How BetterHelp Helped Me Come To New Realizations – Anita

“I've admitted things with my counselor that I've never even been able to acknowledge myself.

I had tried in-person counseling a few times before BetterHelp. While those services provided a good introduction for me to receiving support, I knew the people and organization through my work as we had many clients in common. This made it hard for me to open up and talk about my primary concerns and experiences. However, I was grateful for the experience as it opened doors for me to seek further support.”

How did you find BetterHelp?

“I believe I saw an ad for BetterHelp on Instagram. The flexibility of BetterHelp’s online platform were major contributing factors in my decision to sign up to try it. Being able to do sessions over the phone when it worked for my schedule seemed convenient and ended up being one of my most enjoyable perks of the service.”

What did you enjoy most about BetterHelp?

“Having the flexibility to write out my feelings or struggles to later have my counselor offer support and guidance was super beneficial to my growth and healing journey. I ended up admitting things that I'd never been able to even acknowledge to myself previously, let alone anyone else—allowing me to get to the root of some of my main areas of concern.

Additionally, having support to help me realize that I'm not alone, the confirmation that I was struggling with a lot of dysfunction in more than one area of my life, and the validation of my experiences both past and present were essential to my journey. Perhaps most importantly, I learned that there are skills or tools I can utilize to help manage trauma responses and more dense or complex, nuanced feelings.”

If you are experiencing trauma, support is available. Please see our Get Help Now page for more resources.

Where are you in your healing journey today?

“Today, I find that I am better able to self-assess more often now, honoring what or how I'm feeling and truly “sitting” with any stress or heavy emotions I may be feeling or grappling with at that point in time.

I try to take the time I need for myself now, practice more self-care, and write a lot of my feelings out rather than compartmentalizing them. I'm encouraged to get moving physically more often. I'm not quite where I want to be yet, but hope to be soon with the help of online therapy and the therapeutic yoga training I've enrolled in.

I've made some very big changes and decisions that I'm not sure I would have been able to do without my counselor's support. I am feeling grateful that I was able to overcome my pride and ask for help when I needed it.

Being able to ask for help, I now realize, is a sign of strength and not weakness. I'm on the road to claiming all of my power back and feeling much stronger these days!”

How can online therapy help those experiencing depression or feelings of hopelessness?

When someone is living with symptoms of depression or feelings of hopelessness, it can feel nearly impossible to get out of bed—let alone leave the home. This can present a potential barrier to support, as some therapeutic options require a person to be physically present. Online therapy allows people living with depression to connect with a therapist in a way that is comfortable for them, whether by live chat, audio, videoconferencing, or a combination of these methods.

Is online therapy effective?

As we see in Anita’s case, online therapy can be helpful in supporting those with a variety of mental health concerns. Recent research has found that online therapy is effective for addressing symptoms of depression, anxiety disorders, and other conditions. One meta-analysis published in eClinicalMedicine found online therapy was more effective than in-person therapy for reducing depression.