MyCounselor.Online Review

Licensed professional counselor and ordained minister Josh Spurlock founded MyCounselor.Online in 2007 to provide individuals, couples, and families with access to affordable, evidence-based therapy sensitive to their Christian values and ethics. 

The company has since grown to offer virtual counseling to clients in the U.S. and abroad, as well as in-person services at its locations in Centennial, Colorado; Kansas City, Missouri; Springfield, Missouri; and San Antonio, Texas. As of September 2022, the company employed 32 counselors, some of whom were pre-licensed (but undergoing training and certification).

First Impressions 

MyCounselor.Online’s website is informative and comprehensive.

At the top of the homepage, you’ll find a video and a summary of the company’s services, followed by a section with links to the three types of counseling MyCounselor.Online offers (individual, couples, and teens). Below that, in a section titled “The Proof,” four large logos showcase the company's use of 256-bit SSL encryption, its A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau, its compliance with HIPAA standards, and its achievement of the 2020 Guidestar Gold Seal of Transparency for its financial candor. Next is the company’s National Provider Identifier number and a widget that displays TrustPilot ratings and reviews. There is another widget showing additional reviews farther down the page as well.

“The Proof” is followed by links to learn more about the company’s main specializations—individual counseling, couples counseling, and teen counseling—descriptions of counselor qualifications, and a brief explanation of the sign-up process.

Unlike many of its competitors that put their prompts for users to sign up at the top of their homepages, MyCounselor.Online does not link to the intake coordinator scheduling function until you’ve scrolled about halfway down the page. 

The homepage ends with FAQs, a link to the Find a Therapist page, and links to other opportunities to learn more about MyCounselor.Online’s services, followed by a footer navigation bar. Here you can easily find important information including contact and intake forms, emergency resources, and clinic locations; you can also click the three-line dropdown menu at the top left corner of each page to browse higher-level categories of information about the company.

The company’s ThriveNOW blog is full of resources written by its counselors and peer-reviewed by its clinical staff for accuracy. You can browse through all of its blog posts or filter by topics, such as grief, eating disorders, and parenting. At the time of updating this review in September 2022, the most recent blog posts were from April 2022.

The company also has a show called MyCounselorLIVE, where rotating hosts and MyCounselor.Online therapists answer user-submitted questions. The company also maintains varying levels of active presence on its Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram accounts.

Unlike many of its competitors that use matching algorithms to pair therapy seekers with their new therapists, MyCounselor.Online clients choose their own providers with the help of the company’s matching specialists. All counselors’ bios are available to filter and browse without signing up for the service. Whether you click “Get started” in the sidebar menu or click “Schedule / Wait List” on a specific provider, you will be sent to the scheduling page for New Client Matching meetings. 

Here, you’ll provide contact information, fill out a form of mental health history and therapy goals, and indicate whether you are planning to seek out-of-network reimbursement.

During your free 20-minute call (held via HIPAA-compliant Zoom or phone call), your matching specialist will help you choose a new provider, walk you through the remaining steps that you must complete before scheduling your “Right for You” assessment meeting (a no-obligation, but paid, opportunity to make sure you and your counselor are a good fit)t, and answer any other questions you might have. Finally, before you can have your first real session, you must pay for your first month and the Assessment fee.

When asked in 2021 how long it took for MyCounselor.Online clients to speak with their therapists for the first time:

• Twenty-nine percent began correspondence within the same day.
• Thirty-seven percent reported hearing back from their therapists within a couple of days.
• Twenty-five percent said it took up to a week to hear back.
• Ten percent said it took up to two weeks or more.

A new feature on the Pricing page in 2022 is an estimated wait time for each type of counselor. At the time of updating this review in September 2022, Resident counselors were advertised as having immediate scheduling availability, while Certified counselors had a waitlist of at least one to two weeks, and Advanced Practice counselors were scheduling at least one to three months in the future. (More on the differences between these providers below.)

