Grow Therapy aims to radically expand access to mental healthcare and give therapists the means to start their in-network practice. According to Fierce Healthcare, the platform is supremely transparent, and more than 40% of its healthcare providers join Grow Therapy organically as opposed to being encouraged by any marketing gimmicks.
In this article from our healthcare review series, I will be evaluating Grow Therapy to help you find easily accessible, genuine, and pocket-friendly mental healthcare platforms in the US.
About Grow Therapy
Grow Therapy is an accredited online mental therapy/counseling platform based out of New York that helps licensed behavior-counseling healthcare professionals set up and manage their services for mentally affected individuals at affordable prices.
It is a mental healthcare platform founded in 2020 by Alan Ni, Manoj Kanagaraj, and Jake Cooper to seamlessly connect carefully screened, competent healthcare providers/therapists with patients needing their services according to the state they are living in.
Grow Therapy’s high-tech-enabled service delivery model focuses on giving top-notch psychological healthcare utmost priority and making it easier for people to access it in a fluid way across the country.
So far, the platform has successfully built a network of about 3500 certified healthcare providers and catered to over 100,000 patients struggling with various mental illnesses.
Grow Therapy Review 2023: Features, Pricing, Pros, and Cons
For your better understanding, I have given a detailed review based on various aspects, such as pricing, features, etc. Have a look!
1. How Does it Work?
The best part of enrolling in Grow Therapy services was the respect for my comfort zone and the flexibility to take both online and offline counseling sessions.
The process of finding the right therapist is super convenient. The booking was instant, and I was matched with my counselor in less than 2 days.
The therapist-matching process was seamless because of the multiple search filters available on the website that helped me easily navigate the huge catalog of providers at Grow Therapy, sort and drill down to a specific set of results relevant to my needs, such as:
- My location/state/address
- My age and gender
- My mental health condition
- My insurance provider
- My preferred mode of consultation
- My racial and ethnic identity
- My preferred time slots and date options
- My primary purpose of consultation, which could be either talk therapy or medication management
All the results matching my requirements were displayed in one place, making profiling the therapists and booking sessions effortless as well as quick. Way quicker than most platforms I have used before.
One provider could be licensed/authorized to provide therapy services in more than one state and may even accept multiple insurance plans. I suggest thoroughly checking additional details, including the tools/methods they generally use for counseling their patients.
If you are open to more options, you will also be provided with an extra list of professionals that do not exactly match your needs but accept your insurance. I recommend exploring this to diversify/refine your pool of therapists so you can pick and choose accordingly.
2. Pricing/Affordability
For every therapist verified by Grow Therapy, I got the option to evaluate different insurance carriers and estimate the total cost of the treatment.
Due to insurance coverage, the services are diverse yet pretty economical. And I was really happy with the online assistance to take care of pesky administrative tasks, billing, scheduling, maintenance of patient records, and more.
The pricing is dynamic that will change based on your needs, and also they will vary depending on whether you are covered by insurance or paying out of pocket. You can expect the cost of a 60-minute session averaging in the range of $60 to $150 USD.
Therapist qualifications, specific treatment requirements, availability, and location are the key factors determining the overall cost of counseling/medication management at Grow Therapy.
This kind of pricing structure does have its pros and cons. I was not required to commit to monthly/semi-annual/annual subscription payments, and I had the option to choose a counselor that fits my financial blueprint, which was great.
But conversely, this also adds to my budgeting workload in a way because I have to estimate how much I would need to spend every time I book a consultation with a therapist on Grow Therapy. For example, if you live in a pricey location in the US, unfortunately, you may have to shell out more money for sessions that could otherwise be affordably priced in other locations.
3. Insurance Coverage
Yes, Grow Therapy services are covered by many insurance carriers in the US. The platform even accepts payments through Medicare and Medicaid. Here are some of the insurance providers supported by Grow Therapy:
- Aetna
- Cigna
- Carefirst
- WellCare
- Optum
- OptumHealth Complex Medical Conditions
- Florida Blue
- Humana
- United Health
- United Medical Resources
- Husky Health
- Blue Cross Blue Shield
- Golden Rule and more
4. Privacy
Grow Therapy has a transparent privacy policy that mentions tracking user actions on the website upfront to improve the intuitiveness of the experience while exploring the platform. The billing information, your name, email address, and insurance details are securely stored under HIPAA compliance to protect patient privacy at all costs.
All telehealth calls/video sessions will be recorded for monitoring and training purposes but can be kept confidential at your request. For therapy services involving minors, their parents/legal guardians will perpetually be kept in the loop for making crucial decisions to enable smooth counseling for their children.
