Teencounseling.com: Reviews and Costs in 2023

Teencounseling.com is a BetterHelp specialty site that specializes in teenage mental health care. Both teens and their parents can receive help and advice through its services. In our review of the best online therapy platforms, we picked Teencounseling.com as the best platform for the teenage demographic.

Pros

• Available for teens as young as age 13
• Services available for both parental advice and teen therapy
• Can message your therapist at any time
• Less expensive than Talkspace teen therapy
• Can move to the BetterHelp platform for continuous treatment once teen turns 20

Cons

• Does not accept insurance
• Does not accept health savings account (HSA) or flexible savings account (FSA) dollars
• Prices vary depending on therapist credentials, your location, and your preferences
• May experience limited therapist availability

Teen Counseling can be used by teens who want therapy or their parents who want advice. Every membership will start with clients filling out an introductory questionnaire to help the potential therapist understand your unique issues and concerns. For teen therapy, either the teen or the parent can initiate the sign-up process and complete the initial questionnaire.

Your Teen’s Initial Questionnaire

During this intake, teens will be asked a series of questions, including what issues they are currently struggling with, whether they go to school, and if they've contemplated suicide.

Once your teen registers and verifies their account, they can input their therapist preferences. Teens can request a therapist with experience in a variety of specialties, including teen depression, teen anxiety, LGBTQ+ issues, family conflicts, and eating disorders. They can also choose from the following therapist preferences:

• A male therapist
• A female therapist
• A therapist who provides Christian-based therapy
• An LGBTQ+ therapist
• A therapist older than age 45
• A nonreligious therapist
• A therapist of color

Once teens submit their information, they will be asked to add their parent or legal guardian’s name and email to their account. Teencounseling.com will then email the parent or legal guardian for payment information and request that they complete a parental consent form.

A Parent’s Initial Questionnaire

If you want advice about your teen, or if you want to start the therapy process on their behalf, you can also fill out the Teen Counseling questionnaire as a parent. Teen Counseling will ask you a series of questions, including inquiries about your teen's sleeping habits, whether they have angry outbursts, and whether they've thought about suicide. Parents can also list any concerns they have about their child, including relationship issues or preexisting conditions, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Once you register for an account, you can input your preferences for a potential therapist match. If you’re signing up for your teen, Shari Botwin, LCSW, a trauma specialist in private practice in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, recommends letting your teen play an active role in finding the right therapist. Doing so could help them feel more ownership over their treatment and set the stage for more effective therapy sessions, according to Child Mind Institute. Teen Counseling allows you and your teen to indicate preferences for therapists who have expertise in a variety of areas, including anxiety and depression, among others.

What Is the Parent’s Role in Teen Counseling?

To respect the child’s relationship with their therapist, parents will not have access to messages or conversations between the therapist and teen. Parents have their own separate chat room with the therapist to discuss any matters related to their teen’s online therapy. There is no additional cost for parents to be involved.

According to Teen Counseling, the assigned therapist will make a judgment call about how much information they will share with parents. To understand the role parents will have during online therapy for teens, you can talk to your therapist early in the process about confidentiality and how much information they will share with you.

Botwin says that a parent’s relationship with the therapist will differ from person to person. If your teen is on the younger side, it’s important for the parent to develop a connection with the therapist. In other cases, parents can take a step back and let their teen be independent in the therapy relationship.

Regardless, Botwin recommends that parents maintain boundaries and reassure their teen that they will respect their privacy and relationship with their therapist.

Therapy With Teen Counseling

Every Teen Counseling subscription includes four 30- to 45-minute therapy sessions per month.

The exact timing of each session will be determined by the therapist and client, and the sessions do not roll over into the next month.

All memberships include unlimited messaging, so you can contact your therapist at any time. According to our reviews team’s April 2022 survey of 1,000 online therapy users, only 29 respondents indicated that they used Teen Counseling. Of those users, 60 percent received therapist responses within a day.

After signing up, you can schedule an appointment for chat, video, or phone therapy.

