Best Online Therapy for Anxiety

Because cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the best treatments available for anxiety disorders, many companies and therapists provide the evidence-based care to patients. Brightside Health is one of these companies. Its CBT approach, empowering exercises, and medication management availability made it our choice for the best overall online care for anxiety.

While Brightside Health offers only a limited number of options to its subscribers, it stands out among its competitors because it offers personalized care. After you complete a free assessment, you will receive a care plan tailored to your individual needs and presenting symptoms. Depending on which membership option you choose, your plan will include therapy and/or medication management. Even the medication-only option includes digital self-treatment through Brightside Health’s app. 

The talk therapy offered is comprehensive. It includes one half-hour therapy session per week and unlimited messaging with your therapist. While it is CBT-based, your therapist will tailor your treatment to your needs through in-app audio lessons and exercises. 

Brightside Health can address many conditions related to anxiety and depression, though it isn’t equipped to address other conditions that can accompany anxiety, such as autism or anorexia. Furthermore, Brightside Health only treats those 18 years and older.

Brightside Health accepts a few major insurance plans and HSA/FSA payments, but not Medicaid or Medicare. Without insurance, out-of-pocket costs depend on which plan you choose.

• Medication only: $95 per month
• Therapy only: $299 per month
• Both medication and therapy: $349 per month 

Of the Brightside users we surveyed, 90% of them rated the service overall as good, very good, or excellent. Those that chose to use its medication management services also were satisfied, with 93% of them rating the service as good, very good, or excellent.

Talkiatry was founded at the height of the pandemic in late April 2020, Its founders realized that while psychiatry had come a long way in the past decade, it wasn’t using the technology available to make itself more available to more people. With that in mind, the founders built a platform that pairs you with a psychiatrist who can prescribe the full spectrum of psychotropic medications available—including the controlled substances sometimes used to treat anxiety. The psychiatrists not only specialize in particular disorders but also often have experience with specific groups, including the LGBTQIA+ community. 

Because a broad spectrum of concerns and conditions can be addressed, Talkiatry is fully equipped to address the mental health disorders that often accompany and contribute to anxiety disorders, including ADHD. This is due in part to its sessions being longer than most psychiatry appointments. Each follow-up psychiatric appointment is a full 30 minutes.

Here are the states Talkiatry currently serves, along with Washington, D.C.:

• Colorado
• Connecticut
• Florida
• Georgia
• Illinois
• Maine
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• New Jersey
• New York
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Virginia

Talkiatry accepts most major insurance plans, HSA/FSA payments, and Medicare/Medicaid. It doesn’t post its out-of-pocket costs on its site, nor does it offer subscription plans or bundles.

Seventy percent of our users rated Talkiatry’s care as being very good or excellent overall. An overwhelming 98% would recommend the service to someone like themself, and 73% said its medication management services were very good or excellent.

Talkspace is one of the most accessible online therapy platforms for anxiety because you can choose the plan that works best for you. it offers a mix of talk therapy and messaging options and treats a wide range of disorders, including anxiety disorders. If you don’t have health insurance that covers mental healthcare, Talkspace’s messaging-only option lets you send unlimited messages to a therapist for a low fee. If you’re not interested in messaging, you can receive four live therapy sessions per month without paying for a feature you won’t use. 

Talkspace also offers psychiatry and couples therapy, so if your anxiety requires medication or is interfering with your romantic relationship, its providers can help. Talkspace also offers specialized care for veterans and LGBTQIA+ people. 

It should be noted that text therapy isn’t considered as affective as traditional talk therapy. “Only texting, especially asynchronous texting, does not create the emotional safe space with your provider that in-person or even video sessions do,” explains Hannah Owens, LMSW, a subject matter expert. “Therapy is built upon that establishment of a particular time and place to explore feelings and discuss challenges. 

"Additionally, important clues like body language and nonverbal communication are absent from text-only communication,” says Owens. However, texting may still be useful, especially for teens who may prefer that method of communication.

Psychiatry services aren’t part of any of the subscriptions and are paid for separately.

