Teen Counseling Avis 

I would not recommend BetterHelp/Teen Counseling based on my experience.

First, the subscription model deserves more transparency. I paid approximately $350 CAD per month for a plan advertised as including up to four live sessions. However, you still pay the same amount if your therapist has limited availability, takes time off, or cannot see you every week.

I enrolled my 18-year-old son after an incident affected his mental health. He liked his therapist as a person, but after several months he decided this type of therapy was not a good fit for him and stopped using the service.

We later decided to pursue a legal matter related to the incident. On the advice of a lawyer, I asked his therapist for specific documentation/session information. I clearly explained what I needed and why. She asked what was required, I explained it, and she agreed to provide it within about three weeks. This was documented in the platform chat.

The deadline passed. I followed up and was told she was very busy and would get it done ASAP. More weeks passed. I followed up again. This continued for almost three months.

During that time, my son was no longer using the service, but I kept paying the monthly subscription because I was concerned that cancelling would cut off communication with the therapist while we were still waiting. I explained that continuing to pay was causing financial stress.

I contacted Teen Counseling support. They told me therapists are not required to provide this type of documentation and that it is at their discretion. My issue was that she had already agreed to do it. Had she told me from the beginning that she could not provide it, I would not have spent months waiting and paying for a service we were no longer using.

Teen Counseling support also told me therapists on the platform could not provide diagnoses. I was not asking for a diagnosis.

Eventually, the therapist told me she had sent the document, but I received nothing. Two more days passed and I had to follow up again. She then said her Gmail was full and she would resend it in 10 minutes. Hours later, I finally received it.

After waiting nearly three months, I received a generic one-page letter that did not contain what we had discussed. It also stated that my son had Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which was especially confusing because Teen Counseling support had told me their therapists were not permitted to diagnose clients.

When I explained that this was not what we had agreed on, she said this was typically what she provides to clients. That was frustrating because our earlier written conversation clearly showed what I had requested and that she agreed.

I was also surprised to see that her contact information showed she was located in the United States. That led me to research whether the documentation would even be useful in an Ontario legal proceeding. I then found information in the platform's own terms and policies about limitations surrounding the use of the service in legal matters.

This raised another major concern: there seems to be a disconnect between the platform's policies, what Teen Counseling support tells customers, and what therapists themselves understand or provide. If the therapist had been fully aware of the platform's limitations, I do not understand why she agreed to prepare documentation for a legal matter, or why she later sent a letter diagnosing my son after support told me diagnoses were not permitted.

My biggest issue is the lack of communication, consistency, transparency, and professionalism. I spent almost three months following up, paid hundreds of dollars for a service my son was no longer using, and ultimately received something completely different from what had been discussed.

Based on my experience, I would strongly recommend finding a qualified local therapist and paying per session instead. BetterHelp/Teen Counseling is marketed as convenient and affordable, but my experience was the opposite. I would not use it again.

My 17 year old son was struggling with anxiety and depression. Teen Counseling has been wonderful. He would not see the school counselor in fear of being seen or found out. There is still such a stigma. Teen Counseling gives him autonomy to say and share what he needs to share. His counselor has been great and helps guide me as his parent as well, while keeping what m son shares private to him. I thought I would have to push my son to sign up for sessions or engage, but he does it freely and adds extra sessions when he needs them. He chose messaging as his ideal way of doing therapy, and at the beginning, I was worried it wouldn't be as effective as in person or video, but he is opening up to his counselor and I can tell he is processing his thoughts and emotions as there are times I can tell there have been tears. I am so grateful for this resource. We were able meet our son where he was and get him the help he needed. We have been using Teen Counseling about 3 months.

The therapy is top tier and I can speak to a therapist almost any time. Granted sometimes you need patience with the app, but it always works out in the end.

