronyms.
It's not unheard of for therapists to outright tell a patient that they are not the appropriate professional for them, but this is usually in the case of people who don't bother to listen to or apply what the therapist is saying. You'll see this a lot with kids who are forced into seeing someone after a guidance department recommends it and well-meaning parents go down the list of professionals covered under their insurance until they find someone who is accepting new patients. Same with the more dramatic of personality disorders; they'll tell you about how they're following what the therapist suggests, but will return the next week to wail about the same issues because they are too stuck in their behaviors to actually change. People who will not follow what the therapist suggests are wasting their time, their therapist's time, and the time of someone who would actually benefit from therapy. Another thing to consider is that certain illnesses respond better to certain treatments, like DBT being more effective for Cluster B personality disorders than the traditional approach of CBT.
This, of course, is not how this scam is approaching people they know they can't pull the wool over on.
What also strikes me as odd is that $35/week is touted as more affordable than most therapists out there. While private practices will usually hand you a bill upwards of $100 per session because most insurances don't cover them, there are actual clinics with actual professionals out there for both therapy and psychiatry I know with co-pays as little as $25/week. $35 might be on the cheaper end of payments, but it certainly isn't the deal of a lifetime.
Letting your insurance know about receiving treatment is important, especially in regard to chronic disorders. If your insurance can see that you have a history of issues, they may be more willing to review prescriptions or treatments they normally would not consider to pay for. (Keyword may, however) Then there's the tax aspect, which I don't have enough knowledge to go into regarding deductibles and their ceilings. There are pros and cons obviously, but when dealing with something as chronic and severe as mental illness, I think having your insurance clued in is important. While non-consenting admittance to psychiatric wards may be a huge signal to an insurance provider, it certainly is not cheap in both the short and long term.
Watching Memology's videos were very interesting, though around the 5th video the special effects turned from an alright gimmick to almost giving me a migraine. (An informational video should not look like a teenager's first go at Sony Vegas.) Watching the people advocating for Betterhelp gave me the impression that I could probably recreate the list of talking points given to them by the company. Most, if not all, people shilling this scam barely came off as genuine to me. But, I can see many kids who don't really know what therapy should look like and what it entails thinking this is the real deal. When children are at arguably the shittiest end of the mental health industry, in my opinion, it brings down how important seeking out therapy can be to a person who genuinely wants to better themselves.
EDIT, accidentally hit reply too early: This is diving into conspiracy levels, but Scientology runs a similar style of claiming privacy, though ultimately having literal rooms of dossiers filled with people's history, secrets, and even fake memories they were cajoled into believing happened. Scientology makes use of these dossiers in the form of leverage to make sure dissidents either stay in or stay quiet if they manage to escape from the cult. I don't see Betterhelp pulling an act like this, but I thought I'd mention it.
" videos when?
