Best Text Therapy to Supplement Your Mental Health Support

No matter what plan you sign up for, one of the key features of Talkspace is that users are able to message their therapist at any time. This makes it a fantastic option for someone who is seeking therapy solely via text, or a person who would prefer a hybrid setup that also includes live sessions. 

Founded in 2012, Talkspace is a well-known online therapy platform—and for good reason, in our opinion. It offers therapy for individuals, couples, and teens, as well as psychiatry services. You also have the flexibility to decide what kind of therapy plan works best for you when you sign up, whether that’s text-only, a combination of text and live sessions, or text, live sessions, and workshops. You can even add psychiatry services. That said, we think the emphasis on text therapy is what really makes it stand out. 

If you sign up for the text-only plan, which is the lowest-priced plan, you’ll have access to a secure chat room with your therapist where you can send text, videos, pictures, and audio messages for support any time you need it. Your therapist will then respond to the message once they are available. Back-and-forth asynchronous messaging can continue from there until you feel satisfied with the conversation. There are no appointments or face-to-face obligations with this plan. 

If you sign up for one of the higher-tiered plans, you’ll have the same access to asynchronous messaging, as well as live sessions. Live sessions can be held over video, phone, or live chat—which is particularly useful for someone who is hesitant to engage in face-to-face therapy. Live sessions do require the user to schedule appointments, but messaging through the confidential chat room is available at all times.

Talkspace offers three therapy plans for individuals, couples, and teens:

• Messaging therapy starts at $69 per week and includes unlimited asynchronous text, video, and audio messaging with therapist responses five days a week.
• Video + messaging therapy starts at $99 per week and includes unlimited asynchronous messaging as well as four live 45-minute sessions per month (live chat, video, or phone).
• Video + messaging + workshops includes messaging, four live sessions per month, and access to therapy workshops; this plan starts at $109 per week.
• Psychiatry evaluations are $249 and follow-ups are $175 each; these can only be video sessions. 

Users can pay for Talkspace out of pocket, and the platform is in-network with several insurance plans including Cigna, Optum, and more, if you have coverage.

Talkspace scored among the best of the 55 companies we surveyed, with 90% of respondents reporting an overall positive experience with the platform. Additionally, 92% believed their therapist’s qualifications were either good, very good, or excellent, and 82% said they were either likely or very likely to recommend Talkspace to a friend. While one of our reviewers didn’t have a great experience with their first therapist match, they appreciated how easy, and quick, it was to switch to someone else. They were also able to message their therapist as soon as they were matched with them.

Sometimes, if you’re, say, traveling a lot, live chat is the ideal way to connect with your therapist. But other times, you may prefer a face-to-face video call. The teletherapy giant BetterHelp gives users the option to attend therapy sessions via a number of different communication platforms: video, audio, or live chat. Its live chat option is available through the app or patient portal on the website. All users have to do is log into their account, enter their message “room,” and start chatting. 

To get started, you fill out a questionnaire that will help the company identify what condition(s) you are seeking treatment for and your preferred method of therapy. Once the system has collected all of this information, you are matched with a therapist who you can then schedule a session with via the app or patient portal. If the therapist doesn’t end up being a good fit, you can request a new match. 

While your membership is active, you are able to schedule one therapy session a week via video chat, audio call, or live messaging. Between sessions, you can asynchronously message your therapist as much as you’d like (though therapists are not on call 24/7, so response time can vary). 

BetterHelp has been around since 2013 and offers users access to more than 30,000 licensed providers. However, it’s important to note that in 2022, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, and Ron Wyden opened an investigation into the company’s privacy practices, and it is currently ongoing.

BetterHelp offers only one membership plan that ranges from $60 to $90 per week—exact pricing will depend on your location and your therapist’s availability. You’ll be billed every four weeks, or you can request to be billed on a quarterly basis. Cancellation is quick and easy—simply go to your account settings and go through the steps to cancel your membership. As long as these steps are completed before the next billing cycle, you won’t be charged again.

In our survey, 86% of users had an overall positive experience with the platform and 76% felt their therapist met all or most of their needs. One reviewer said the therapists they worked with were “compassionate, provided professional knowledge relevant and helpful to the issues I brought up, and responded to my messages quickly and thoughtfully.” 