Sixty-one percent of users in 2021 rated the services as being either a very good or excellent value, compared to that year’s overall survey average of 68%, likely because MyCounselor.Online’s overall prices were higher than most of its competitors. The company also charges a nonrefundable assessment fee of $35, an expense that most of its competitors do not require.

Our survey respondents (to all companies) were disproportionately middle- or upper-class. Seventy-nine percent of MyCounselor.Online users in 2021 earned more than $74,999 annually, while one in five made $150,000 or more. Considering that the average U.S. household income in 2019 was $68,703, not everyone will be able to afford to see Certified and Advanced Practice counselors.

What Are MyCounselor.Online’s Prices?

The Pricing page states that the typical client sees their counselor two to three times per month and spends a total of $220 through $390 per month on services through the company. 

Fees depend on the type of provider you want to see, and whether you opt to pay per session or enroll in a monthly membership, which is a new offering for 2022.

Non-member prices per 45-minute session are as follows:

• Resident: $132. Meet with a Resident counselor who has a Master's degree or higher in counseling and has completed the company’s two-year post-graduate residency program. 
• Certified: $162. Meet with a Certified counselor who has completed the Neuroscience Informed Christian Counseling (NICC) certification process
• Advanced Practice: $234. Meet with an Advanced Practice counselor who has NICC training, advanced certifications, and over 5,000 hours of clinical experience. 

As mentioned previously, a one-time assessment fee of $35 will be added to the price of your first session.

What Subscription Plans Does MyCounselor.Online Offer?

Choose from three memberships that offer reduced rates compared to the company’s a-la-carte prices:

• Resident: $220 per month. Additional sessions are $110 each.
• Certified: $270 per month. Additional sessions can be added for $135 each.
• Advanced Practice: $390 per month. Add-on sessions each cost $195.

Each plan includes two 45-minutes sessions per month, but clients are also given the option to combine both sessions into one 90-minute session. 

You can also cancel your membership and switch to a pay-as-you-go agreement at any time. As the FAQs state, though, “most people prefer the savings that come with membership.”

No. However, the company has a risk-free guarantee, so if you’re not satisfied after your first appointment, you will be completely reimbursed for the cost of the session. Many of the other services we have reviewed in the past do not offer refunds.

Is There a Free Trial?

No. However, the company has a risk-free guarantee, so if you’re not satisfied after your first appointment, you will be completely reimbursed for the cost of the session. Many of the other services we reviewed do not offer refunds.

Does MyCounselor.Online Accept Insurance?

MyCounselor.Online itself does not bill insurance companies, but its third-party biller can submit claims to your insurer for a fee of $5 each. Outpatient therapy is sometimes fully or partially covered as an out-of-network benefit, though faith-based counseling is less frequently covered, so contact your insurer’s customer service to see if you can expect any reimbursement.

Can You Change or Cancel Your Subscription?

If you want to cancel or reschedule a session, you can do so for free: Just click the cancellation link in your confirmation email or reach out to the member support team at least 24 hours in advance. You’ll be on the hook for any changes made after this 24-hour window, however.

Are There Discounts Available?

Yes! The company’s Strong Families Scholarship Resident membership is available to all who are interested, thanks to MyCounselor.Online’s partnership with the organization Partners for Strong Families.The scholarship entails a free Assessment & Matching session followed by three months of a Resident membership at the discounted rate of $55 for the first month, and $110 for the second and third, respectively.    

Also available are scholarship sessions with a pre-licensed Resident counselor. At $55 per session, this could be a more affordable way to access treatment; however, you will be assigned a counselor, rather than choosing one yourself.

An additional caveat about the scholarship: Recipients may only book with unlicensed resident counselors, and do not get to choose their own providers.

All Spanish-language sessions are conducted by Resident counselors.

The company also offers payment plans starting at $50 per week.

Ease of Use

Previously, seventy-one percent of surveyed users reported that the sign-up process was either very good or excellent. This satisfaction rate is slightly lower than the average of all 33 companies we reviewed in 2021.

Unlike the vast majority of other therapy platforms, you do not need to create an account during the initial sign-up process: Simply schedule a New Client Matching Meeting, and a MyCounselor.Online specialist will assist you in the next steps. MyCounselor.Online’s FAQs note that if you don’t have specific therapist requirements, you may be able to see a counselor the same day you see your matching specialist.