The platform states that the following information about its clients is collected for many reasons, such as:
- Supporting surveys
- Collection of testimonials and feedback from customers
- Newsletters
- Other marketing material
- Promotions and key events
5. Accessibility
Grow Therapy services are available in about 47 states in the US. You can sign up for counseling if you reside in the following states:
- New York
- Iowa
- Kentucky
- Missouri
- Maine
- Kansas
- Oregon
- Texas
- Alabama
- Ohio
- Montana
- Florida
- Hawaii
- Indiana
- California
- Utah
- Oklahoma
- North Carolina
- South Carolina
- Delaware
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Michigan
- Georgia
- Maine
- Alaska
- Nevada
- Wyoming
- Tennessee
- New Jersey
- New Hampshire
- New Mexico
- Virginia
- Arkansas
- Arizona
- Illinois
- District of Columbia
- Maryland
- Louisiana
- Rhode Island
- Wisconsin
- West Virginia
- Pennsylvania
- Massachusetts
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Washington
Being from Virginia with Av-Med as my insurance provider, I got a list of 173 therapists serving me locally. Everything from therapist profiles to availability to insurance carriers accepted by them was provided to me in one place on the website, which made booking sessions with the right therapists 10X easier.
Taking inclusivity to the next level, Grow Therapy even provides free language translation and sign-language interpretation services for differently-abled patients.
Since Grow Therapy’s vetting process is quite comprehensive, you are assured of getting highly qualified, certified counselors with over 10 years of experience.
6. Available Treatments
If you are trying to manage or cope with any of the following mental health conditions and want to experiment with both virtual and in-person consultations with your therapist, Grow Therapy could be your go-to healthcare platform.
- ADHD
- Anxiety
- Addiction
- Anger management
- Depression
- Bipolar disorder
- Women’s issues
- Couples counseling
- Eating disorders
- Dissociative disorders
- LGBTQ issues
- Family Counseling
- Career advice
- Grief management
- Counseling for children and adolescents
- OCD
- Coping skills
- Men’s issues
- Learning problems or disabilities
- Racism counseling
- Mood disorders
- Therapy or counseling for parents
- Sexual abuse
- Self-esteem issues
- Problems at school, such as bullying
- Self-harm and suicidal tendencies
- PTSD and trauma
- Spirituality-related issues
- Peer relationships
- Personality disorder
7. Pros and Cons
Pros
- Offers both talk therapy and medication management
- Services are widely available across 47 states in the US
- Simple search filter to refine therapist searching and matching process based on your location, age, gender, and other parameters
- Easy to use, book, and navigate
- Detailed therapist profiles are available to you before booking
- Option to book virtual or face-to-face consultations based on your preferences
- Multiple insurance carriers accepted
- Uninterrupted, one-to-one communication with your therapist
- Treatments available for families, teens, minors, and LGBTQ people
- Hassle-free insurance paperwork
Cons
- No membership or free trial offered
- Pricing is dynamic and differs based on the therapist’s experience, qualification, state/location, mental illness, etc.
- Sometimes insurance plans can cause billing discrepancies
- Grow Therapy team does not have much control over session costs, the counseling tools used, and enforcement of cancellation policies by individual therapists
How Does Grow Therapy Stack up Against its Competitors?
For people who prefer to use membership-based mental healthcare platforms, Grow Therapy may not fit their needs. So, you can turn to competitors such as Talkspace, BetterHelp, and Sesame Care.
However, BetterHelp and its branches dedicated to teen counseling and LGBTQ therapy only specialize in psychotherapy and do not provide medication management services, unlike Talkspace and Sesame Care. Seasame Care is great if you do not have any insurance coverage at all.
I would recommend Grow Therapy for its superior billing, appointment booking, and simplified, fuss-free administrative processes. The platform has been given an A rating by the Better Business Bureau, but there have also been complaints regarding inconsistent or incorrect billing based on customer reviews on various sites.
Also, your experience with Grow Therapy might be purely subjective and differ from therapist to therapist as every counselor is an independent provider, managing their own appointments and enforcing cancellation policies in different ways in case you have requested one.
So, in some cases, you may have to pay nothing if you cancel your appointment in advance. However, if your provider decides to penalize you for not showing up or implement the 24-hour cancellation policy, you may end up paying a $80 USD fee.
I would recommend choosing your counselors carefully and discussing every little detail with them, especially the pricing and cancellation terms.
I honestly feel insurance plans can complicate things unnecessarily sometimes, and most billing errors occur due to communication discrepancies or unclear insurance information.
It is highly advisable to be as indiscreet as possible while providing the required details to your provider and contact Grow Therapy’s support team in case you are charged extra. It happened to me twice, but the issue was resolved in the least turnaround time.
Moreover, Grow Therapy offers 60-minute sessions, which is far better than Talkspace and BetterHelp. Unlike most of its competitors, the absence of a questionnaire-based evaluation in the initial step way before assigning therapists is an awesome timesaver as I can quickly pick and choose my counselor using a simple search filter.
Conclusion
You can always switch therapists if you are not happy with the services offered. However, I do agree that it is a bit of a gamble using this platform, as different locations can provide you with different experiences.
So, yes, it is a legit mental healthcare provider! Grow Therapy has an overall rating of 3.9 out of 5 on Trust Pilot, and most customers seem satisfied with the services, but there are many mixed reviews as well, so go through them thoroughly before you make a decision.
She is an experienced Clinical Psychologist and Mental Health Writer with a decade of expertise in psychology. Skilled in assessment, therapy, and patient care. Committed to helping individuals through clinical practice and mental health writing at Therapyjourney.co. Passionate about promoting mental well-being and awareness. Open to aligned opportunities.