Episode 3 Transcript: Interested in BetterHelp Online Therapy? (Money and Time-Saving Tips)
Good morning y buenos dias! To my lovely friends all over the world welcome to the Noggin Podcast, a cozy mental health advocacy podcast with me, Kyarra Keele. It genuinely means so much to me that you’re here!
On this podcast we provide a safe, loving space advocating for diverse mental health dialogue in the community for people of color, educating about marginalized mental illnesses, and providing resources for mental health recovery. If that's what you’re looking for, welcome home!
If you’ve never stumbled across me before, again I’m Kyarra Keele. I’m a 4-time published author, healthy lifestyle blogger of 6 years, and an aspiring polyglot currently learning 4 languages, which are Spanish, and American Sign Language, and I’m also rather slowly learning French and Arabic. I’m a mental health ambassador working as a liaison between the community and my local health center to educate, support, and progress the mental health dialogue. I’ve been navigating the mental health system for about a decade now and I’m extremely passionate about mental health service and advocacy because I believe that no one deserves to be hurting or feeling alone in this universe. I hope this podcast will cheer you along on your good days and offer a cozy and supportive haven for you on your more difficult days.
Though this episode is not sponsored BetterHelp in any fashion, today’s topic is all about how to make the most of your BetterHelp online therapy subscription inspired by the fact that I have been using the BetterHelp service for nearly 1 year! I actually have my next video session with my counselor on Betterhelp today. These are all things that I learned the hard way, through some trial and tribulation so I’m hoping that I can make the path a lot easier for you. Before we get started today, it’s time for our Noggin Nurturing Segment where we take a quick break from the episode to do one thing to nurture and invest in ourselves.
As I always say, a plant collector, I’ve learned that much like plants, our minds need gentle encouragement. So, for example, you might use this pause to motivate yourself to hop out of bed, make yourself a warm cup of tea, take a relaxing shower, do some gentle stretching...You could make a phone call to someone you love, or make that brave call to make your first or next counseling appointment, journal, make your to-do list for the day, or plan out a healthy breakfast. You could take a short 5 or 10-minute walk or if you’re on medication, you can use this time to take your meds. If you’re in the car or bus commuting you could try listening to a song that makes you feel uplifted or planning out your day ideal mentally. If you can’t try any of those examples for the segment, you can still participate! I’d like you to make a pledge to yourself of what you’ll do to nurture yourself as soon finish your commute journey.
I truly understand that sometimes even the most simple tasks can feel like they take all of your energy, so please pick a task that’s gentle and kind to your body and mind. For myself, today I’ll spend the segment by putting on my favorite combination of essential oils which I use as my perfume. It always makes me feel better. comment below to let me and everyone in our home how you’ll spend the break for the Noggin Nurturing segment...The Noggin Podcast is brought to you today by Anchor. A service I actually use. The anchor app is the easiest way to make a podcast, ever. It's the only app that lets you record a high-quality podcast, and distribute it everywhere (including Google Podcasts and Apple Podcasts) – all in one place. No fancy equipment or podcasting experience necessary, and even better than all of that, it’s 100% free! I’ve tried plenty of other podcast editing apps that make it a headache to import and export your audio files but Anchor’s intuitive platform makes it nice and easy.
Welcome back and bienvenidos! For those of you who are new to online therapy services with Betterhelp, I’ll start out by giving you a super quick explanation of what this service is just so we’re on the same accord but if you’re already familiar with BetterHelp, you can skip ahead about 2 minutes.
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This professional service offers for both youth, couples, and adult therapy. The process to get started was rather fast and easy in my experience. You simply answer a few questions to find a therapist that fits your needs and preferences (For example, if you’re looking for a counselor that specializes in working with a certain disorder, is established with LGBT+ clients, or utilizes a religious perspective you can view and sift through these options on their network of licensed, professional, board-certified providers. They have counselors who are specialized in specific issues, such as stress, anxiety, relationships, parenting, depression, addictions, eating, sleeping, trauma, anger, family conflicts, LGBT matters, grief, and so much more. Generally, you’ll be matched to a therapist within 24 hours though in my case, I was matched with the therapists I tried usually in much less time. So depending on how long it takes the system to match you with your ideal therapist, it could indeed be possible to be matched with a therapist and begin messaging them that same day or the next day, which was the case for me on multiple occasions. You can schedule live chats, phone calls, or video calls and connect from your phone, tablet, or computer which I personally find rather convenient. According to their website: Counselors in BetterHelp are licensed, trained, experienced, and accredited psychologists (PhD / PsyD), marriage and family therapists (MFT), clinical social workers (LCSW), or licensed professional counselors (LPC). All of them have a Masters Degree or a Doctorate Degree in their field. They have been qualified and certified by their state professional board after completing the necessary education, exams, training, and practice. While their experience, expertise, and background vary, they all possess at least 3 years and 2,000 hours of hands-on experience.
The cost of counseling through BetterHelp ranges from $40 to $70 per week (billed monthly) and includes unlimited access to your counselor. You can switch counselors at any time and you can cancel your membership at any time for any reason, which I have confirmed myself and will explain why in just a second.
