We Tested Over 65 Online Therapy Companies — These 11 Provided the Most LGBTQ+ Affirming Care

If you need medication to manage your mental health, finding specialized help is difficult. The online platform Talkiatry specializes in medication management and offers patients access to providers who are knowledgeable in LGBTQ+ issues, which is why it's our top pick for medication management.

Another reason we like Talkiatry is because its appointments are longer than many online psychiatry services. An intake session is an hour long and a follow-up appointment is 30 minutes. By contrast, Doctor on Demand, another online psychiatry provider, only offers 45-minute intakes and 15-minute follow-up appointments. Lengthier intake appointments mean that your provider has a chance to get to know you and address your specific concerns, and longer follow-ups offer plenty of time to discuss any potential side effects of medication. Talkiatry sets a higher standard of care for online psychiatry services.

All of this being said, if you're looking for talk therapy, Talkiatry is not the best option. Our testing indicates that it's difficult to benefit from Talkiatry if you're not seeking medication. The company does have a small team of talk therapists your psychiatrist can refer you to, but you must be a Talkiatry psychiatry patient to meet with one of them.

Additionally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that some of Talkiatry’s providers are far more comfortable with LGBTQ+ clients than others. One of our testers had an awkward experience during her sign-up process, for example. When she first went through the onboarding questionnaire, she was asked about her sexual orientation and then asked if she wanted a therapist who specialized in LGBTQ+ care. She said she did, but then became sidetracked and decided to restart the questionnaire. The second time she went through the questionnaire, she realized she didn’t need a provider that specialized in LGBTQ+ care and clicked “no.” She was assigned a provider, but a few hours before her first appointment, Talkiatry called her. The customer service agent had seen her answers to the first questionnaire and asked her if she wanted to be assigned to a new provider. Apparently, her provider “doesn't really work with LGBTQ+ members.” The tester found the interaction to be bizarre. When talking about the experience, she said, “The phone call was super weird (and short notice) so I met with him anyway and he was definitely very aloof and standoff-ish. So after the appointment, I did ask to be rematched and had a much better experience.”

With that in mind, be sure to indicate that you want to be matched with a provider with LGBTQ+ expertise, since some of Talkiatry’s providers appear to be uncomfortable with queer people. Though not all of Talkiatry's provider profiles say they work with LGBTQ+ clients, many do, and our reviews indicate that the company prioritizes LGBTQ+ care in its intake questions. So if you're a queer person who thinks they would benefit from medication, Talkiatry is a good place to start.

Many online therapy services offer therapy for teenagers, but Joon specializes in it. This alone makes it stand out from the competition: It tailors not only its treatment but its entire infrastructure to support the specific needs of this age group. But even better, it explicitly states that it is equipped to help teens who are navigating their gender identity or sexual orientation.

While familial support is key in supporting queer teens, therapy can also help them develop the skills they need to cope with difficult feelings and situations. Having a professional adult whose sole job is to focus on them and take their concerns seriously can be life-changing, and Joon is set up to provide that support.

Navigating mental health care for teens is a delicate balance between honoring their privacy and being a well-informed parent or guardian. Joon handles this dilemma well. It is transparent with teens about what its therapists will and won't share with parents, and offers monthly parent check-ins so that guardians can monitor their teen’s progress. Joon recognizes that teens need privacy to truly benefit from therapy and parents need reassurance.

Additionally, Joon offers an app that provides teens with "skills practices and self-care resources." Given how many teens are attached to their phones, this is a significant upside.

Financially, Joon is quite accessible. It accepts a few insurance providers, including certain Blue Cross Blue Shield plans, and offers sliding scale fees. So if you can’t afford the out-of-pocket $125 per-session rate, Joon may still be an option for your family.

Joon's biggest downside is that it is only available in seven states. However, we still included them on this list because it’s available in many largely populated states, such as California, so it’s still accessible for a large number of Americans. Hopefully, with time, the service will become accessible to Americans across the country.

Unlike many online therapy platforms that won’t accept patients experiencing thoughts of hurting themselves, Brightside Health aims to treat the full spectrum of anxiety and depression through its talk therapy and psychiatry services. Brightside is a good option for the LGBTQ+ community. While the Brightside Health website doesn't list gender or sexuality challenges as specific issues the company addresses, the Brightside Health Blog has several articles about LGBTQ+ health. So if you're specifically looking for help with an LGBTQ+-related issue, Brightside may not be your first choice.

Brightside accepts patients with a range of conditions including bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and postpartum depression. What makes Brightside Health stand out is its Suicide Prevention Program explicitly for people experiencing suicidal ideation.

Brightside Health is capable of addressing more severe situations in part because of its hyper-scientific approach to treatment. It collects over 100 data points on any given patient to develop personalized treatment plans as well as monitor progress. Brightside focuses exclusively on variations of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). In fact our tester Amy Marschall, PsyD, said that “anyone looking for convenient CBT services” would like Brightside Health.

Brightside’s therapy plan, which costs $299 per month without insurance, includes four 45-minute video sessions with your therapist per month as well as unlimited, asynchronous messaging with your therapist. You also have the option to add additional video sessions for $59 each.