MyCounselor.Online conducts sessions via HIPAA-compliant Zoom technology using its MyDevice video platform, available on desktop and mobile, as well as Firefox and Chrome browser extensions. Eighty-nine percent of users rated the user-friendliness of MyCounselor.Online’s video calls as either very good or excellent.

If you don’t feel your new counselor is a good match, don’t worry. One advantage MyCounselor.Online has over most of its competitors is that all of its therapists’ direct phone numbers and extensions are available on its site, making it easy to reach out to a specific counselor. 

Some may like the option to switch therapists themselves immediately, while others may find it difficult to pick a new provider on their own and would feel more comfortable with some guidance, which MyCounselor.Online’s specialists are happy to provide.

Therapists’ Qualifications and Quality of Care

Seventy-three percent of MyCounselor.Online respondents reported that education and qualifications were important to them when choosing an online therapist.

All therapists and counselors at the company are practicing Christians who have studied Scripture closely enough to be able to apply it to therapy sessions. 

The resident counselors have differing levels of clinical training, as the residency is required for all new counselors. However, they all have a minimum of a master's degree, intend to pursue state licensing, and are supervised by licensed therapists.

Although freedom of religion laws do not require religious counselors to have licensing, MyCounselor.Online’s residency program was created specifically to meet or exceed the requirements for licensure in all 50 U.S. states. Additionally, the company strongly encourages its employees to continue on to seek official state licenses.

MyCounselor.Online only employs two percent of job applicants who pass its highly selective interview and vetting process. All incoming interns and Resident counselors complete a two-year residency on the NICC treatment model, which combines theology with science-backed methods ranging from accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy (AEDP) to interpersonal neurobiology (IPNB) to polyvagal theory.   

Certified counselors are fully licensed in their respective states, have earned a minimum of a master's degree, are MyCounselor.Online-certified, and have completed at least 1,200 hours of clinical experience.

Advanced Practice counselors have the same credentials—with 5,000 to 10,000+ clinical practice hours—and the addition of at least one advanced certification, such as emotionally focused therapy (EFT), sex therapy, or AEDP.

Every therapist is also required to complete at least 100 hours of continued education training each year.

Many therapy seekers end up seeing more than one provider at a service or switching services altogether. However, MyCounselor.Online had one of the highest percentages of 2021 survey respondents who were currently working with the same therapist they initially chose:

• Fifteen percent told us they had only seen one MyCounselor.Online counselor.
• Forty-four percent had seen two therapists.
• Thirty-six percent had seen three.
• Nine percent reported having seen four or more.
  

Types of Therapy Offered

Despite MyCounselor.Online’s relatively small pool of counselors, seventy-nine percent of users reported considering the types of therapy services on offer in 2021 to be  either very good or excellent. 

MyCounselor.Online offers counseling for clients aged 13 and up, but its longstanding specialization is in marriage counseling and other relationship concerns. These include affair recovery, premarital and dating counseling, sex therapy, communication skills, and porn and sex addictions.

Counselors working with individual therapy seekers can treat:

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Trauma
• Addiction

As the team does not include life coaches, psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, or medical doctors, the company can only provide talk therapy and counseling. Clients who need medication management and/or psychiatric evaluation will be referred to local resources.

While it's likely that some counselors are more LGBTQIA+-competent than others, the LGBTQIA+ community should take caution when considering this company’s services.

We cannot find any evidence that MyCounselor.Online offers conversion therapy—a harmful and ineffective practice that even theAACC disavowed in 2014. However, the company does utilize sexual identity therapy (SIT), a framework for therapy seekers who want to align their sexuality with their values, whether that means embracing or "changing" it. 

The SIT advanced informed consent agreement states upfront that the company does not believe it is possible to provide value-neutral counseling, which may be another red flag for LGBTQIA+ therapy seekers who only want to work with affirming providers. To be on the safe side, we do not recommend MyCounselor.Online to members of that community.

