Trashfire The BetterHelp, CreatorHealth, InfluenceLogic Rabbit Hole - Candid 2.0, brought to you by Joel Robbinson

[Accept Only Substitutes]

My friend is a therapist for BH. They had tons of clients for the first year or so, but now they're down to just a handful.

They said the pay is $30/hour for the first five hours of the week, $35/ hour for the next five. In order to get to the $70/hour tier you need to work like 60 hours a week IIRC. They have a masters degree in counseling with the attendant student loans. They did say BH made them prove they were licensed, which is an improvement from 2018.

They are very unhappy with BH and have been actively looking into other telehealth platforms. I sent them this thread, they said as soon as they can get away from BH they will. They're fed up and disgusted. I feel bad for the well meaning therapists that signed up, this is marketed to them as a convenient work from home alternative to in-person therapy, but the experience isn't good for the therapists OR the clients.

 

[Toolbox]

What's lead to betterhelp sponsoring even more Youtubers steadily out of nowhere beginning a few months ago? Losing the bump they got from lockdown, having to pay up from that case that ended in March, a little bit of all of that + their business model being easily cloned, leading to massive competition?

 

[Get the rope Macaulay!]

They did say BH made them prove they were licensed

That was my biggest problem with them, especially with how easy it would be to check. IIRC they implemented checks in like 2019. So at minimum all the youtube chaos led to that. also as that worker's pay showed the money is going somewhere.

What's lead to betterhelp sponsoring even more Youtubers steadily out of nowhere beginning a few months ago? Losing the bump they got from lockdown, having to pay up from that case that ended in March, a little bit of all of that + their business model being easily cloned, leading to massive competition?

best way to stay the market leader? its like delivery apps or those monthly scam boxes. you need to keep acquiring customers and getting a huge consumer base so you can sell it to the stupidest big company or go public and flee with all your money. plus its an easy model to take advantage of people's despair, and in a recession its a growing market. Plus enough people with graduate degrees in these fields that are under-employed/willing to get a new sidegig that you can pay them fuck all. $40 an hour is co-pay in non-telehealth i'm amazed they're getting so little.

As bad as it may seem, isn't most of why therapy works because people can let out their emotions in a safe space? not dissimilar to how confessionals work? obviously it depends on the quality of the therapist but at least a good chunk of the battle is having a shoulder to cry on. Obviously there are some things you need a good professional to help you with but i'm sure a lot of people need someone to just listen and give even the bottom barrel of advice in a non-judgment environment and if the social workers i used to love were honest most of people's problems that would take a shot on this therapy are easy as shit to solve. like "don't drink and drive, don't smoke meth, eat some food, don't steal from people" literal stuff we say about lolcows here only we say it directly to them.

 

[Kit Marz]

They are very unhappy with BH and have been actively looking into other telehealth platforms. I sent them this thread, they said as soon as they can get away from BH they will. They're fed up and disgusted. I feel bad for the well meaning therapists that signed up, this is marketed to them as a convenient work from home alternative to in-person therapy, but the experience isn't good for the therapists OR the clients.

Has your friend heard of Crossover Health? The company I work for is partnered with them and they provide both physical and mental health visits. I've liked all the doctors I've seen and they do provide virtual therapy sessions as well as in person ones. It might be worth checking out. I think they're nationwide.

 

[Tanner Glass]

What's lead to betterhelp sponsoring even more Youtubers steadily out of nowhere beginning a few months ago? Losing the bump they got from lockdown, having to pay up from that case that ended in March, a little bit of all of that + their business model being easily cloned, leading to massive competition?

They likely just waited for the 2018 heat to die down and are getting back to business as usual.

YouTubers are a pretty cheap advertisement (relative) to how they perform and BH still has all the contacts from the first run.

 

[Accept Only Substitutes]

Has your friend heard of Crossover Health? The company I work for is partnered with them and they provide both physical and mental health visits. I've liked all the doctors I've seen and they do provide virtual therapy sessions as well as in person ones. It might be worth checking out. I think they're nationwide.

I'll pass that along! Thanks.

