Best Online Counseling Services of 2026
Therapy on your time, in your space

The Single Easiest Way to Take Care of Your Mental Health

Like the name suggests, online counseling is a term used to describe mental health counseling that you can receive from the comfort of your own home in front of your PC or right on your smartphone.

Often referred to as “e-counseling” or “internet counseling,” online counseling is a way for people to get easy, convenient, and reliable counseling at up to 65% less than traditional face-to-face counseling. In addition, you can speak with your counselor at any time of day from anywhere in the world. Whether you're heading out on a last-minute trip out of town or you're stuck at home, online counseling can work with your schedule.

Our Recommendations for Online Therapy

Where Are People Most Lonely?

Feeling lonely is something everyone goes through now and then. It can be influenced by factors like relationships, your living situation, and how happy you are. With that in mind, we set out to determine which states have more people feeling lonely by conducting an in-depth survey.

Expert Tips for Coping with Loneliness

Everyone feels lonely from time to time, but it’s important to learn how to cope with loneliness so it doesn’t affect your long-term mental and physical health. Here are some expert tips on how to cope with loneliness.

Recite Self Love Affirmations

Kelly Armatage, a trained counselor and CBT therapist, defines loneliness as an inner void caused by a disconnection from the heart or a rejection of oneself.

“In order to fill up this inner void, it is important to connect to our own heart, connect to our inner child, and open up to love,” says Armatage. One of the best techniques for connecting with your heart is reciting self-love affirmations such as, “There is love, fulfillment, peace, and joy from within.”

Armatage concludes, “As you connect with your heart, you will then know just how unlonely being alone can be.”

Try a New Hobby

Hobbies are an excellent approach to dealing with loneliness because they allow people to focus on activities they enjoy, contributing to a sense of purpose.

Whether it's painting, writing, gardening, or learning to play a musical instrument, a new hobby can bring a sense of fulfillment and self-expression, according to psychologist Dana Klisanin.

Go to Therapy

“The cure for loneliness is connection,” says Dr. Annie Zimmerman, a psychotherapist and author of Your Pocket Therapist. “The best way to be less lonely is to be vulnerable with a safe person.”

However, that’s not always easy. Sometimes, people need an unbiased third person to talk to about their vulnerability. “This is why therapy works — our hidden vulnerable parts finally feel seen and understood,” says Zimmerman.

Whether you live in one of the top loneliest states in America or not can affect how lonely you feel and can affect your levels of loneliness. Consider investing in an online therapy service as a supportive resource if you are experiencing loneliness.

The Often Overlooked Ways Online Counseling is Edging Out Face-to-Face Counseling

• Access thousands of licensed counselors in a wide variety of specialties who intimately understands your unique struggles
• Connect with counselors whenever problems arise so that you don't have to wait several days to unpack your emotions
• Schedule your counseling sessions around your commitments so that when your schedule fills up, you never have to sacrifice self-care
• Cut your expenses by up to 60% so that you never have to give up the things you love to pay for counseling
• Switch counselors at no extra cost to make sure that you are always getting the support that you need

"Why Psychologists Across the U.S. Are Pushing for More Online Counseling"

The web may just be catching on to this phenomenon, but the US military is no stranger to the benefits of distance counseling. For more than 20 years, the military has been using a form of teletherapy to help soldiers work through anxiety and PTSD.

A recent study published in Behaviour Research and Therapy compared the effects of remote counselingcompared and traditional face-to-face counseling. Researchers chose 132 military veterans with PTSD and provided each with 10-12 prolonged exposure counseling sessions.

Half of the veterans were given face-to-face counseling at a VA center while the other half’s sessions were conducted by video conference from the comfort of the patients’ homes.

“Our effects with PTSD were just as good in person vs. home based telehealth,” psychologist Ron Acierno, who led the study, told the Huffington Post.

While those who were given at-home treatments were less prone to completing the program than those who visited the VA center, Acierno and his colleagues were surprised and inspired by the lack of success between the two modes of counseling.

College students are another population that studies have shown may benefit from web-assisted counseling. Megan Jones, PsyD, is an adjunct clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine.

In 2004 she led a study for college students with eating disorders, and found that using a digital body-imaging program and web-based coaching through Lantern, an online counselingsite, increased students’ to become proactive about their disorder and seek follow-up care.