While Talkspace accepts major insurance plans as well as HSA/FSA, it doesn’t accept Medicare or Medicaid. There are four subscription plans and an add-on psychiatry service:

• Messaging only: $69 per week; includes unlimited messaging with your therapist during the workweek
• Therapy only: $99 per week; includes four live sessions per month
• Therapy + messaging: $129 per week
• Couples therapy: $109 per week; includes unlimited messaging for both partners and four live sessions per month
• Psychiatry: $249 for the initial evaluation, $125 for each follow-up appointment

Ninety-two percent of users said their therapists’ qualifications  were good or excellent. And nearly 70% of users rated Talkspace as very good or excellent overall.

Wellnite provides tailored mental healthcare at affordable rates for those with and without insurance. You choose between accessing medication management and/or talk therapy so that you only pay for the services you need. Furthermore, multiple billing options allow you to pay on a timeline that works for you and save by buying services in bulk. And if you need medication, you pay the wholesale price rather than the more expensive retail price. 

None of this comes at the expense of quality. Wellnite primarily uses cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a technique shown to decrease anxiety symptoms.  Wellnite also gives you access to an online community so that you can interact with people facing similar struggles. 

While Wellnite is very affordable to those looking for medication management and talk therapy, if you are looking for only talk therapy, there are more affordable options. Monthly talk therapy at Wellnite costs $450 per month, which is more expensive than many of its competitors.

Wellnite does accept PPO insurance plans, but you won’t find out if it accepts your plan in particular until you contact customer service. It also has sliding scale options available through a telephone number on the FAQ page. Otherwise, here is its slightly complicated out-of-pocket cost structure:

• Therapy-only plan: Six 30-minute therapy sessions, four 45-minute sessions, or three one-hour sessions per month. You can either pay $450 per month, $2,160 every six months, or $3,510 per year. 
• Medical care (psychiatric care)-only plan: One psychiatrist appointment per month and free shipping of meds sold at wholesale prices. You can either pay $95 per month, $456 every six months, or $741 per year.
• Therapy + medical care plan: One appointment with a psychiatrist per month, free shipping of meds sold at wholesale prices, and either one 60-minute therapy appointment or two 30-minute therapy appointments per month. You can pay $245 per month, $1,176 every six months, or $1,911 per year.
  

Seventy-six percent of users rated Wellnite as very good or excellent overall. Another 44% rated the value they got for their money as excellent—one of the highest ratings among the companies we surveyed.

TeenCounseling was created by its parent company, BetterHelp, in January 2017 and functions more or less the same way. For one monthly fee, users receive live, one-on-one counseling from a licensed therapist and unlimited messaging with that therapist. TeenCounseling differentiates itself from BetterHelp by offering parents their own portal so that they can speak directly to their teen’s therapist. By keeping the portals separate, TeenCounseling affords teenagers privacy while also allowing caregivers to feel like they can monitor their child’s progress and give the therapist any important updates. 

Given that nearly 40% of teenagers have an anxiety disorder, online therapy could be beneficial to a teenager in your life. However, it is important to consider whether an online treatment plan is right for them. For example, TeenCounseling cannot officially diagnose your child with anything, which could make it difficult to access further mental healthcare, such as medication, if it proves necessary. Therefore, TeenCounseling is not a good fit for teens facing more severe mental health problems.

TeenCounseling costs between $60 to $90 per week, billed monthly. It does not accept any insurance nor will it submit reimbursement claims. The variation in pricing is due to the fact that the company, like its parent company, engages in the unethical practice of surge pricing. The more in demand therapy is in your area, the more you will pay for it.

Most of our users were satisfied with TeenCounseling’s services. Ninety-five percent said that they were either satisfied or very satisfied with the company overall, and 66% said it was better or much better than services they’d used in the past.

Online-Therapy.com markets itself as a “complete happiness toolbox.” Founded in 2009 by Carl Nordstrom, the company provides CBT-based mental healthcare. The service is uniquely equipped to help parents navigate anxiety because it goes above and beyond the traditional therapy model to include lifestyle changes.

The program includes yoga, which has been shown to help with anxiety disorders, as well as an “activity plan.” Activity plans help you schedule activities that will bolster your mental health, such as going shopping without the kids. The plans also help you hold yourself accountable in terms of prioritizing your mental health even as you balance your career and home life. 

