My experience with online therapy/counselling lol

[WitheringAway]

I signed up for an online therapy/counselling paid service (320$/month) and today was my first session.. live sessions are once per week where you can choose text/voice/video chat for an in real time convo in addition to messages correspondence for whenever you wanna add a note for your counsellor to later see. The live session was supposed to be a 30-45 mins session.
im telling you now about my experience lol
So I was assigned to a random one who was talking like a robot and didn't say much while we were trying to schedule a live session he was mostly replying with one word and sounded hella annoyed lol so I had to change him to someone else I picked myself.. we did a video session where I just turned my camera off and Told him I'd be more comfortable doing a voice only.. he was just listening to me not even looking at the camera just looking at the side at his computer typing whatever notes he was typing about what I was saying lol in my ears was the sound of his typing on the keyboard which was hella annoying and distracting like why couldn't he just write it down!! It was so disappointing!! he barely asked me questions and was looking to the side like he was checking the time or something which made me think oh shii maybe my time was over so I asked him if our time was over yet? And he said well yeaaaaah over by 10 min but np and I was like uhm no it's fine will pick up on it next time and guys he couldn't wait to just end the call with a fake smile. Only for me to realize the call was actually 36 minutes and we still had more lol considering that it says calls are up to 45 mins so yeah I felt like shit and like I was annoying and even the people I pay for didn't wanna deal with me lmao he didn't even send me any comforting message after the call and it was like we just did nothing haha so awkward and dumb experience!! I don't know if I should quit this shii or try to find someone else.
What about you guys? Have you tried online counselling and how was your experience?

 

[Alwaysbadtime]

I would never! I would try and get a refund. What do you think good will come of talking to someone online...or really in person for that matter? Sorry for the negativity but therapists are not necessarily good people with great wisdom...they have 2 year degrees and sit on their ass and judge and give their advice.

Give them a shitty review and pull out your money. This sounds fucking awful and like a money trap.

 

[Mr2005]

I took therapy years ago when I should have done a computer course so just the very idea of this triggers the shit out of me. Girlfriend watches In Treatment and I have to leave the room or I might kill myself or someone else

 

[shy]

Did some online therapy last year, ended up quitting after a few sessions. Can't open up to a medical professional at all, the only thing I think about is that all I'm saying is going on my medical record.

Haven't tried in person counseling, but I'd imagine you'd feel like the therapist is actually listening rather than just staring at their screen.

 

[WitheringAway]

Thanks for your replies guys. I agree with you all it was a pointless experience. I did try to reach out to 2 more so called "therapists" and the third one couldn't even form a proper sentence without the "uhmmm I meannnnnnn" was hella cringy and dumb. He even at one point replied to a sensitive thing I shared by "oh hehe that sucks" and that was it for me. I did reach out to a mature man in his 50's and it was relatively an ok experience. He talked to me the way a friend would approach the situation didn't feel that therapist-client barrier with him. But I realized that I wasn't getting much from it so I cancelled my subscription. In conclusion, it was a waste of money. NEVER again.

 

[Makko]

Online meetings in general are extremely overrated even in business contexts. They became norm during covid and will remain norm for lazy bastards. Any productive people I know are trying to get back to physical meetings. I've noticed internet magic slowly losing its absurd overhype as as a meeting tool because people begin to notice the marked decrease in work quality.

 

[SleepDealer]

Something tells me you're getting scammed dude, those don't sound like professionals at all.

 

[littlelungs]

I'm really sorry that that was your experience. That fucking sucks. I'd request a refund, if that's possible, or at least get some credit towards further sessions with someone who doesn't have the presence of a brick wall.

I've never done online therapy with an actual human; I've only used apps where I talk to a robot or gone to therapy in person. My whole therapy journey started before I was even in kindergarten, and since then I've done so many different types of therapy, I honestly couldn't list it all, but surprisingly none of it was ever online. It would have been a great option to have, though (if the therapist was actually good, of course).

I know that being a therapist is obviously their job, they need to get paid and they're on a schedule, but something about the whole thing when the therapy session ends and they're talking about payment, scheduling a new appointment or telling me that we're running out of time just makes me feel weird... like they don't actually care about me or like I'm bothering them or something. Maybe it's dumb, but for me it's kind of jarring when I'm talking about the most personal, traumatic things with someone and they're suddenly just like, "Welp, we're out of time. 3 o'clock next week? How would you like to pay?"