GoodTherapy Therapist Directory Review

The idea of finding a therapist online isn’t new: after all, recommendations from friends, doctors, and your insurance company can only get you so far. So since the turn of the century, websites have popped up to help connect users to potential therapists that could help them. But many haven’t kept up with the times; that is, except GoodTherapy. 

Founded in 2007, GoodTherapy’s age is not a disservice. In fact, its age has allowed it to create  a comprehensive, diverse database of providers located in all 50 states and over 25 countries worldwide. It’s easy to navigate and it is also home to a well-researched blog, full of resources and information about mental health. Not only that, but it offers continuing education credit opportunities for providers. 

But can it compete against other newer directories? To find out, we surveyed 180 at 25 different directories, including GoodTherapy, tested the site’s therapist search function across 18 zip codes, interviewed over 10 therapists at each company, and collected additional data through company surveys and subject matter expert-led research. Read on to learn how the site stacked up.

What Is GoodTherapy?

GoodTherapy is an online therapist directory that can help therapy seekers find therapists offering individual, couples, marriage, child/adolescent, family, and group therapy. You can also search for addiction treatment centers through the directory, as well as psychiatrists and psychiatric nurse practitioners. 

It lists providers in all 50 states and Washington D.C, as well as Canada and over 25 countries worldwide. It’s worth noting that even in areas known as “therapy deserts”—places with limited access to mental health care—GoodTherapy has at least one provider listed in every state. This gives it an edge over many of its competitors.

GoodTherapy was launched about 15 years ago when Washington-based marriage and family therapist, Noah Rubenstein, decided he had heard too many stories about unethical therapists. He wanted to create a network of mental health professionals committed to ethical, collaborative, and non-pathologizing, safe practices dedicated to helping their clients live happier, healthier lives.

This mission has remained central to the company, even as it’s grown, which helps it stand out compared to other directories. The company dedicates an entire section of its website to its vision and mission, as well as sections devoted to answering questions about what therapy is, types of therapy, and medication, including psychotropic medication. You can also find pages addressing common questions first-time therapy seekers might have, such as what healthy therapy looks like. 

This clear mission is popular with users. Of the 180 we surveyed, 86% rated its mission as very good or good. It also has good word of mouth: 43% of the users we surveyed say they first heard about GoodTherapy from a friend and 40% from a family member. The site also boasts that it receives over 2 million site visitors per month, which would make it one of the busiest directories we reviewed. 

However, it’s worth noting that the company does not explicitly mention that social justice is one of its core goals. There is also no specific mention of LGBTQIA+ and other marginalized or minority groups in its mission statement—something which the therapists we interviewed called out as a drawback. This is disappointing—especially for a company that claims to be challenging mental health stigma—and it might turn potential therapy seekers away from using its services towards some of its more social justice-driven competitors. 

Unfortunately, GoodTherapy did not respond to our questionnaire or respond to our request for an interview, so we were unable to ask them about this omission in their mission statement.

First Impressions

When you land on GoodTherapy.com, you’ll find a pretty easy-to-navigate homepage, thanks to a collapsible right-hand navigation. Above the fold, you’ll be invited to “find a therapist” by entering your zip code or city on a large, green background. 

Then, below that, you’ll find a variety of up-to-date resources, such as upcoming events for therapists and recent posts from the GoodTherapy blog. Below that, you’ll find testimonials from therapists, links to the company’s media mentions, and a list of the states, countries, cities you can search for a therapists. You can also search for therapists by mode (i.e. marriage counselors, child psychologists, or psychiatrists).

At the very bottom of the page you’ll find links to three assessment tests, a sign-up option for therapists wishing to join, the footer navigation, and a place to subscribe to the company’s newsletter or follow it on social media. 

While navigating the site, I was able to find what I was looking for and I never encountered any problems with pages loading or going to another part of the site. In fact, I found therapists in my location within a matter of seconds.

The blog is also well-researched, informative, and updated often with new topics. The majority of the articles are written by writers with relevant experience, including the directory’s own therapists. 

GoodTherapy has an active social media presence with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram. It posts to Facebook several times a week, and to Twitter and Instagram roughly one a week as of when I looked. 

What stood out most to our subject matter experts, however, was its commitment to supporting not only the therapy seeker, but also the therapist. It offers a robust offering of continuing education opportunities (with memberships options, too). “This showcases their investment in professional development and supporting both the client and therapist,” says Nicholas Hardy, a licensed psychotherapists from Texas and one of our subject matter experts.

Searching for a Therapist

Searching for a therapist—or a treatment center—at GoodTherapy is very easy. In fact, of the 180 users we surveyed, 90% said it was easy or fairly easy to search for a specific provider at GoodTherapy.com.

As noted above, all you have to do to begin your search for a therapist at GoodTherapy.com is enter your state or zipcode on the homepage—or scroll down to select your city, state, country, or type of therapist from the list at the bottom of the page

If you opt for the search function on the home page, you can click a drop-down menu to search by therapist, telehealth, or treatment facility.