There’s also a psychiatry plan, at $95 per month plus copays, that includes one intake appointment and ongoing monitoring. Brightside’s providers do not prescribe controlled substances.

If you want data-driven mental health care or have a history of suicidal ideation, Brightside Health can treat you regardless of your gender identity or sexual orientation.

However, Monument isn't for everyone. It's unclear whether the platform’s psychiatrists prescribe anything other than medications for AUD and whether its talk therapists feel equipped to treat anything other than AUD. If you have additional mental health concerns, Monument may not be able to address them. Still, if your relationship with alcohol is negatively impacting your life, Monument might be able to provide you with the support you need.

Rula is one of the few online therapy platforms that is in-network for a wide range of insurance providers. At this time, providers accept more than 60 plans, and that list continues to grow. We especially like this platform because of its emphasis on diversity and the range of therapy types available. Not only does Rula offer many BIPOC therapists, it goes out of its way to provide for LGBTQ+ clients. Beyond just having a filter for LGBTQ+-friendly therapists, you can also filter by gender. So, if you want a nonbinary therapist, you can choose one.

During sign-up, after you submit your insurance information, you’ll receive a cost estimate that outlines how much you can expect to pay per therapy session based on your specific insurance plan’s benefits. There’s also an option to pay for individual therapy sessions out-of-pocket for $150 each, which is on the higher end. Extra sessions for couples or family therapy is even higher at $165 each.

Unsurprisingly, none of this diversity comes at the cost of quality. Our tester Jen Sinclair loved her experience with her Rula therapist. She said, “My therapist was extremely intuitive and asked me challenging and probative questions. The purpose was to delve further into the reasons for my current mental health, what I wanted to get out of therapy, and how to best chart a course forward. I really enjoyed our sessions. She was very easy to talk to and gave excellent advice.”

Rula provides a full range of mental health services including couples therapy, therapy for children, and medication management. Its individual therapy also utilizes a range of therapy techniques. While some online providers focus on a single method, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, Rula offers everything from dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) to acceptance and commitment therapy. So if you're not quite sure where to start with mental health treatment, connecting with Rula could be a great first step.

Open Path Psychotherapy Collective isn't an online therapy service, it’s a nonprofit directory that allows people without insurance to find a therapist who offers sliding scale fees based on income. It helps make therapy affordable to people whose insurance doesn’t cover mental health care, which is why we chose it as the best platform for those without insurance.

Because Open Path Psychotherapy Collective's mission centers around accessibility, it allows you to filter your therapist search by race, languages spoken, and by how much you want to pay. Unfortunately, there isn’t an option to filter by therapist gender identity nor sexual orientation. However, Open Path is queer-friendly. You can choose therapists who specialize in “Gender or Sexual Identity Exploration,” “Transgender and Nonbinary People,” and ”LGBTQ+ (Sexuality).” We appreciate how it separates therapists by those specializing in self-discovery from those who are simply competent to work with queer people in general. While figuring out your gender and sexual identities poses unique challenges, at the same time there are many people who feel confident in their identity and don't need to continue exploring it in therapy.

To join the collective, you pay a single, lifetime fee of $65. This fee provides you with a member ID that will serve as proof to participating therapists that you are a member of the collective.

Licensed therapists who are part of the collective can charge anywhere from $40 to $70 per session, and student interns charge $30 per session. You cannot use insurance to pay for therapy, since the organization's mission is to provide therapy for people who are uninsured or underinsured. To use Open Path services you must:

• Lack insurance or have insurance that doesn’t provide affordable mental health care (copays over $70 or a high deductible)
• Be unable to afford the current market rates for therapy
• Have a household income below $100,000

In addition to its therapy directory, Open Path Psychotherapy Collective offers Online Wellness Courses separate from its membership and therapy offerings. These courses are primarily meant for people who need to take a class to fill a court requirement. For example, you might take its anger management class if a judge ordered you to take a certain number of hours worth of anger management classes. However, it also offers a few courses meant for the general public such as Mindful Social Media, Self Esteem 101, and Burnout Prevention. These courses are entirely separate from Open Path’s therapy offerings, and you do not need to be a member to access them. Courses are priced based on the number of hours needed on the certificate, in addition to a $4.99 registration fee.

We haven't had the chance to test Open Path Psychotherapy Collective yet, but our research indicates that the service consistently allows patients to connect with high-quality therapists at a price they can afford. However, like many platforms, therapist availability can vary, so it’s worth reaching out to a handful of therapists you’d be interested in working with to find one with availability that aligns with your schedule.

Talkspace is one of the more well-known online therapy providers, and for good reason. It offers a wide range of services. Plus, it doesn’t shy away from LGBTQ+ care. An entire page of the Talkspace website is dedicated to its LGBTQ+ counseling. Here, in addition to marketing the service, it also answers FAQs such as, “What does it mean to be an affirming therapist?” and “What is LGBTQ+ counseling?”

Talkspace specializes in making therapy as convenient as possible, so it is best for those looking for flexibility.