This cannot be categorized as a service, but a Ponzi scheme. My children are battling with mental health issues, and we immediately came to BetterHelp as the premier option. After filling out the applicable information we were forwarded to TeenCounseling.com and we created an account for our children. First, they do not allow multiple children to be in one account. Instead, you are expected to create multiple email accounts (for both parents and children). When I registered my son, I was billed at a weekly rate of $65. After creating a separate account for my daughter, I was billed at a monthly rate of $360. To add insult to injury, they stated that it was due to me changing my zip code….really?!
My son was the first to convey his thoughts to the “licensed professional”. After writing a sonnet of mental chaos, this therapist responded with, “ok.” I confronted both BetterHelp and TeenCounseling about this and they do not have a phone option, only email. Tell me, how can you effectively engage with desperate parents with an inbox? Unless your aim is to garner profits, you cannot! Despite days of waiting and trying to connect our five accounts (three adult and two teen), we could not connect our children for treatment.

Parents beware! They do not exist to provide "Better Help."

I wouldn’t even give them one star if that was an option. My daughter had one appointment. I scheduled another but had to cancel. I had my HSA card on file believing I would be charged as our sessions were used. I have no issue paying for a full month at a time. My daughter wasn’t impressed and asked to not have to do it again. So we never used the service again. My husband has the HSA account login. He never noticed (because he doesn’t pay the bills) that we have been charged for 17 months. Only have had services rendered in the first month. Once I logged into his login and found this out I stopped the charges and asked for a refund. It was a clear misunderstanding. They are treating mental health care like a gym membership. Wanting you to pay whether you use it or not. No one in their right mind would pay over $5k in charges with no services rendered. They offered to give me 3 months refund and I asked for at least 12 months because it took us so long to catch the mistake. They came back with we will give you a total of 6 months refund. I don’t think this is good business. They didn’t have to pay a counselor for these sessions but yet they kept charging the card. No follow up of “we notice you aren’t using this service”. When did health care because a gym membership? No one caring why they are charging someone. I don’t think it is good business and I plan on moving forward with legal action.

Impossible to get appointments but still charged. First counselor was not understandable due to a think heavy accent.
Second counsellor doesn't respond to texts.

We signed up because our 15-year-old daughter is struggling with anxiety and depression symptoms and was willing to try therapy. Our first therapist appeared to misunderstand basic intake information and referred to our daughter as our son despite the intake clearly identifying her as a female child. We switched therapists, but the second therapist was unable to practice in our province. By the end of the week we paid for, our daughter had received no actual counseling services. The most disappointing part was not the money, but losing valuable time when she was ready to seek help.

I was billed for services that I did not receive. Not one appointment was made. I was charged on my card but DID NOT get not one notice about a bill or email about getting charged. I am very upset at this. My daughter needs help and now I am short of funds. I am going thru a lot right now and this is not what I need at this time. I am very upset.

Broken platform.

Spent 1/2 of first session trying to get the tech to work. Scheduled a 2nd session. Got rescheduled automatically to a time that didn't work. Couldn't reschedule the automatically rescheduled session on our own. 2nd session didn't happen at all due to technical difficulties. 3 weeks and only 1 half session. That's all that was practically possible given the platform challenges. Very frustrating.

This all started with the promise of a 1 month free trial, which I'm grateful for, but we were charged prematurely on May 1 for month 2 after only one session on April 8. What's up with that? The promise is a low weekly fee for weekly sessions, but the platform is too broken to support this frequency. Misleading and not worth it!

Hoping they make things right with a refund. Customer service has been responsive, but unfortunate that so much customer service is required. Fingers crossed others have a more positive experience. Maybe with enough patience and persistence it works for you. Nothing wrong with the therapist or customer service, just the platform functionality.

Good luck!

UK customers beware. Tried to do something for a teenager having some troubles. Matched with a Louisiana counsellor who offered times ranging from 2am to 930pm.
Total scam as far as I can see - better help through to TeenCopunselling and noone you can speak to to try and sort out/get monies back.
The "matching engine" looks more like a random numbr generator. Shame on some of the celebrities in the UK promoting this service

A mess from the very beginning. Paid for the first week couldn’t get an appointment until the following week, billed again. Finally the appointment came and my daughter was shown Sesame Street videos. She’s 13…. She was also just given a Google link to watch videos. The therapist asked the same questions over and over and would take a long time to respond like she was helping someone else…. Then I was suddenly hit for $144, $52 and again for $52. While only have one horrible appointment. Unfortunately my daughter doesn’t want therapy anymore due to this interaction. Getting a refund is heinous and they’re hard to reach. I’m on the 7th business day still waiting for refund which apparently is coming in several different refund transactions instead of the two I asked for. Worst place ever.