This will help you narrow the parameters of your search: In other words, are you looking for a treatment facility, a large practice, or an individual therapist? And do you want to see your therapist in person or via a telehealth appointment?

From there, you’ll arrive at a page of results, listing options near you. These results will show you a list of short bios (only a few sentences long), as well as the therapist's name, photo, educational degrees, office location, types of therapy offered, and contact information.

You can narrow these results down by clicking on the orange “Filters” button on the top right side of the page. This will cause a number of options to appear and you can simply select the ones you’re interested in.

These filters are broken down into a few main categories, including:

• Pricing
• Common Specialties
• Type of Service
• Insurance Companies
• Gender
• Age Group of Client(s)
• Language
• Availability
• Accessibility
• Industries and Communities Served
• Type of Therapy

These filters are very comprehensive and easy to search, with several categories (such as Type of Service, Insurance Companies, Industries and Communities Served, and Type of Therapy) featuring so many options that you have to click on “more” to view the full list.

Though there are a few things to note which might be limiting to some users. For example, under Gender, there are only two options: female and male. There is no option to search for a non-binary therapist.

In addition, under language, there are only three options listed: English, Italian, and Spanish. This does not reflect all the most commonly spoken languages in the United States and one notable omission—ASL—would be incredibly limited for d/Deaf users.

Our testers also felt like it would have been helpful to be able to search for specific therapist certifications when looking for a therapist.

Overall, though, the search filters work well. In fact, GoodTherapy tested generally higher across the board in our user testing across all 18 zip codes, especially when looking for therapists qualified to treat parenting concerns or therapists able to accommodate specific accessibility requirements, thanks to its numerous accessibility-related filters. It also scored higher than any other directory in testing when searching for therapists appropriate for relationship-concerns. 

Still, it’s worth calling out that in some cases, you may see the same therapists regardless of the filters you select. However, that is typically only in regions with very few providers.

Therapist Bio Pages

Once you find a therapist you think you’d like to work with, you can click on their name to go to their bio page, which will provide you with more detailed information about them. 

These pages include their name, credential, education and licensing, of course, as well as whether they offer virtual appointments and where their office is located (complete with a map). You’ll also find whether they accept insurance and their session rates, contact information, and more specific information about:

• Specific issues they’re skilled at helping with
• Services provided
• Ages they work with
• Languages spoken
• Groups they worked with
• Types of therapy they offer

This gives you a real sense of the therapist’s style, approach, personality and, most importantly, whether they’re right for your needs. 

Unlike some of the other directories we reviewed, you cannot schedule sessions with a therapist directly through the directory. If the provider is not accepting new clients, they will also have a red X on the in-depth bio page that says “not accepting new clients.”

However, according to the users we surveyed, this is not always up to date, so you may need to contact a provider to confirm their availability—so as with any directory, you might want to have a few backup options in mind. 

Of the users we surveyed, 58% had to reach out to multiple therapists to confirm availability, though 38% were able to find a therapist with appointments available on their first try.  

Be sure to also pay attention to whether the provider you’re interested in mentions a preferred contact method—some may get back to you faster via email or phone call than others, depending on their preferred communication method.

How Useful Is the Directory for Therapy Seekers?

Across the board, GoodTherapy scored consistently highly with the users we surveyed, with 95% of users rating the directory as very good or good. In addition, 88% said they’d recommend it to a friend or someone like them and 88% said they’d use the directory again if they ever needed to look for a new therapist. 

Ninety-five percent said were at least somewhat satisfied with the therapist options on the site, with 54% of those being very satisfied and 32% satisfied.

Plus, 78% told us they are still using the therapist they found on GoodTherapy today—and that same percentage think it is very likely or likely they’ll still be seeing them six months from now.

This is why we confidently recommend this directory to therapy seekers for a variety of reasons. First of all, it does a good job at vetting every therapist listed on its site, which means users can feel confident they are reaching out to a licensed therapist they find online. According to the therapists we interviewed, the company requires that all therapists send physical copies proving their licensing, supervision, education, and experience. In addition, when applying to be listed, all applications are peer-reviewed.

Secondly, it is easy to find therapists offering sessions both in-person near you or virtually at GoodTherapy, which makes it accessible to people who cannot travel to an in-person appointment or who have limited time available to devote to therapy. It’s also easy to find therapists that utilize a variety of different therapeutic techniques or offer different types of therapy. 

Third, GoodTherapy has a decent number of therapists that either accept insurance, or that offer other payment options such as a sliding scale or payment plans.

This is partly because the directory lists therapists from a wide range of backgrounds, from entry-level providers to more experienced providers, including those with MDs, PsyDs, and PhDs. Early-career providers tend to offer lower rates, making it easier to find a therapist you can afford.

Since therapy often means spending hundreds of dollars a month out of pocket if your therapist doesn’t accept insurance, finding a therapist who accepts insurance or who provides a sliding scale or financial assistance makes therapy accessible to those who otherwise could not afford mental health care. Of the users we surveyed, 81% used it to help pay for the therapist they found at GoodTherapy. 

