Researchers say that the future is going to have more than 40% of the mental health therapy sessions to be conducted online itself and will be the paid ones. Studies proved that paid online therapies took a boom especially after the start of covid-19 and this shall move ahead with peak. The main question is whether offline or online, should you go ahead with the paid mental health therapy session or the free sessions. Is there any difference between these two? Well, well...obviously, the difference would surely be there - if you are getting something for free and purchasing something for the price value.
The below-written article will help you understand the question of whether free mental health counseling is better or the paid.
Should I take Free mental health counseling or go for paid one?
Going for free mental health counseling or a paid one is a big question to answer ourselves. Well, not to worry, we have the description for the difference it can create. Analyze both the scenarios and then take the decision.
Free Mental Health Counseling
When it comes to free mental health counseling on the online platform, various scams are preferably seen! Also, with the free therapy, comes the reduced value too until and unless it's a dedicated NGO or a foundation looking after supporting people free of cost. The only point is to stay safe while looking for free mental health counseling sessions. They can steal your information and use it against you as your weakness for threatening purposes and much more. More than 90% of the therapist that offers free of cost mental health service are unlicensed. It means that they don't hold any degree or have gone through the proper examination or clinical stages to bring quality advice and handle the situation. Due to such a scenario, many times they can end up messing up this situation even more.
Paid Counseling - Online/Offline
Some prefer doing the paid therapies in the offline mode to discuss their cases face to face as they find more comfort in that. Whereas others prefer going ahead with the online paid therapies where the same counselors conduct online sessions especially meant to provide you the benefits at the comfort of your home saving your traveling time, cost, and uneasiness to speak face to face. Paid counseling claims to come with a higher degree of security and surety levels as compared to free sessions. Their professionals in paid therapies are highly experienced and have mastered counseling people and handling real-time-based situations. Talking about money, it's always better to get an affordable price and get good value in return than going ahead with something free of cost and messing the situation. Moreover, the therapist you will find in the paid therapies is mostly licensed having clinical experience. These people have put the necessary time and effort into giving supervision, mandatory licensing hours, and state exams. Since you are going to them for this effort, you rest assured to get the full confidentiality and value associated with it.
Tips to find affordable therapy
Best Tips to find affordable therapy has been listed below -
Approach local university
You can directly approach the nearby university to seek a psychologist or other mental health counselor at a low price or free of cost. Moreover, being a student of that university gives you certain privileges to attend free of cost campus psychologist visits. Most of the University has the mental health houses and the actual hospitals within the campus to treat the mental health patients and for the real-time based practice purpose of the students. You can approach them and get help for the cost which is as low as 1 dollar.
Take a look at an Employee Assistance Program
Always check the documents that you received while joining the company. If your company provides an employee assistance program, then you are the luckiest one. It will allow you to have numerous mental health counseling sessions from clinically approved psychiatrists, and all free of cost. Companies keep up such programs as they want their employees to stay mentally safe and healthy, indeed resulting in a good focus at work. You should go ahead and speak to your Human resource representative regarding how this works and she should guide you with it. There is nothing to worry about as this data shall be kept confidential from other employees.
Speak up to avail pre-Bono services
You can start by sending emails to all the costly mental health therapists. You can ask them if they offer the pre-Bono work. Normally, as per the data, these specialists' ethical codes say to handle at least 2 or 3 pre-Bono clients. The logic behind this is simply to serve the general public. Moreover, if you get a big no for this, then as well, ask for referrals. They might be aware of some good mental health clinics at a low cost near your community and you shall get the right help this way.
Go for the services provided by your community
You might not be aware but most of the community's schools, hospitals, and worship areas have trained counselors that offer mental health services at a low cost. You can call 211 to get in touch with various government agencies that are willing to provide mental health counseling at a reasonable price.
Key takeaways
The conclusion that can be drawn here is that both therapies have their pros and cons. Always look forward to finding the paid pocket-friendly therapies or if you wish to go for a free one, then make sure that your research is good enough that the organization holds the qualified therapists. Wherever you go for your mental health checkup whether for paid therapies or free therapies, keep in mind that the person you are speaking to should be mature and qualified enough to tackle your mental health issues and provide you with a level of comfort, satisfaction, calmness, and ease.
References
https://www.psycom.net/how-to-find-affordable-therapy/