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How to Use Online Counseling to Build a Life You Love

Most online providers offer 3 main types of counseling: real-time chat, video chat, and phone chat.

Email and text message counseling is popular with people who want to be able to think out their questions and write them out before asking. These tend to not be free-flowing conversations like with phone or video chats, but it gives you the time and space to process your thoughts before responding.

Video chat will require a reliable internet connection and will allow you to speak with a counselor face-to-face, if not in the same room. It’s intimate, personal, and allows you to establish a rapport that can be more difficult with the written word.

Real time chat puts you into a special line and allows you to chat back and forth with a counselor in real time. Think of it like having your own chat room with a counselor who’s there to listen to what ails you.

When you sign up for an online counseling service, you’ll typically be asked to take a short quiz to determine which sorts of issues you or your child are dealing with, which can be used to help the service find the best counselor possible.

How to Find Affordable Mental Health Care While Saving Up to $400/Month

The prices vary by company, but typically online counseling services charge a monthly fee to use the service, and don't charge by minute or hour or text. For instance, BetterHelp charges a flat fee of between $40-$70 per week, including all messaging, chats, phone, and video sessions.

Most online counseling is not covered by insurance. That being said, you'll actually end up paying as much as you would for a co-pay if not far less.

Plus, unlike traditional counseling, online counseling platforms allow you to chat with your counselor via the instant messenger at any time of day or night. Your counselor won't always be available, but you'll receive a response back at least several times a day.

So, not only will you receive a weekly video session for your payment, you'll also receive support wherever and whenever you need it.

By contrast, the price of traditional in-person counseling costs between $75-$150 per session, with some top-end providers charging upwards of $200 or $300per session.

In fact, for certain forms of counseling, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and psychodynamic therapy, psychologists prefer to see their patients more than once a week. In fact, twice weekly visits are not uncommon.

A typical scenario, in which a patient visits their CBT-based provider weekly at $100 a session, would therefore work out at $400 a month, and approximately $4,800 per year, and that's without factoring in the cost of transportation to and from the office.

Why Hundreds of Thousands of People are Turning to Online Counseling for Support

"April tells me not what I want to hear, but what I need to hear. She then gives me the support and the space to process all the feelings that come with that. The healing process is hard work, but I feel like I’m not working alone anymore."

"The war I have raged on a daily basis to rise above feeling depressed and out-of-control in order to be a positive, productive member of the human race has been exhausting. We had our first EMDR session today and I have hope, for the first time in a really long time, that my secret, inner war could get easier for me."

"She listens, is caring, checks in when she doesn’t hear from me. I feel like she cares about my well-being."

"Susan is amazing in her insights and conversational approach. I am so glad and blessed to have found her and started healing with her guidance."

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The Secret to Finding an Online Counseling Platform That Will Work For Your Life (Even if You've Never Had Counseling Before)

Before you sign up for an online counseling service, do a little research. Take a look at how the company screens its counselors and if their certification checks out. You can also look at online testimonials by customers to get an idea about the quality of service.

You’ll want to decide which types of counseling you want—chat, video, or email—and if they’re available through the service. If you’re interested in using the service on your smartphone, see if the company has a mobile app..

Look at the price also, and see if it fits your budget. In addition, see if you can quit the membership at any time, or if its binding.

8 Simple Ways to Know That Online Counseling is Definitely What You Need to Tackle Your Inner Demons For Good

Online counseling isn't right for just anyone. Here's how you'll know that it's right for you:

1. You're just starting counseling for the first time and you want to make sure it will fit into your schedule
2. You've tried counseling before, but you struggled to commit to weekly sessions or afford the high per-visit fee
3. You don't really think you need to commit to weekly sessions, but you'd like to have someone to talk to once in a while
4. You're brave enough to acknowledge that you could use support and you care about taking care of your mental health
5. You're always looking to improve and you're willing to invest time and energy into becoming the best version of yourself
6. You're aware that all of the counselors on the sites above are licensed counselors with years of experience in their fields
7. You know that hundreds of thousands of people rely on online counselors every year to get through hard times
8. You're ready to take a free evaluation and get matched with a counselor without making any commitments or subscribing to any long-term plans

If you said "yes" to at least 6 of the above, then click on the button below, and discover how much easier day-to-day challenges become when you have the help you need.