Online-Therapy.com’s services are rooted in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which means it uses evidence-based treatment. Not only do the therapists employ this technique, but each program comes with 25 CBT worksheets for you to complete. If you and/or your co-parent are struggling, Online-Therapy has holistic, science-backed tools to help you. 

Because Online-Therapy.com can’t provide medical diagnoses or medication management, it may not be suitable for those with more severe mental health conditions.

Online-Therapy.com does not accept insurance but will allow you to submit reimbursement claims. If you pay out-of-pocket, there are multiple plans to choose from:

• For $40 per week, you can exchange unlimited messages with a therapist and get access to the yoga and CBT programs.
• For $64 per week, you get everything above plus one live 45-minute session with a therapist per week.  
• For $88 per week, you get everything above plus an additional 45-minute session with your therapist weekly and faster replies to messages. 
• For couples therapy, you pay $88 per week for access to messaging, yoga, and CBT, and one 45-minute live couples therapy session per week.

Eighty-five percent of Online-Therapy.com users we surveyed found the service good to excellent overall. Seventy-nine percent of users rated the value for the money as good to excellent.

Little Otter revolutionizes child mental healthcare by providing families with a holistic care plan that combines mental health assessments, psychiatric care, and family-based talk therapy to address child mental illness. Parents can track their child’s progress through the app as they learn skills from a qualified child psychotherapist to address their child’s mental well-being. Furthermore, Little Otter treats a breadth of problems, which is important to children’s ever-changing emotional landscape. 

The Little Otter team understands that anxiety manifests differently in children, toddlers, and preteens. Therefore, Little Otter offers a blog with information about everything from nightmares to middle school self-harm to parenting while navigating a substance use disorder. If your family experiences a complex web of mental health concerns, Little Otter is prepared to help.

Despite its outstanding service, Little Otter isn’t available in every state. You can use its services if you live in Washington, D.C., or:

• California
• Colorado
• Florida
• Illinois
• Maryland
  
• New York
• North Carolina
• Pennsylvania
  
• Texas
• Utah
• Virginia
  

Little Otter is expensive and unfortunately only accepts Kaiser Permanente insurance. However, the providers will fill out reimbursement forms and accept HSA/FSA. Without insurance, the price varies by service.

You can jump into therapy sessions immediately or start with a welcome session first. A welcome session by itself costs $90. A welcome session bundled with one follow-up appointment is $540. Or you can pay $2040 for a welcome session and 11 follow-up appointments. If you pay as you go, each regular talk therapy session is $45.

Two-thirds of the users we surveyed said that Little Otter provided comparable or better services than they’d previously received. Despite its high cost, 72% of users said Little Otter was a good, very good, or excellent value.

Mindful Care offers flexible, evidence-based support to people with anxiety disorders as well as depression, bipolar, and substance use disorders. Its MindFit groups offer group-based therapy that uses CBT to help you learn the skills needed to manage your mental health. It offers a group specifically for people with anxiety as well as one for LGBTQIA+ folks and for those recovering from trauma. Each group meets once a week for an hour. Groups are offered outside of work hours, including on weekends.

In addition to the robust group therapy, the service offers individual therapy and medication management. One of its unique features is “MicroTherapy” sessions, individual therapy sessions with an on-call therapist for 20 minutes. 

All services are available to adults, and  teens between 12 and 17 can access psychiatric care. Mindful Care’s biggest downside, however, is that its only available in the following states: 

• Connecticut
• Florida
• Illinois
• Michigan
• New Jersey
• New York
  

Mindful Care accepts a range of insurance plans, including Medicare/Medicaid in some states. If you pay out of pocket, you pay per session, unless you’re seeking substance use disorder treatment:

• Psychiatric care: Initial appointment costs $175 and each follow-up is $75
• Group therapy: $35 per session
• Individual therapy: Initial session is $150; 45-minute follow-ups are $100; 20-minute appointments are $50
• Substance use treatment: $49 per month

Mindful Care’s user satisfaction ratings reflect the high quality of care it offers. Ninety-two percent of Mindful Care’s users rated the service as good to excellent overall. Ninety-five percent of them rated therapists’ qualifications as good to excellent.

