I’m a Busy Mom Who Tried Grouport Online Therapy With My Family — Here’s How It Went

My partner and I bought a house together last year, so there have been plenty of changes to get used to. Since each of us has a child from a prior relationship, the biggest change has been creating a blended family. I've always been a big believer in therapy, and I know how helpful it can be. That’s why I wanted to try Grouport’s online family therapy services.

“Online therapy allows couples and families to participate in therapy from their own homes, removing some barriers to attending regularly and making it more likely to be effective,” says Rachel Miller, PhD, a marriage and family therapist. Along with convenience, online therapy is especially beneficial if a family member is neurodivergent or has chronic health issues, she explains. Our family includes a child on the autism spectrum, so Grouport seemed like the perfect opportunity for us to give family therapy a shot.

When it was founded in 2019, Grouport specialized in providing accessible and affordable group therapy online. Since then, the company has expanded and now offers online therapy for individuals, couples, families, and teens. To get the most out of the experience, I signed up for a month of group and family therapy. Here’s how it went.

Grouport’s website is incredibly modern, intuitive, and easy to navigate, which makes signing up for the services a breeze.

The platform specializes in online group therapy, so the Get Started button on the homepage automatically directs you to the group therapy sign-up.

From there you enter your name, email address, phone number, and state. You also have to check an agreement box, indicating that you’re at least 18 years old, agree to the terms and conditions, and consent to receive emails and texts from Grouport.

Then you’re directed to a list of potential topics, including relationship issues, parenthood, anxiety and depression, dialectical behavior therapy (or DBT, a therapeutic approach designed to help with emotional dysregulation), self-compassion, and more. Once you choose your topic, Grouport shows you the options. It’s worth noting that the only topic with multiple groups was DBT.

For a more in-depth look at available groups, you can navigate to the Our Groups tab on the homepage. You’ll find a full list of possible groups and can filter based on topic, day of the week, and time.

Choosing a Group

I signed up by clicking the Get Started button, rather than navigating to my preferred group from the Our Groups tab. Since having a blended family was my primary concern, I selected parenthood from the list of potential topics. I was then shown my group matches.

There was only one parenting group, on Tuesdays at noon. I work from home, so that time slot wasn’t an issue for me, but I could see how it might be difficult for someone in a different circumstance.

After selecting the group, I was directed to enter my credit card details and make a payment for my monthly membership. Flexible spending and health savings account payments are not accepted. I received an email confirmation with additional information about the group's guidelines.

Unfortunately, I never got to experience the parenting group.

A few days after signing up for the group, I received an email from a customer care representative. She informed me that since I was the only participant to sign up for the parenting group so far, the start date was being pushed forward another week. I was perfectly fine with waiting, but by the following week, no one else had joined the group. Again, a customer care representative reached out to me, this time with a few options. I could wait another week to see if new members would join, choose a different group, or continue with the group despite being the only member. She explained that the therapist was willing to conduct the group session with just me, so it would basically be one-on-one therapy until more people joined.

While I really liked how flexible the company was, and that it was willing to give me what would essentially be individual therapy sessions at a highly discounted price, I really wanted to experience the group aspect. I decided to wait another week, hoping more people would sign up. Perhaps noon on a weekday really isn’t the best time for a parenting therapy group session.

Unfortunately, when the next week came with no additional members, I decided to switch to a different group. This time, I chose DBT. There were plenty of groups available, so I selected one that worked well with my schedule.

Signing Up for Family Therapy

Grouport prioritizes group therapy, so the sign-up process for other services looks a bit different. Although it’s equally simple, it’s not quite as streamlined, and you don’t get to choose your therapist or time slot until after you pay.

From the homepage, you’ll navigate to the Learn More tab and choose the therapy service you’re interested in: individual, couples, family, or teen. That takes you to the page for that specific service. There you’ll click the Get Started button. You aren’t given a list of potential therapists but instead are taken directly to the payment page to input your credit card information.

I found it a little odd that I was asked to pay before selecting a therapist or completing any intake forms, but I did like how straightforward and clear-cut the pricing was. The cost for a monthly subscription is listed clearly, and there are no hidden fees.

Right after I signed up, I received a brief email asking if I wanted the weekly reminder emails to be sent to any other family members and if I needed appointments at a certain time of day.

Within a day after signing up for family therapy, I received an email from a care coordinator with the name of the therapist and three potential time slots. Again, I found it strange that I wasn’t asked to fill out an intake form or questionnaire. I was also surprised that I wasn’t offered several providers to choose from, but that could have been because I told the care coordinator I needed an evening appointment. It can be overwhelming to choose a therapist based solely on a photo and bio, so I was happy that we were matched with one instead. In addition, Grouport has a section on its website listing all of its providers, so you can always request a specific therapist if you want.

The email did make it clear that I could ask for a different provider or a different day and time if necessary. Luckily, we ended up really liking our therapist, so it didn’t bother me.

Free Consultation

One thing that really stood out to me with Grouport is the customer service, starting with the initial consultation.

