Pride Counseling is an online therapy app for the LGBTQ community.
In this Pride Counseling review, I will reveal how effective this app is for dealing with mental health problems.
You’ll discover how this app works, what features it has and how it compares to other online therapy apps.
Let’s dive right into it.
Pride Counseling: Overview
Pride Counseling is a sister company of Betterhelp – the world’s most popular app for online therapy.
It allows members of the LGBTQ community to get help from certified therapists online, via the Pride Counseling website or on its dedicated mobile app for iOS and Android.
Pride Counseling therapists are not only fully qualified to help people with mental health issues, they also specialize in the LGBTQ community’s problems.
In many reviews of this app, those using Pride Counseling mentioned how their counselor was quickly able to make them feel comfortable and that they were in the right place.
It would appear to be the only globally-available online therapy app for the LGBTQ community.
Price
Pride Counseling offers unlimited text and video therapy for $260/month. After three months, this drops to $180/month.
Monthly billing is your only option. Payments will recur automatically, but you can cancel whenever you want.
Video therapy isn’t truly unlimited on this app, as you’ll need to schedule an appointment around your therapist’s other commitments.
Even so, this app provides tremendous value for money when compared to other online therapy apps.
Pride Counseling states on its website that its services are “rarely” covered by health insurance plans.
KEY FEATURES
| PROS |
| 🟢 Certified therapists who specialize in dealing with the LGBTQ community; |
| 🟢 The app is incredibly simple to use; |
| 🟢 Incredible value for money. |
| CONS |
| 🔺 Other apps offer more choice when it comes to selecting your therapist. |
Is Online Counseling Right For You? What To Consider Before Investing In Pride Counseling
Online counseling has proven to be a blessing for thousands of people around the world, whether LGBTQ or not.
It’s far cheaper than face-to-face therapy, allowing and has therefore given low-income individuals the chance to get affordable help for their mental health issues.
With that said, Pride Counseling will not be suitable for all members of the LGBTQ community. Pride Counseling therapists cannot prescribe medication, fulfil a court order or offer medical advice.
Face-to-face therapy does have advantages over online counseling. A lot of people find it easier to build a stronger personal relationship with their therapist in person. Indeed, many view their therapist’s office as a ‘safe space’ where they are more comfortable expressing themselves.
It’s common that therapists are able to get more information about their patients’ feelings in a face-to-face environment too. After all, therapists and clients are able to read each other’s non-verbal communications much better.
Pride Counseling Features And Benefits
In this section of the review, I’ll describe the key aspects of Pride Counseling and rate them out of five stars.
Getting Started With Pride Counseling
You can get started with Pride Counseling either by downloading the app on the iOS or Google Play store, or navigating to its website and clicking the ‘Get Started’ button.
You’ll then be asked to fill out a large survey so that you can be paired with the most suitable therapist. A lot of these questions will be about your mental health situation.
There will be several questions about your LGBTQ situation, such as “What are your pronouns?”, “What is your orientation?” and “How do you identify?”.
After these questions, you’ll be asked to create an account with your email address and an alias.
Once you’ve confirmed your email, you’ll be asked questions about what type of counselor you’d prefer to work with (male, female, type of experience, etc).
You’ll be matched with a counsellor within a few hours or a few days depending on counselor availability. Your paid subscription begins once you are matched.
Getting started:
Usability
The simplicity of this service is a major selling point. All communications take place within a private chat room.
Here, you can take part in live chat with your therapist. The chat room is open 24/7, so you can text your therapist whenever you feel like it. You’ll receive an email whenever they get back to you (usually at least within 24 hours).
At the bottom of the chat room, there’s a button to schedule a video session with your counselor. Once you pick your desired time and date, they’ll let you know in the chat room whether they’re available.
Video calls also take place within the live chat room.
Usability:
Pride Counseling Therapists
You have no reason to worry about the credentials of the therapists using Pride Counseling.
They are all licensed with a masters degree or a doctorate degree in their field. They have all gained at least three years (and 2,000 hours) of experience. On top of that, they all specialize in the LGBTQ community and their issues.
Choice and quality of therapists:
Payment Options
You can pay by debit card, credit card or PayPal. Payments recur automatically until they are cancelled.
Payment options:
Privacy & Security
With Pride Counseling, all communications take place within the app. Your therapist won’t get access to your phone number or email address, and you can use an alias if you wish.
Therapists are subject to strict local and federal privacy laws, including HIPAA. The app is protected by SSL encryption. Your private chat room is protected by 256-bit encryption.
This is as good as it gets when it comes to online security. There is no reason to have any concerns about this.
Security:
Customer Service
Pride Counseling runs a ticket-based email customer service. You can expect a response from its California-based team within 24 hours.
Customer service:
Cancellation Policy
You can cancel your subscription whenever you like, no questions asked. Just click the ‘Settings’ icon on the app then navigate to ‘Billing Settings’. When you cancel, you’ll still be able to use the app until the end of the month you’ve paid for.
Cancellation policy:
What Do People Think Of Pride Counseling?
Pride Counseling attracted over 700 reviews on the iOS store. Its average rating currently stands at 4.6 out of 5.
The app has attracted 397 reviews on Google Play with an average rating of 3.8 out of 5. Most of the lengthier reviews were purely positive.
Alternatives To Pride Counseling
Betterhelp
Betterhelp is the parent company of Pride Counseling. It works in a similar way, and can also pair you with a therapist who specializes in LGBTQ issues.
The pricing structure is the same too, except with no discount for long-term use.
If you’re not a member of the LGBTQ community, I’d definitely recommend using Betterhelp for online therapy.
Click to learn more about Betterhelp online therapy >>
Related: BetterHelp Review – Best Comprehensive Review
Talkspace
Talkspace is another fantastic online therapy app – and it also has therapists who specialise in LGBTQ issues.
The cost of Talkspace is the main downside though.
You can pay $260/month for text therapy only or upgrade to a higher price tier if you also want video calls. It costs $316/month to add one video call or $396/month to add four video calls.
There is no clear selling point to justify the higher Talkspace cost.
7 Cups Of Tea
7 Cups Of Tea is a text-only counseling service, open to people of all sexualities.
This app has a free version, where you can chat with its team of volunteer ‘listeners’. These volunteers are not licensed therapists though.
If you’d like to text a therapist, you can register for its paid service for $150/month. This is cheaper than Pride Counseling, but remember it’s texting therapy only. In my professional experience, this is unlikely to be as effective for most people.
I couldn’t find any confirmation on the 7Cups website, as far as whether their counselors specialize in LGBTQ issues. However, the app does have a forum dedicated to this, as well as dozens of other niche topics.
Click to visit the 7 Cups Of Tea website >>
Conclusion: Pride Counseling Offers A Fantastic Service For The LGBTQ Community
Pride Counseling offers a truly helpful and professional therapy for the LGBTQ community.
Even if you disregard the fact that the counselors specialize in LGBTQ issues, this is a fantastic therapy app in its own right.
Even better, it offers incredible value for money compared to other online therapy apps.
I have no hesitation in recommending it.
Click here to get started with Pride Counseling >>