Additionally, when asked if they were satisfied with therapist options on the platform, 77% of users surveyed said they were either satisfied or very satisfied, and 87% of users felt the platform’s therapist’s qualifications were good, very good, or excellent.

Cognitive behavioral therapy has been shown to help a number of psychological conditions, such as anxiety and depression, and is designed to help patients change their thinking patterns and behaviors. 

Online-Therapy.com was founded in 2009 by Carl Nordstrom, who wanted to make CBT accessible and affordable to more people, and its live chat option is a big part of that.

Online-Therapy.com offers a whole CBT program that includes journaling, yoga, worksheets, and therapy sessions—which can be done via live chat. You also have the option to message your therapist outside of sessions, plus other CBT-specific therapy tools. 

The premium tier plan gives you access to live therapy sessions, unlimited texts with your therapist (some plans include express replies), eight CBT sections—including 25 worksheets, daily worksheet replies (Monday through Friday), yoga and meditation videos, journaling, activity plans, tests, and a secure platform. 

The program is made up of eight parts that users can work through at their own pace (though Online-Therapy.com suggests checking in at least once a month to keep up momentum). There are three individual therapy plans offered, two of which include live therapy sessions that can be done over video, audio, or live chat, and one plan for couples.

Online-Therapy.com does not accept insurance, but it has three individual plans as well as one couples therapy plan: 

• Basic is $50 per week and includes unlimited messaging with a therapist, eight-section CBT program including 25 worksheets, daily worksheet replies Monday through Friday, yoga and meditation videos, journaling, activity plans, and tests. 
• Standard costs $80 per week and includes all of the benefits of the basic plan plus one 45-minute therapy session per week (video, audio, or live chat).
• Premium is $110 per week and includes all of the benefits of the Basic and Standard plans, except it comes with two 45-minute therapy sessions per week and “express replies” from your therapist. 
• Couples therapy is $110 per week and includes the same benefits of the Standard plan plus a 45-minute couples therapy session.

Eighty-five percent of survey respondents report having an overall positive experience using Online-Therapy.com and 82% said they were either likely or very likely to refer a friend to the platform. Additionally, 72% felt their therapist met all or most of their needs and 90% felt therapist qualifications on the platform were either good, very good, or excellent. 

Online-Therapy.com’s accessible pricing also stands out. One of our reviewers noted it’s “a unique platform that provides excellent value for its price. Its affordability and wealth of coping tools set it apart from some of its competitors.”

Teen Counseling is one of the few online therapy platforms that is focused solely on treating teenagers ages 13-19, helping them cope with conditions such as anxiety, depression, self-esteem, bullying, anger, and more. Therapists on the site are specifically trained in working with patients at this stage of life and are equipped to deliver therapy in an age-appropriate way, as the needs of a 13-year-old might differ significantly from those of a 19-year-old.

The setup at Teen Counseling is similar to that of its parent company BetterHelp in that there are no membership tiers, and patients (or their parents) are charged weekly and billed every four weeks. Each user has access to weekly sessions with their therapist, which can be done via video, audio, or live chat, as well as unlimited messaging between sessions. Teens have their own dedicated messaging space with their therapist that is kept confidential from their parents. That said, parents will always be notified if there is something concerning happening with their child.

Teen Counseling does not work with insurance providers and has one payment plan available to users. Patients are charged between $60 to $90 per week (pricing depends on location and therapist availability) and billed every four weeks, with the option to request quarterly bills. 

Survey respondents were overall pleased with Teen Counseling. 85% rated their experience with the platform as good, very good, or excellent. Additionally, 76% of respondents said their therapist met all or most of their needs, and 71% said they were likely or very likely to recommend the platform to a friend. One of our reviewers, a parent of a teen, said their teen “enjoyed talking to his therapist” on TeenCounseling, and that their child felt like his provider “was giving him ‘a different way of looking at things’ that he hadn’t thought about before.”

Some couples may find it easier to share how they’re feeling through text rather than face-to-face. ReGain offers a unique, hybrid approach to couples therapy that includes live video sessions as well as unlimited asynchronous messaging between sessions. It’s an excellent way for couples to stay in touch with their therapist any time they need extra support, and is especially useful for couples who can’t be in the same room at the same time for therapy. 