Grouport offers a free 20-minute consultation prior to signing up for any therapy services so you can learn more and make sure it’s the right fit for you before subscribing. Most online therapy platforms don’t offer this, but the ones that do often have the information hidden somewhere on their websites. Not Grouport — at the top of each page a banner advertises the free call.

Some of the groups require an initial consultation prior to your first session, but for the most part, this is optional. The consultation is a one-on-one assessment with a mental health professional who can help match you with the group or therapist that fits your needs.

Scheduling this consultation is incredibly easy. Grouport uses Calendly, so you can set up your call online by choosing a date and time that works for you. During this call, you can speak to a care coordinator about group options and therapy providers and ask any questions about the platform.

While I didn’t feel the need to schedule a phone consultation, I did have several interactions with the care team when using Grouport, starting with the initial email for family therapy, and I was incredibly impressed by their dedication to customer service.

After learning that the parents group I signed up for didn’t have any other members, I switched to a DBT skills group.

My Initial Group Session

The day before my first group session I received an email reminder along with a Zoom link for the meeting. I never had any issues logging on, and the group always started promptly as scheduled. Most of the group members arrived on time, but there was the occasional latecomer. Our group leader was always able to keep the group running smoothly, though, so it was never an issue.

During the first session, the group leader, a licensed mental health counselor with over 10 years of clinical experience, started by welcoming the new members (me and one other person) and asking us to quickly introduce ourselves. She then explained more about the group and went over some of the ground rules and expectations. One aspect I really liked was being able to choose my level of participation. For example, I could keep my camera off during the sessions and use the raise hand function on Zoom if I wanted to share.

However, I didn’t realize before signing up that the DBT group is run as a structured, 12-week course. Most of the groups at Grouport operate the way you would expect with group therapy, but since DBT has such a strong educational component, it works a little differently. Despite this, like all of the groups on the platform, DBT is an open group, meaning new members can join at any time as long as there is space available. Because of this, my first session was actually the fifth week of the curriculum.

Since I was only testing the platform for a month, it didn’t bother me — no matter what, I would be missing some of the course material — but I found it a little off-putting that I wasn’t told prior to joining that I was coming in late. It wasn’t a big deal for my situation, but someone could find it confusing and disappointing.

Subsequent Group Sessions

Each of my subsequent three group sessions followed a similar rhythm, which made it easier to follow despite being a few modules behind.

Our group leader would start off by welcoming us all back and giving a quick reminder of what we covered during our previous session. She would then ask if anyone wanted to share anything about their week. I really liked that it wasn’t necessary or expected to share. Sometimes multiple people wanted to share, while there were other weeks when only one or two people spoke.

After that, the therapist moved into the learning module for the week. I experienced four of those modules.

• Emotional regulation techniques: Focus is on changing your relationship to emotions and engaging in positive self-care strategies.
• Distress tolerance guidelines: A review of the distress guidelines.
• Distress tolerance techniques: Focus is on learning coping skills and creating a plan for managing emotions in times of distress.
• Interpersonal effectiveness and strong relationships: Focus is on learning to build and maintain strong relationships, use essential listening skills, and setting boundaries.

During each session, the course material was displayed on the screen, and our group leader would go through it, like an online class. The only real difference was the element of personal disclosure. At certain points, she would ask if anyone could relate to the topic or wanted to share their experience. Certain members seemed to share more than others, but I felt like our leader did a really good job of making sure that everyone had the opportunity to participate. She was also adept at providing emotional support while keeping the lesson plan moving.

At the end of the session, she would assign us homework, which mostly consisted of paying attention to our emotions, reflecting on past situations, and some light writing exercises that were in the course materials. After my first session, I was emailed the course materials for all four modules for the month, which made it easier to follow along at home. The homework was optional, and our group leader never asked us to turn in anything, which I appreciated.

I signed up for a month of family therapy with Grouport, and I can honestly say, it’s one of the best therapy platforms I’ve used. We had four therapy sessions, but it took us six weeks instead of four due to scheduling conflicts. Having a busy, blended family means that things tend to come up unexpectedly, and I was pleasantly surprised at how flexible Grouport was when I needed to cancel or reschedule a session.

Family sessions are held over Zoom and last 60 minutes. According to the website, there’s no limit on how many family members can participate. For our sessions, we had between two and four people each time. My partner and I attended all of them along with one or both of our kids, and during one session, it was just the two of us.

Our therapist had an extremely relaxed and approachable demeanor, which was particularly helpful with our two kids. He was also incredibly flexible and easy to open up to. In the past, I’ve had therapists go through a list of questions, almost like they’re going through a script, but that was far from the case here. Instead, he really let us take the lead. He started the sessions by checking in with us, but he never steered the conversation. I also felt like he only used the tool of self-disclosure (using his own experiences to relate when it was genuinely beneficial for us, which was a welcome change.