Chat Therapy

With chat therapy, you or your teen can log on to the Teen Counseling platform using the Teen Counseling app or by using a web browser at the appointment time and entering a virtual therapy “room” to message with the therapist in real time. According to our reviews team’s online therapy survey, 52 percent of Teen Counseling customers used this form of therapy during their membership.

Video Therapy

If you schedule a video therapy session, you or your teen will log on at a prescheduled appointment time. Your therapist will talk with you or your teen in the therapy room, with cameras enabled.

Phone Therapy

For a phone therapy session, you or your teen will log on at your prescheduled appointment time to join your session, and Teen Counseling will ask you for your phone number. Its system will then call your phone to connect you to your therapist without sharing that number with them. You will then have an audio-only therapy session that’s similar to any other phone call.

Teen Counseling only offers a monthly subscription plan that costs between $240 and $360 per month. In our reviews team’s online therapy survey, 45 percent of Teen Counseling users spent $300 or less per month on their subscription.

You can join Teen Counseling as an adult seeking advice about your teenager, or you can sign up for a joint account with both parent and teen. The price is the same regardless.

Teencounseling.com costs between $240 and $360 per month, depending on your location, therapist preferences, and therapist availability. For teen therapy in Indiana, including preferences for an older therapist and one with experience in stress and anxiety, our reviews team was quoted $320 per month. Teen Counseling bills clients every four weeks, and you can cancel at any time.

Teen Counseling does not accept insurance or HSA/FSA dollars. It does, however, offer financial aid. Financial aid is available in circumstances such as being a student, unemployed, or low income. You can fill out its financial aid eligibility form, which is available during the sign-up process or by contacting customer service while subscribed, to see how much aid you're eligible for. Financial aid can cover up to 40 percent off your monthly subscription. Teen Counseling will send you an email every three months prompting you to fill out the form again to renew your financial aid.

Teen Counseling does not have a profile with the Better Business Bureau (BBB). On Trustpilot, Teen Counseling is rated 3.7 out of 5 stars, with 22 reviews.

On the Apple App Store, Teen Counseling is rated 4.7 out of 5 stars, based on more than 2,900 reviews. On the Google Play Store, it is rated 4.5 out of 5 stars, based on more than 900 reviews.

Positive reviews for Teen Counseling mention easy and accessible therapy for teens, the benefits of parents being able to talk to therapists through unlimited messaging, and positive experiences with therapists during online counseling for teenagers.

Negative reviews for Teen Counseling cite poor experiences using the service through an employee assistance program, feeling misled by advertisements about weekly therapy prices when the service is billed monthly, and experiences with individual unreliable counselors.

We independently investigate and recommend products and services we believe will enrich the lives of our readers and meet their specific needs. You can read our full online therapy review methodology here. We’ve spent many hours carrying out in-depth research into the online therapy market. You can trust our review because we did the legwork for you in these specific ways:

• Engaged in ongoing independent research
• Mystery shopped each of the brands
• Contacted brands’ customer service teams to ask questions and gauge responsiveness
• Consulted six leading psychologists and psychiatrists
• Became customers of online therapy providers ourselves
• Reviewed academic research about the efficacy of online therapy versus in-person therapy
• Read hundreds of verified customer reviews from trusted third parties such as the BBB and Trustpilot

Teen Counseling can be a good option for parents or teens without insurance, especially due to its ongoing financial aid program that offers discounts of up to 40 percent off your monthly subscription. If you want appointment times after school hours or on weekends, Teen Counseling could be a great fit, too.

If you want to use insurance, Teen Counseling is not the right option. It does not accept insurance, submit claims to your insurance, or allow you to use HSA/FSA dollars for teen therapy.

If you are in crisis, waiting for an online therapy appointment may not be safe. In case of an emergency, call 911. That includes plans to harm yourself or others. If you’re having suicidal thoughts, you can call the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988. Help is available 24/7.

You can also reach out to the SAMHSA National Helpline at 800-662-HELP (4357). The SAMHSA help line is a free, confidential, 24/7, 365-days-a-year treatment referral and information service for individuals facing mental or substance abuse disorders.