Kip Therapy was founded in 2013 with the goal of advancing mental healthcare while also providing affordable therapy. It accomplishes these aims through an innovative approach, including hiring therapists at different stages of their careers and charging clients based on the experience level of each therapist. This means that you can meet with a supervised student intern for as little as $65 per session. Kip doesn’t have the features of a bigger therapy company, such as messaging, and is only available in New York state. However, its revolutionary model makes it one of the best online therapy services available for the BIPOC community members who can access it. 

A skim of a few therapist bios indicates that there’s a culturally aware approach to therapy, with many therapists specializing  in racialized trauma and oppression. 

The therapists use a wide range of treatment approaches, allowing you to find the best method for addressing your particular struggle with anxiety.

Kip doesn’t accept insurance, Instead, it offers a financially accessible payment structure by ranking its therapists based on their experience level and charging based on that experience level. Tier one therapists are student interns. Tier two therapists are residents. Tier three therapists are fully qualified practitioners.

If you want a free intake, you must meet with a tier-one therapist; intakes with upper-level therapists cost $25. 

An individual adult therapy session with a tier-one provider costs between $65 and $95 per session. The same service costs between $130 and $150 with a tier two therapist and between $170 and $225 with a tier three therapist. 

All other types of therapy (including individual teen counseling) cost $200 with a tier one or two therapist and $250 with a tier three therapist.

Kip is worth the money. Sixty-five percent of the users we surveyed rated the value for the money as very good or excellent. Furthermore, 84% said they were either satisfied or very satisfied with the service.

Thriveworks offers family, couples, and postpartum counseling (among many other mental health services) to those struggling after giving birth. This means that you can work through your challenges either alone or with your co-parent. Furthermore, the straightforward therapist search system lets you filter therapists by insurance, services offered, and specialties, allowing you to find someone who can meet your needs quickly. 

One of Thriveworks' most unique features is that it has in-person offices around the country, so if you decide that online therapy isn’t right for you, you can switch. It also offers medication management. Thanks to all these options, you can rest assured that Thriveworks can meet your changing needs as you navigate through life with a newborn. 

Thriveworks’ biggest downside is that it doesn’t allow you to filter therapists based on their identity. Therefore, if you are part of a marginalized group, finding a therapist who relates to your experience may be challenging.

Thriveworks accepts the following insurance plans:

• Aetna
• Blue Cross Blue Shield
• Cigna | Evernorth
• Compsych
• Humana
• Medicare
• UnitedHealthcare | Optum

However, not all of its therapists accept all of these. To become a member, you also must pay a $39 monthly fee in addition to whatever you pay your therapist.

Eighty percent of Thriveworks users said they’d recommend the service to someone like them, and a whopping 88% said their therapist’s qualifications were good to excellent, which is higher than the average of all the companies we surveyed.

If you would prefer to find a therapist who is part of a private practice, Zencare can help you do just that. After entering your location, the directory presents a list of therapists that you can then narrow down by several different qualities, such as what insurance the therapist accepts, if their office is ADA accessible, and when they’re available. You can also filter by identities such as gender, race, and religion. 

Zencare rigorously vets each therapist in its directory including verifying the therapist’s license, conducting a background check, and requiring them to complete an in-depth questionnaire about their training and experience. 

Zencare also allows you to submit anonymous feedback about any experience you have with a therapist so that the providers can improve their work. And, if you are looking for medication management, you can also find psychiatrists on Zencare. 

Its services are available in 46 states plus Washington D.C. You can find a complete list of locations here.

While the providers on Zencare vary in their insurance acceptance and fees, Zencare can help you find a therapist you can afford by filtering them by what insurance they accept and/or by their fees.

Our surveyed users benefited from Zencare’s model. Ninety percent of them rated the service overall as good to very good. Navigating the site also seems streamlined, with 86% of users rating it as easy or very easy to use. Furthermore, many users liked the therapist they found, with two-thirds of them saying they think it's very likely or likely they will still be seeing that therapist in six months.