ReGain was founded in 2016, and its parent company is the well-known platform BetterHelp. Unlike BetterHelp, ReGain’s focus is entirely on relationships. It offers couples and individuals the opportunity to work with providers who specialize in relationships via video sessions and text therapy. 

Couples sign up for ReGain under one account, but they can each access meetings and the messaging center separately from their own devices. Once they’re signed up, they meet with their therapist for a live session once a week and then check in as much or as little as they’d like between sessions through the message center. Both partners are able to see any message the other sends to the therapist through their shared account, which affords the opportunity to respond and engage in the conversation. Therapists are not on call 24/7, though, so the couple may have to wait a bit before they receive a response from their provider.

ReGain does not accept insurance, but it does strive to keep costs affordable to users. There is only one membership plan that ranges from $60 to $90 per week, depending on the couple’s location and their therapist’s availability. The couple will be billed for their sessions every four weeks (or they can request to pay quarterly, instead). To cancel, members simply have to cancel their account before their next billing cycle.

One of our reviewers seemed to get a lot out of their session on ReGain. They wrote, “The therapist we ended up meeting with was professional, listened to us, and was able to meet our needs. She worked with us to create goals based on our experiences and provided us with worksheets and activities that fit in with those needs.”

This experience is in line with our survey respondents, too; 77% said their overall experience with ReGain was positive, and 71% said they’d recommend the service to a friend. Therapist satisfaction was also high, with 80% of users saying ReGain met all or most of their needs.

For someone looking for group support through text, Circles is the best option among the companies we surveyed. The whole purpose of the platform is to bring people together in groups where they can share their stories and experiences, and not feel alone. Users have three different ways to connect with fellow group members, one of which is through live chat. 

Circles was founded in 2020. The company’s mission is to provide users with an environment where they can create connections with others who are going through or who have gone through similar life experiences—and to make access to this support affordable. 

Users can join Circles for free, in which case they’ll have access to group audio calls, live chats, and meetings that are all led by group moderators. There’s a paid option as well, Circles, where members are given access to smaller groups with vetted members led by mental health professionals. With this option, you get the same access to audio calls and 24/7 live chat, but the small, intimate group meetings are done via video chat over the course of a 12-week period. We love that members who want to take advantage of the 24/7 chat feature aren’t required to sign up for the paid membership in order to do so. 

The one drawback to Circles is that, while it does offer fantastic group support, there are no options for users who want individual therapy in addition to regularly meeting with a group.

Circles does not accept insurance, but has two affordable membership options:

• A free membership, which comes with 24/7 group chat access, unlimited anonymous drop-in calls for audio meetings.
• A Circles+ plan, which is $29 per month (members can try a meeting free before signing up). With this plan, members get all of the free features as well as access to small groups of 10 vetted people with weekly video meetings led by a mental health professional.
  

80% of our survey respondents reported an overall positive experience using Circles, and 77% felt that all or most of their needs were met through therapy. More than three-quarters of users were happy with the number of good-quality provider options Circles provided, and 82% said therapist diversity was either good, very good, or excellent. One of our reviewers found Circles to be very beneficial for their mental health, saying, “I felt very heard, supported, and emotionally buoyed by the sixty-minute session.”

If you’re looking for an affordable, accessible text therapy option, 7 Cups is the service for you, since it gives users access to 24/7 live chat with mental health support at no charge. Members can join in a group chat with peers if they’re looking for a sense of community, or they can connect one-on-one with one of 7 Cups’ trained volunteers. 

7 Cups was founded in 2013 by Glen Moriarty, PsyD, in an effort to make peer support more accessible to a wider user base. Today, 7 Cups is available in 189 countries and has more than 450,000 trained volunteers. 

The company is equipped to help teens (13-17 years old) as well as adults. Teens have their own dedicated community spaces and volunteers have been trained to interact with them in an age-appropriate, supportive way. Adults 18 years old and up, in addition to access to free 24/7 live chat, also have the option to sign up for the online therapy program. It’s a flat-rate membership that connects users to a dedicated licensed mental health provider who they can text as often as they’d like through asynchronous messaging.