In addition to group and family therapy, Grouport offers these types:

• Individual therapy
• Teen therapy
• Couples therapy

Unlike group and family therapy, individual, teen, and couples sessions last 45 minutes instead of a full hour. While it makes sense that family therapy sessions are longer, I was surprised that couples therapy was only 45 minutes. However, that’s not atypical for online therapy platforms.

Individual and teen therapy services both cost $448 per month, or $112 per session. Couples therapy is slightly more expensive at $123 per session, which comes to $492 per month.

One of the biggest downsides with Grouport is the lack of a single member portal. Some of the groups do involve a portal. In that case, after signing up you're directed to set up your portal login and then you access your group through the portal. For other groups and individual, couples, and family therapy, you access sessions through an email link that changes every week. It’s understandable, since groups and individual, couples, and family therapy sessions take place at the same time each week, so there’s no need for a virtual scheduling system. Still, that means that you can’t message your therapist between sessions or reach out if you need to cancel.

To cancel or reschedule a session, you need to contact your care coordinator or customer support. I had to reschedule two of our sessions due to after-school activities. Although being able to cancel on a patient portal with the click of a button would’ve been preferred, I was extremely impressed with how easy it turned out to be. The care coordinator returned my email promptly and had no problem with my request. For one of the sessions, a last-minute Boy Scout meeting meant I gave the care coordinator only a few hours’ notice, but they were able to accommodate me and I wasn’t charged a cancellation fee.

Unfortunately, our provider didn’t have any other time slots available, so we had to cancel our sessions for the week rather than reschedule for a different day. Again, I was incredibly impressed by Grouport’s customer service. After talking to the care coordinator, she ensured that my monthly renewal fee would be pushed forward, so I wouldn’t have to pay for another month until I’d gotten all four sessions.

Canceling therapy altogether was an equally smooth process. I sent an email to the care coordinator to let her know I wanted to cancel my subscription. She replied promptly with two options:

1. She asked if there was an issue with the time slot and informed me that she could work with my provider to accommodate our schedule or try to find a different therapist.
2. She shared a link to the cancellation form. To cancel the service, I filled out short questionnaire to deactivate my membership.

I really liked how the care coordinator attempted to make the service work for me but also gave me the option to cancel without going back and forth. This was the best possible alternative to a patient portal.

Grouport is one of the best therapy platforms I’ve tried. It’s also really unique in its services, so trying to compare it to other companies in the teletherapy realm is nearly impossible. For example, it’s one of the few platforms with online group therapy led by licensed providers. Additionally, Grouport has therapy sessions for individuals, couples, and families.

Grow Therapy is probably the closest competitor since it provides many of the same services, including individual, couples, family, and teen therapy. While group therapy isn’t available, Grow Therapy does have therapy for kids as well as psychiatry. Another similarity is the free consultation. Grow Therapy’s website says it offers a free consultation call, but this is only available in certain states. It’s also much harder to find this information, whereas Grouport makes it a point to advertise the feature. On the plus side, Grow Therapy accepts insurance.

Similarly, Thriveworks and Rula both offer therapy for individuals, couples, teens, and families. Like Grow Therapy, these platforms also have psychiatry services and accept insurance. However, neither one is a subscription-based platform, and neither does a free consultation. Octave, on the other hand, does do a free initial consultation. Therapy is available for individuals, couples, and families, and sessions last 60 minutes. Unfortunately, Octave serves only 17 states whereas Grouport is available nationwide.

Depending on the type of therapy, Grouport sessions cost between $112 and $160, which is significantly lower than the out-of-pocket price for therapy at Thriveworks, Rula, and Octave.

There are a few platforms with group support, such as Circles and Monument, but none of them are as comprehensive as Grouport. Both Circles and Monument have therapist-led support groups, but Circles specializes in addressing relationship issues and Monument in treating alcohol use disorder. You can also get individual therapy services at Monument but not in all states. Group therapy at Grouport is available for a wide variety of issues and situations; it’s $35 per session, and groups are led by licensed therapists.

Finally BetterHelp is a possible competitor. It offers individual therapy plus weekly interactive groups run by therapists and mental health professionals. Unlike with Grouport, you can’t sign up for group therapy alone on BetterHelp. Still, BetterHelp is a subscription service, and the company has two other platforms for couples and teen therapy: Regain and Teen Counseling, respectively.

Prior to testing the service, I had never heard of Grouport. Compared with platforms like Talkspace and BetterHelp, it’s a relatively small company. But after trying it myself, it’s easily one of the best online therapy services I’ve used.

Starting with the website, which is fun, modern, and easy to navigate, my first impression was a positive,  and that never really changed. Although Grouport doesn’t accept insurance, the prices are clearly outlined, so you know exactly what to expect. Even with the out-of-pocket costs, I found the price to be reasonable.

My experience with the DBT group left something to be desired. It felt more like an educational workshop than true group therapy, but other groups could be different. My family therapy sessions, on the other hand, were phenomenal. Grouport might be most well known for its online group therapy, but I would recommend the platform to anyone without insurance who wants quality online mental health care for themselves or their family.