Everything about the service is easy. Talkspace matches you with a therapist, so you don't have to go through the process of reading bios and choosing one (this may be a downside for some, though). Additionally, it offers a full range of care including medication management and couples therapy, so you can get all of your mental health care from the same company. It has even partnered with New York City to bring free therapy to all NYC residents between ages 13 and 17.

One of Talkspace’s key highlights is its messaging service. All of Talkspace's subscription plans allow you to message your therapist whenever you want. It also offers a messaging-only plan for those who exclusively want to message their therapist (as opposed to more traditional therapy sessions). For those who want live-video sessions, Talkspace’s plan offers one 30-minute session per week. Raki Swanson, one of our testers, said that most of her “sessions were amazing.” However, 30 minutes is considerably shorter than the standard 50-minute therapy session, but it might work for someone with a very busy schedule

Another key offering is Talkspace's workshops, available with its most expensive therapy plan. The workshops cover topics ranging from helping couples rebuild trust in their relationship to managing focus to racial trauma and mental health. The workshops are hosted by licensed therapists and are recorded so, if you aren’t able to attend the live session, you can still access the full library of videos after the fact.

It’s worth noting that Talkspace's out-of-pocket prices are steep. The messaging-only plan is $69 per week, and if you want access to video therapy sessions, you'll pay at least $99 per week. The most expensive individual therapy subscription includes workshop access and costs $109 per week. You can either pay for any of the therapy plans on a monthly, biannual, or quarterly basis. Couples therapy, which includes video sessions and unlimited messaging, costs $436 per month. Medication management is more expensive, with a single intake session costing $299, but there are discounts available if you bundle multiple psychiatry appointments. Despite these high prices, Talkspace remains financially accessible to many people because it accepts most major health insurance plans, including Cigna, Aetna, and Medicare.

Because of the short therapy session length, Talkspace may not be ideal for those with more severe mental health needs. However, if you are looking for easy-access care that is covered by insurance, Talkspace is a reliable choice.

The National Queer & Trans Therapists of Color Network (aka NQTTCN) is not an online therapy company. It is a program financed by the nonprofit organization Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, which funds nonprofits around the country, allowing the public to use the directory for free. NQTTCN aims to organize BIPOC people who do healing work, ranging from teachers to birth workers to therapists. We think its directory is the best one for queer people because it fills an important need in the queer community.

We have not tested NQTTCN, but I’ve explored its directory. Its therapists all appear to be licensed providers. And I was pleasantly surprised by how detailed their profiles were. I could discover everything from their racial identity to their specific credentials to their therapeutic approach.

Because NQTTCN isn't an online therapy company, it doesn't offer any of the services that other providers on this list do. So if you want a company to evaluate you, match you with a therapist, and help you figure out all your insurance coverage, NQTTCN isn't the best option. However, if you're a QTPOC looking for therapy, NQTTCN provides a starting place, especially if you live in a larger and more urban state.

Though you may not have heard of ReGain, you probably know its parent company, BetterHelp. ReGain functions much the same way as BetterHelp, except for the fact that it caters to couples. You are charged a fee for access to weekly therapy sessions and can message your therapist at any time. ReGain accommodates a wide range of relationship types, making it the most queer-friendly couples therapy platform we’ve found.

You can also use ReGain individually, but it does say that this depends on your therapists' specialties.

Like BetterHelp, ReGain doesn't accept insurance, and you can't see therapist bios before signing up. Its prices also vary wildly by state, ranging from $70 to $100 per week. We think it’s worth the price, though. When asked if she was happy with her provider, our tester Mary Dennis said, “Yes! She was incredibly competent. I found her professional, compassionate, insightful and easy to talk to. She responded to all of my written messages quickly and deeply. She sent homework assignments that felt helpful.”

ReGain may not be a fit for everyone, but it is the only platform that recognizes that not all relationships mirror your average rom-com. ReGain's more flexible approach to couples therapy makes it the best one for the LGBTQ+ community.

Innerwell’s EMDR treatment option is separate from its talk therapy offerings. EMDR providers are specialized in the treatment — it's what they do day in and day out, so they are truly experts in a way that a typical therapist may not be.

While we didn't try out Innerwell's EMDR treatment program, we did test its individual therapy offerings. The therapists were qualified, were actively involved without taking over therapy sessions, and remained warm and personable throughout sessions. We were really impressed with the platform’s high quality of care. Our tester Julia Childs Heyl said of her therapist, “Everything I shared, [the therapist would] take in and typically offer an interpretation. Very soft, gentle, and validating presence but also wise and able to connect things I was sharing very quickly.”

Unfortunately, Innerwell isn't available in every state, and it only accepts insurance in eight of the states it serves — Arizona, California, Illinois, New York, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, and Texas – otherwise services must be paid for out-of-pocket. Each EMDR session costs $165, and Innerwell suggests weekly sessions for six to twelve weeks.

The biggest potential downside to Innerwell is that it doesn't mention the LGBTQ+ community on its website. While you can read many of the platform’s provider bios without signing up (and many of them mentioned working with the LGBTQ+ community), there's no way to filter them at all. So if you're looking for care that's primarily centered around your queer identity, Innerwell may not be the best option. That said, its offerings could be an ideal addition to whatever other care you are receiving.