At 7 Cups, 24/7 group and one-on-one chats with volunteers are free to all users. 7 Cups also offers unlimited messaging with an online therapist to members 18 years old and up for $150 a month. It does not partner with any insurance companies.

In a 2021 survey, 85% of users said they were satisfied or very satisfied with the therapist options at 7 Cups, 76% said the therapists’ qualifications were good to excellent, and 66% said the care they received was good or excellent. The platform remains incredibly popular in more than 150 countries and continues to recruit trained volunteers to meet the demands of its customer base.

If you’re looking for a one-stop virtual health shop where you can schedule online therapy as well as psychiatry appointments for more than one condition, LiveHealth Online is it.

LiveHealth Online offers both video and text-based therapy as well as medication management that you can access via its website or app. All therapy providers are either licensed therapists or psychologists who are trained in treating multiple conditions, making this platform a great option for someone with more than one mental health diagnosis. And, if you need treatment from a medical doctor for common conditions such as allergies or the flu, LiveHealth has providers for that, too.

LiveHealth Online was launched in 2013 by Anthem, a major insurance provider in the United States. Today, nearly every Anthem and Blue Cross Blue Shield plan covers therapy through this platform, but services are open to anyone, regardless of whether or not they are insured. 

Unlike many other online therapy platforms, users do not need to sign up for any membership or subscription to use LiveHealth Online. Each appointment is paid for individually, without any hidden fees or ongoing charges. Chat therapy sessions are scheduled in advance and last around 45 minutes. While this is a great option for anyone seeking professional-level therapy, it’s important to know that there aren’t any plan options for patients who want to switch between video sessions and live chat sessions, and you are not able to message your therapist between sessions.

LiveHealth Online is in-network with nearly every Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance plan. For patients paying out of pocket, sessions are charged on a pay-as-you-go basis. A 45-minute chat therapy session with a licensed therapist is priced at $80, or patients can opt to see a psychologist for $95 per visit.

In our most recent user survey for LiveHealth Online, 90% of users gave the platform an overall rating of good, very good, or excellent, and 87% said they felt the company was much better, better, or a little better than other online therapy platforms they’ve used in the past. Eighty-seven percent were satisfied with the company’s psychiatric services. One of our reviewers felt her therapist was knowledgeable and had experience with online care. She also felt the session format was more user-friendly than some of LiveHealth’s competitors.

While most online therapy platforms offer various formats for sessions, E-Therapy Cafe is one of the few that includes journaling as one of the options. You can purchase therapy sessions and decide whether you want to use them for video, live chat, or journaling therapy—making this platform one of the best for anyone who prefers the written word over video calls. 

E-Therapy Cafe was founded in 2016 and considers itself a “boutique” practice, with a small group of qualified therapists who give each patient treatment that is tailored to their goals and needs. While it doesn’t accept insurance, it aims to provide therapy at an affordable rate, and the option to pay as you go to help make treatment more accessible. 

If you opt for journaling therapy, you will fill out a questionnaire that explains a bit about who you are and what you’re hoping to get out of therapy. From there a therapist will send you a “template” (or prompt) to help you work through your feelings as you write. You can write up to 700 words per entry, and once you’re done you simply send the entry back to your therapist—no appointment necessary. Within 24 to 48 hours, your therapist will send a response that includes feedback, insight, and sometimes homework, as well as a new journal template for your next session (should you choose to continue this format).

E-Therapy Cafe offers single sessions or bundles:

• One-time trial for $50 that includes one 30-minute session (chat, video, or 700-word journal entry)
• E-Therapy SHOT is the pay-as-you-go option for $55 per session.
• E-Therapy FOUR includes four sessions (any format) for $196.
• E-therapy EIGHT includes eight sessions for $360.

Sessions expire 30 days after purchase. One session is equal to a 30-minute audio or video call or a 700-word journal entry (if you would like a one-hour video or audio therapy session, you can stack two sessions together).

E-Therapy Cafe performed well in our survey, with 94% of users saying their overall experience with the platform was positive and 82% saying they were likely to recommend the service to a friend. Plus, 90% of users said that they felt their therapist’s qualifications were good, very good, or excellent. One of our reviewers said E-Therapy Cafe is a good option for couples who are looking for “some guidance through a life challenge, and hoping for a little bit of accountability, perspective, and consistent (but short) check-ins.”