The most unprofessional company I have had the misfortune to deal with. Stay away from them - a total rip off!
I have written to them and eventually, one week later, received a very unsatisfactory reply not dealing with any of the issues. Their therapists are all based in the US which causes issues when trying to get time slots. I am being offered 1am, 2am!!
The signal when we got through was really poor and there was an echo which made for a very difficult
session . I was never given the choice to have one session and was charged for 4 straight up - despite changing therapists twice and sending three emails to customer service we have still only had one session.
I cant say strongly enough to save your money and stay away from this company.

We were auto billed 8 times although my teen only spoke with a therapist one time. She canceled due to a family emergency. We never established with any other provider. Betterhelp/Teencounseling.com will not issue a refund . This is a $392 loss, which is a financial devastation to our family.

Do not trust this company. No phone number to speak with someone. Counselors are hard to schedule. Billing is endless even after stopping. I am certain my email response from them will be a bot, doubtful anyone else is there. Daughter found them useless as well and quickly stopped.
They bait you because you are a worried stressed out parent then trick you into service that is poor and difficult to schedule.

As predicted their email sent was BOT driven and does not refund money

My teen daughter was having some mental health issues that she needed some help working through and asked if I could help arrange a therapist. I found Teen Counseling and we started her on her journey of getting some help.

The process of signing up and getting started was super easy. Being able to pick a therapist based on a simple questionnaire was great as we were matched with somebody that was a 'perfect fit' and that's how we were put in touch with Dr T.

From the first session onwards, my daughter was made to feel comfortable and she said Dr T made it easy to get things off her chest. She was given addition resources to review which seemed to help as well.

My daughter loved the video calls and also had the option to message as well.

Dr T also gave me a chance to communicate with her and gave me some help and resources as well.

Overall I'd say this was an awesome experience and would recommend Teen Counseling to ANYBODY that has a teen that just needs to work through issues they are having but find it hard to speak to friends, family or school. Having that 100% impartial sounding board made all the difference.

Thank you for facilitating such a great platform!

If there were negative stars I would choose them! Teencounselling.com has taken almost £700 from me and my child has not received one counselling session. They are now refusing to give me a refund. This is having a negative impact on my son's future care and making my life incredibly stressful. Do not use. They are part of the Better Health group, so can only imagine that the whole business is equally uncaring and unfair.

I was charged $90 a week for sessions which my teen was never able to talk with anyone and even after I brought this to there attention they refused to refund my money. Do not use this site if you value your time and money.

My experience with Teen Counseling has been much more than I expected. The therapists we approached is excellent, online sessions are convenient, yet personal and I feel I now have so many more resources at my reach to learn and be of help. Meera educates me and I feel we make a great team that is working towards improving my teen's life experience. I am really thankful to Meera Vazquez for her professional dedication and for caring.

These guys have taken £70 a week for a month without me even using their services. They assign you someone and just start taking the money but you have no idea it's happening.
Did not use their service as they're all USA based counsellors and that is hopeless for helping people in the UK but they don't make that clear at all.

Booked counselling for my child. Counsellor did not arrive for first counselling session, left early for the second and hung up during the third when my child started to discuss a really complex issue. I messaged the counsellor to ask what had happened and got no response. I contacted the contact us helpline who said they would escalate issue internally and suggested a change of counsellor. When I pressed the button to ask to try another counsellor, the system was wiped and I had to re- refer my child and list the issues again and a new payment plan date stated. Like others have said in their reviews, payment is taken whether your counsellor has available slots or not and no refunds given yet despite explaining counsellor left session early or hung up on child or didn't have sessions available. Very disappointing. Wish I'd checked Trust Pilot reviews first. Feel I've let my child down, wasted money, and caused child more trauma by letting them be exposed to a counsellor who let them down. Terrible 😞
9/12/25 Want to add that the follow up to complaint was handed really well and a full refund on fees made. They are trying to put things right.