 

[PunkinMan]

updating this old ass thread because people are starting to notice that better help is coming back to youtube with big names endorsing them again, I'll just link a video to it to make things easier.

 

[Chongqing]

updating this old ass thread because people are starting to notice that better help is coming back to youtube with big names endorsing them again, I'll just link a video to it to make things easier.

I've noticed that the live reads on the Psychology in Seattle channel for BetterHelp really emphasize simple, solvable, arguably non-mental health issues.

Are you suffering from burnout? Self doubt? Boundaries between work and home? New years resolutions? Well, a therapist can help you with all of those things.

Probably just those things, though. No mental illnesses, no suicidal thoughts, and no root issues, please.

 

[toxic SOUP]

the fact this thing is back and being promoted once again feels like all the controversy was just non-existant

 

[AltisticRight]

Upper Echelon Gamers did a video too.
A funny forum gets acknowledged.

 

[ENDTOPII]

I don't know where to post this, but a youtuber named Stoic Stick recently made a face reveal, and the first video after that was sponsored by BetterHelp.

Spoiler: Local archive

It doesn't look good since he makes videos that makes references to 4chan/sharty memes and those circles don't trust (((psychology))), in addition to that, he has also made videos on Psyops before.

 

[TheMeanOne]

A good counselor isn't going to work for those low rates. They're just not. A lot of counselors are in private practice and are also affiliated to a hospital system or they teach, so that they can access benefits. If the end user is paying $35, that suggests the provider is getting reimbursed at an even lower rate than that. No one good is going to work for under $30/hr especially if they need a Masters to have the job.

There's also the issue of telehealth in general. It's better than nothing, but it's not optimal. A therapist whose patient comes in to the office can see & smell if their hygiene is slipping. They might notice self-harm scars. All of that goes away if you're on the phone or just seeing their face on Zoom. No one is really getting adequate care with BetterHelp.

 

[Fag Alert Major Fag Alert]

A One Piece YouTube channel also got sponsored by BetterHelp. This is just getting pathetic now

 

[Xolanite]

Apologies for necro’ing this thread, but Annika’s Leaf was sponsored by betterhelp. She’s a wasian lifestyle blogger with a

small stationery business.

 

[Accept Only Substitutes]

More tales from my therapist friend.

BetterHelps encourages you to remain in touch with clients by paying you for 3 minutes if you send them a short message once a week.

My friend has been sending current and previous clients who no longer use the service short (AI written) messages on various psychological topics. Note: there is nothing in the ptactioner's guide that says you can't send these messages to former clients, although personally I think that's a stretch and borderline abuse of the payments system.

Anyway, this brings in my friend several hundred dollars of income per week. So obviously she has a ton of inactive clients. I'm told that other therapists do the same thing, and I have no reason to doubt her. Almost free money is free money.

Well, apparently BH agrees with me that spamming of inactive clients is abusive because they locked her ability to contact old clients. Other therapists she knows on the platform apparently have not been blocked, which tells me she's probably doing so excessively enough for them to even notice.

More gossip about BH, less about certain people, they have a forum for therapists to bitch and moan and get support, however no critical posts about the service are allowed. Only talking about difficult clients.

She also says that when she started they had an option to allow BH to give them clients outside of the state she's licensed in. She had clients from all over the world and assumed it was legally fine, because they said "well only give you clients you can legally have," however they have since removed that language from the option, so she unchecked it.

She says getting support from them is a nightmare, usually a message is replied to with language "we have received your message if you still need help reply to this message" and never contact you again. If you reply to that message you're usually told to access the practice guide, which is useless, and even if you quote the practice guide and ask a question about it, you're just told to read the guide.

At one point she was getting enough clients to work a 60 hour week (which is insane) and still turning away clients. Now she might get one every six months. I don't know if she's being penalized because of the excessive contacting of old clients or a complaint, or if because they can only send her clients in her state, or if it's because they aren't getting as much business, but I suspect it's a combination of all three.

She won't quit and go into private practice because she doesn't want to work outside the house, and isn't set up for a home office, but she's struggling to find enough work to pay for her student loans and other bills, and juggling patients on four platforms - and still only working part-time. (She's a bit of cow, but I love her anyway)