I recently read an article whose writer joked that finding a therapist alone would make anyone need therapy and I’d have to agree. I’ve switched therapist quite a few times throughout my experience navigating the mental health system due to lack of a genuine fit or connection, moving states, and so on, so I’m actually rather grateful to finally be utilizing an online therapy that makes the process a lot less of a headache. Okay, onto the money and time-saving tips that you’ve all been waiting for.
Tip #1: For our first money-saving tip, let me explain why I can confirm that you can cancel your membership at any time. I know that’s kind of confusing, it’s like, how would you know that if you’re still using the service? But actually, after a month or two of paying for the service out of pocket, I found out that my university offers BetterHelp for “free” through my school’s student insurance. After finding out this great news, I was able to work with the BetterHelp customer service to cancel my original membership and create a new membership under my free student account. So, if you’re a student, I highly, highly recommend that you check with your school’s caseworker, or staff at your health center to find out if your school offers BetterHelp for free or reduced cost through the school’s insurance.
Tip #2: My second money-saving tip if you’re not a student or your university does not provide the service for free: utilize the BetterHelp financial aid option. With a quick online form during the registration process you can potentially get a reduced monthly price based on your income. Before I found out my university offered the service for free through my insurance, I paid for my membership using the financial aid option and it saved me a considerable amount of money, so it’s certainly worth applying for.
Tip #3: For a time-saving tip on Betterhelp, I recommend that you go into the counselor selection process with an open mind, but a clear vision of the therapist you are and aren’t looking for. As with finding a good counselor for traditional in-person therapy, it can take more than one try to find someone that works well for you. And fortunately, as I mentioned previously, you can change counselors anytime. However, in order to hopefully avoid spending your precious time and energy hopping from counselor, I suggest that you make a mental list of things you are and aren’t willing to compromise on in terms of what you’re looking for in a counselor. For example, if know that you always struggle more intensely with your mental health on the weekends, you save yourself a lot of time by ensuring that you select a counselor that is available on the weekends for videos chats and calls (since every therapist has a different availability schedule that you can view during your selection process. This will ideally help prevent you from having to switch later. For another example, you’re struggling with bipolar disorder, I highly recommend that you don’t compromise on finding a counselor that specializes or is a least very familiar with treating bipolar disorder, and instead that you prioritize this so that you don’t end up disappointed later and needing to switch therapists. To some of you this may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised when you see the selection page of all of the different counselors that BetterHelp offers you based the criteria you select, it’s easy to start forgetting what your priorities are for choosing your therapist. So, save the selection process for a moment when you have ample time and use that time to advocate for yourself and your priorities.
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Tip #4: Along the same lines, another time saving tip is to be sure to have some questions prepared to ask your therapist, during your intake video chat or phone call. This serves the purpose of potentially weeding out therapist that would be a not so great fit for you. Some questions I would personally ask would be regarding what experience they have with my disorders, confirming their schedule availability, such as whether they’re available for sessions twice a week or only once, perhaps asking what their philosophy is on healing and why they became/remain a therapist.
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Tip #5 would be to message your therapist to schedule a phone or video call appointment if you’re hoping looking to chat with them at a time that’s different than what their schedule displays. Some of the therapists don’t quite have their availability schedules updated, so often it is possible to get a better time if you ask. For example, if the schedules says my counselor is only available from 12pm-7 pm, it’s worth a try to ask if they have any morning appointments because a fair portion of the time the answer might be yes. Of course, this flexibility varies from therapist to therapist but my current therapist is very flexible in this way.
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Tip #6: My sixth tip is to make sure that you try your best to schedule your appointments several days ahead of time to ensure that you get the day and time you’re hoping for. You can only book one appointment at a time, but for that one appointment, I would keep in mind that some therapists become booked faster than others. So, while with some therapists it may be possible to book a session 24 or 48 hours prior, some other therapists may need to be booked three or four days ahead of time due to demand.
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Tip #7: My final tip which can save you both time and money, would be to listen to your gut when it comes to bonding with your therapist. Some of the therapists I worked with on BetterHelp, I could tell through a deeper intuitive feeling from the first or second session that we were not compatible at all in our philosophies on healing and treatment. In those cases, I made the decision to move onto someone new, and I’m so glad that I did, as it helped propel me towards the right therapist that I was meant to find. With that said, I will again say that this process requires patience. So, don’t be afraid to move on and switch counselors which is free and easy, if you’re gut is telling you that switching is the right thing to do. Even with the right counselor, you may feel shy or a bit uncomfortable, but the intuitive feeling you get should be positive and soothing.
For my much-loved hard of hearing and deaf community, transcripts in English are now available on the new Noggin Podcast website!
If you made it here to the conclusion of this episode, I’d like to say thank you so much. Muchisimas gracias. If you’re interested in learning more information about The Noggin Podcast you can visit our website and subscribe to be a part of our cozy home with new episode releases every other Monday morning. See you in the next episode! Nos vemos en el próximo episodio.