Privacy Policies

MyCounselor.Online does its best to protect client privacy and data using 256-bit encryption, and its MyDevice video platform uses HIPAA-compliant Zoom software. However, like the other companies we reviewed, its informed consent policy notes that no transmission of data is guaranteed to be completely secure.

Some online and in-person counseling sessions are also confidentially recorded and reviewed by clinician supervisors for quality assurance and training purposes. From the information on MyCounselor.Online's site, it's unclear if there's a way to opt-out of this and continue to use the service. The informed consent form says that users can withdraw their consent at any time, but also that the company may refer these users who don't want their sessions recorded to another counseling resource.

If you want your information released to a third party, you can do so by letting your counselor know. They'll then send you an authorization form to fill out and sign before releasing the information.

Although there's no need to create an account or otherwise sign up, use of MyCounselor.Online's services are not anonymous. You must provide payment information and your social security number at the time of intake. That said, the company does its best to ensure confidentiality. If, for instance, you would be in trouble (or even danger) if someone in your household discovered you're in therapy, you can request the bill to be sent to another address entirely.

If you need more help than MyCounselor.Online can provide, you will be referred to local resources for more appropriate care. The company also shares client information with law enforcement and/or emergency services when required by law.

Overall Client Satisfaction

Seventy-one percent of 2021 survey respondents reported having either very good or excellent overall satisfaction regarding MyCounselor.Online’s services. This was a slightly lower rate of satisfaction than some of its competitors received the same year— for instance, compared to Cornerstone Christian Counseling’s 78%—but higher than others, such as Faithful Counseling (formerly a subsidiary of BetterHelp, which has now been folded into its parent company), only 67% of whose surveyed users rated their satisfaction equally highly.

However, only sixty-four percent of users said the value of MyCounselor.Online’s services were very good or excellent for the price. This percentage was lower than the total 2021 survey average of 73%.

Most of the company’s clients seemed to use the service for up to a year or two:

• Thirty-six percent of respondents had been using MyCounselor.Online for under six months.
• Thirty-six percent had been using the service for six to 12 months.
• Twenty percent were clients of one to two years. 

Only eight percent reported having used the company’s services for two to five years (or more) at the time of being surveyed.

Since MyCounselor.Online did not respond to our questionnaire in 2021 or 2022 to provide information on the rate of staff turnover or how long its clients stay with the company, we can only venture the guess that the percentage drop off may either be due to the comparatively higher costs or the fact that clients felt that their issues had been resolved within a shorter time frame.

Eighty-four percent of MyCounselor.Online users reported they were either likely or very likely to still be seeing a therapist within the company 12 months after being surveyed, which is lower than our total 2021 survey’s average.

Is MyCounselor.Online Right For You?

MyCounselor.Online may be a good option for individuals and couples who want Christian therapy.

This service may also be a good match for church staff members, pastors, and missionaries seeking clinical guidance in relationships and family struggles that are often not addressed in many Christian therapy settings—such as sexual arousal disorders, painful sex, infidelity recovery, and the unique challenges faced by many blended families.

Interestingly, 24% of our respondents in 2021 were of religions that fell outside of the broad umbrella of Protestant Christianity (a group that includes Catholicism)—with 4% reporting they were atheists or agnostics. 

Since the company has not answered our questionnaire, we have no insight into what led these clients to seek Christian-based therapy, nor how long the average non-Christian uses the service.

The MyCounselor.Online Statement of Faith is seven bullet points that begin with the belief that the Bible is the infallible word of God, meaning that literalist interpretations of Scripture could be used to discriminate against LGBTQIA+ clients. It is for these and other reasons that the Southern Poverty Law Center, PFLAG, and the Human Rights Campaign have deemed FotF an anti-LGBTQIA+ organization.

In addition, the much more comprehensive AACC Code of Ethics specifically mandates that Christian therapists must not condone activities that are not “Biblically prescribed.” Just a few examples of these behaviors include premarital sex, affairs, divorce, sex between two or more people who are not straight and cisgender (non-transgender), “transgendered behavior” in general, and abortion. 

