BetterHelp

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About

BetterHelp is a web app that offers direct web-communication between customers and licensed therapists and mental health experts. In 2018, several prominent YouTubers sponsored by the service came under fire for potentially misrepresenting the service to their viewers and the service itself was accused of possibly being a scam.

History

BetterHelp was founded in 2013 by Alon Matas and partnered with Danny Bragonier to develop the web-based counseling portal.^[1] The company's headquarters are in Sunnyvale, California. It operates similar to services like TalkSpace and Ginger.io.

YouTube Advertising Controversy

On September 26th, 2018, amidst a wave of YouTube content creators discussing their mental health issues and "burnout" in videos on their channel,^[2] channel Memology101 posted a video showing that many of the popular accounts making videos discussing their mental health such as Elle Mills and Boogie2988 were sponsored by BetterHelp, arguing that these channels were exploiting mental health issues and perhaps faking them while promoting a mental health service (shown below, top left). This became a multi-part series (other videos shown below). These videos also went into reviews from customers explaining their negative experiences with BetterHelp, how YouTube creators promoting BetterHelp created a "circle of promotion," and the way these YouTubers potentially misrepresented the application.

The negative reviews about BetterHelp focused on how the app did not provide the service it promised. Some negative reviews taken from Polygon's^[3] explainer on the controversy illustrate how the site made them pay more than what was advertised and saw counselors not offering guidance or canceling/no-showing appointments. Additionally, Polygon pointed out that BetterHelp's term's of service did not guarantee that the services provided were not quality-controlled and that it is the responsibility of the customer to verify the qualifications of their counselor.

We do not control the quality of the Counselor Services and we do not determine whether any Counselor is qualified to provide any specific service as well as whether a Counselor is categorized correctly or matched correctly to you… While we may try to do so from time to time, in our sole discretion, you acknowledge that we do not represent to verify, and do not guarantee the verification of, the skills, degrees, qualifications, licensure, certification, credentials, competence or background of any Counselor, It is your responsibility to conduct independent verification regarding any Counselor that provides you with Counselor Services (whether through the Platform or not) and we strongly recommend that you will conduct this verification prior to communicating with any Counselor through the Platform and on a continuous basis as you use the Platform.

One of the most popular creators sponsored by the service, Philip DeFranco, took to Twitter to say that he will be putting his ads from them on a "temporary hold" until BetterHelp "rewords" its terms of service.^[4]

Alon Matis took to Reddit^[5] to defend the app, stating:

I don't have any response to the video because it's plainly bizarre. You are welcomed to go to our provider directory (www.betterhelp.com/counselors) and see the credentials and licensing information of each one of our providers. If you find a single counselor who is currently active on the platform but isn't a qualified professional, I will personally donate $500 to a charity of your choice.