The GoodTherapy blog also has a few resources like this one about paying for therapy and how much you can expect a session to cost. It also provides information about accessing free or discounted therapy and give a list of organizations to contact, such as the National Association for Free and Charitable Clinics.  

Finally, GoodTherapy has providers that conduct sessions in other languages besides English. For example, the directory lists therapists who speak Arabic, Cantonese, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Mandarin, Russian, and Spanish. In addition, several therapists conduct sessions in American Sign Language—though as noted above, it’s not always easy to search for these therapists by language spoken from the filters currently available. 

However, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that there are some things we think GoodTherapy could do better. 

Almost a third of users we surveyed said they would like more therapists from a similar background or culture, and even more want more therapists with more experience and specialized training in working with specific populations like LGBTQIA+ communities, eating disorders, and addiction. This is not surprising, considering GoodTherapy does not have an explicit stance on social justice or making therapy accessible to underrepresented populations.

In addition, 19% of users said they want more therapists in their state, which speaks to the very real effect of therapy deserts in certain areas. 

How Useful Is the Directory for Therapists?

Directories are often free for therapy seekers to use because they rely on membership dues from the therapists that join them—which means that in order for a directory to survive, it has to be able to recruit and maintain a steady roster of therapists. And GoodTherapy does indeed do that well.

Not only does the directory allow providers to see a wider variety of clients, but it also gives them a lot of exposure by allowing an in-depth profile and opportunities to contribute to the blog. 

“I get to see a wide variety of clients, it offers wonderful training webinars, and gives me extra online exposure,” says Nicole Urdang, a licensed professional counselor in New York. She additionally notes, “I love their non-pathologizing mission statement, as I think it offers an inclusive way to approach mental well-being."

Other therapists agreed with her, noting that the company has helped them grow their roster of clients, improve their visibility with therapy seekers, and continue to grow professionally. 

Out of the 12 therapists we interviewed, eight said they had either already recommended or were likely or very likely to recommend it to a colleague. Nine out of 12 said it was very likely or likely they’d still be on GoodTherapy in six months.

GoodTherapy offers its therapists three different membership plans—basic, premium, and pro—which range in price from $300 to $430 per year. 

While GoodTherapy does not offer scheduling or help its therapists with billing, as some of its competitors do, nine out of 12 therapists said the directory functioned the way they needed it to for their practice, though a few expressed a wish that it had more of an explicit commitment to social justice. 

The biggest advantage of the directory for therapists, as we noted above though, appears to be the professional development opportunities. Compared to other directories, it allows for more opportunities to submit articles for publication, offers reduced-rate of products and services from partners, and has large databases of live and archived continuing education events.  It also offers courses and continued learning opportunities that count towards maintaining a license. 

In the end, it is useful for both entry-level and established therapists. New mental health professionals may appreciate the exposure and ability to contribute to the blog for more name recognition, while more experienced providers can grow their practice or broaden their client base. It’s also helpful for therapists looking for continuing education courses and learning opportunities to stay licensed.

How Does GoodTherapy Compare to Other Online Therapy Companies and Directories?

In general, GoodTherapy seems to rank higher than most of the other directories we reviewed, especially from therapy seekers. Seventy-six percent of GoodTherapy users reported liking the directory much better or better than other services they’ve used in the past, including online therapy companies like Talkspace and BetterHelp. Only 2% said it was worse—and no one said it was much worse. 

In general, our survey respondents found it easier to use than others they’d tried. They also found the therapists to have better qualifications and experience, be culturally informed, and take insurance. 

Final Verdict

GoodTherapy set out to connect therapists and therapy seekers, all while challenging mental health stigma and promoting ethical therapy. In many ways, it has accomplished these goals. 

The directory offers a place for mental health professionals to showcase their expertise, qualifications, and counseling philosophy while also providing a free and easy-to-use tool for therapy seekers. And as a user, you can easily search for therapists that have relevant experience treating a wide range of mental health conditions and offer in-person and virtual sessions. Many also take insurance or offer sliding scale rates. 

While the company has a less clear commitment to social justice than some of its competitors, it is possible to find culturally relevant care in its directory through thorough and effective search filters. And across the board, our users were happier with the therapist they found on the site.

Methodology

To write this review, we conducted original, data-driven research in order to get a full sense of how GoodTherapy helped therapy seekers and therapists connect and how it compared to other popular directories. We started off evaluating around 180 users at each company (4862 respondents total) and collecting data and research on the company, such as when it was founded, how many therapists it lists, what states it serves, and more. We also interviewed or surveyed a minimum of 10 therapists listed on each directory about their experience using the directory, including how it has affected their caseload and whether they’d recommend it to their colleagues. 

Next, we tested each directory ourselves by searching for therapists that might be appropriate for 37 different but common scenarios why someone might be looking for a therapist, looking at how well the website is able to meet accessibility, cultural sensitivity, parenting, condition-focused needs, and more. 

We then asked our three subject matter experts, Amy Marschall, Nic Hardy, and Hannah Owens, to score these testing results to get a sense of how easy or difficult the directory’s search functionality made these searches for users. We also sent a questionnaire to each company, though not all companies responded.