The AACC Code does instruct Christian Counselors to use compassion to help their clients work through these issues while bearing in mind that their clients are the final arbiters of their own lives. But there may be variations in how individual therapists relate to, understand, and speak to and/or about their clients.

The company does not offer life coaches or address any self-improvement techniques that are unrelated to mental health and cannot provide medication management due to the lack of medical doctors or psychiatrists on staff; those who are seeking those services will need to look elsewhere.

MyCounselor.Online’s therapists, however, can refer their clients to psychiatrists who can write prescriptions.

MyCounselor.Online vs. Faithful Counseling

MyCounselor.Online is far from the only option for online Christian therapy that merges science-backed techniques with Biblical foundations. Faithful Counseling, which, as of November 1st, 2023 has been sunsetted by parent company BetterHelp, used to be one of its most prominent competitors, offering similar services. You can still receive Christian-based therapy through BetterHelp.

The decision to choose one company over the other will come down to cost, type of therapy offered (individual, couples, family), and your specific needs and goals for therapy. Neither company offers psychiatrists or medication management.

MyCounselor.Online’s relatively small staff of therapists and counselors offers memberships and pay-as-you-go video and in-office sessions to individuals, couples, and teens. Its dedicated intake specialists are available to answer your questions and guide you through the process of choosing your own therapist.

Potential—and even current—clients will likely appreciate the comprehensive and informative nature of MyCounselor.Online’s website, ThriveNOW blog, and weekly “Ask a Therapist” livestream.

BetterHelp uses an algorithm to match therapy seekers with one of its thousands of affiliated providers. Unlike MyCounselor.Online, clients must pay the full out-of-pocket fee once a month for four weekly appointments. Its website is much sparser on the details and does not contain therapist bios.

Neither MyCounselor.Online nor BetterHelp are in-network with any insurance providers, though clients of both reported being able to obtain at least partial reimbursement by submitting a superbill to their insurers. MyCounselor.Online’s third-party medical biller can take care of submitting claims for you for a fee of just $5 each, making the process slightly easier.

Our 2021 survey found that the companies have similar levels of client satisfaction in several aspects: 

• Sixty-six percent of Faithful Counseling users said the services were either very good or excellent that year, while 71% of MyCounselor.Online users reported feeling the same. 
• Ninety-one percent of both MyCounselor.Online and Faithful Counseling clients said they were either likely or very likely to refer someone to their respective services.
• Eighty-six percent of Faithful Counseling users reported they were either likely or very likely to still be seeing a therapist within the company 12 months after being surveyed, compared to 84% at MyCounselor.Online who said the same. 

Finally, of respondents who had tried other therapy services, 79% of both MyCounselor.Online and Faithful Counseling users reported that the services they were receiving at the time were either better or much better than prior companies’.

Final Verdict

Some couples and individuals seeking spiritually informed, evidence-based therapy may benefit from their experiences with MyCounselor.Online counselors. But without further information from the company, particularly regarding its use of SIT, we cannot recommend its services to all therapy seekers—particularly not LGBTQIA+ people.

MyCounselor.Online was also one of the more expensive online therapy services we reviewed in 2021, particularly for those who choose a therapist from the top tier of providers. If you're looking for basic anxiety and depression management skills, you may be able to find this elsewhere at a lower cost.

Methodology

Our methodology for evaluating online therapy companies in 2021 was comprehensive and data-driven. We sent questionnaires to 33 companies and surveyed 100 current users of each in order to gather qualitative and quantitative data about each company and its users’ experiences.

Specifically, we evaluated each company on website usability, sign-up process, subscription offerings, client privacy protections, and how easy it is to change therapists. We then looked at therapist qualifications, the types of therapy offered, quality of care, client-therapist communication options, session length, and the therapist assignment process. Finally, we reviewed cost, value for money, whether the company takes insurance, overall user satisfaction, and the likelihood clients would recommend them.

Though we did not ultimately select MyCounselor.Online for user testing in 2022, this review has been otherwise updated for accuracy.