Online counseling has been able to help countless individuals get the care and support they need in a convenient and accessible manner. While there are numerous different online counseling services, Faithful Counseling offers more than just virtual online therapy—it brings an element of faith into the picture. With Christian-centered counselors, this service looks to reach individuals who want life advice and counseling, and who want to include their personal religious beliefs in the process. With their innovative approach to virtual therapy, this site manages to help people who value their religious beliefs get the support and help they need—wherever they have an internet connection.
About Faithful Counseling
Faithful Counseling is owned by the world’s largest online therapy company, BetterHelp. This sister company of the popular secular online therapy service is designed with a variety of denominations in mind. When you sign up for counseling with this service, you can choose which faith you follow and can be matched with a counselor who uses that faith’s beliefs in their counseling. This unique combination of religion and therapy has allowed many individuals who value their spirituality to access more meaningful help when they need it most.
How it Works
When you sign up at Faithful Counseling, one of the first things the company will ask you to do is to complete a short survey. This survey is used to match you with a therapist that not only shares your religious beliefs but one who can help you with your specific area of concern.
For example, if you are a Christian who is struggling with anxiety, the site will not only match you with a counselor that has experience in treating anxiety disorders, but one who does so within a religious filter that aligns with each individual’s own beliefs. Their goal is to bring together professionally licensed, spiritually informed and readily accessible individuals in one convenient online platform.
How to Sign Up
When you are ready to get matched with an online therapist, you can begin providing some general and anonymous background information about yourself and the issues you are experiencing. The site will ask you several simple questions such as your marital status, age, gender and ask for some background information on the issues that you are currently dealing with.
You will also need to provide some information on your denomination. Once you have answered questions about your current situation, you will be asked to provide information on your denomination. The categories available are:
- Catholic
- Protestant
- Orthodox
- Anglican
- Presbyterian
- Baptist
- Lutheran
- Methodist
You can also choose other, non-denominational, not sure, or that you are not a Christian. Those who state they are not Christian are still allowed to use the site, but the platform will suggest that you utilize their parent site, BetterHelp (especially if you prefer counselors who won’t take a Christian approach to their counseling sessions).
You will also be asked several questions about your spiritual background, how long your faith has been important to you and how often you practice. The site does this to try to pair you with the best possible counselor who will be best aligned with your current spiritual state. You will also have the option to choose what type of counseling you are seeking and how much emphasis you would like on the spiritual side of the counseling process.
Faithful Counseling truly takes their initial forms seriously and has much more detailed surveys then you will find on other sites. This is because they aim to pair every one of their clients with someone who cannot only help them psychologically, but spiritually as well.
Areas of Focus
Faithful Counseling operates with one simple goal in mind: to increase both psychological and spiritual wholeness by bringing together a network of professional counselors who are not only trained and certified professionals, but also practicing Christians. The company has a Statement of Faith on their website and a detailed description of their philosophy and what to expect so that everyone who needs help can truly understand the type of path they will be on with Faithful Counseling.
This platform offers services in the following areas of focus:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Addiction
- Intimacy Issues
- Concerns with sexual orientation
- Difficulty sleeping
- Relationship problems
- Eating issues
- Low energy or motivation
- Panic attacks
- Difficulty concentrating
- Loss of interest in everyday activities
- Intimacy issues
Even if you don’t see your specific area of focus, you can still sign up for Faithful Counseling and find professionals who may be able to help.
Pricing Info
One of the many reasons why so many people turn to sites like Faithful Counseling over traditional face-to-face counseling is because of the cost. While standard face-to-face counseling can cost $150 or more per session, with online counseling services such as Faithful Counseling, you can enjoy comprehensive, full-time counseling services at much more affordable rates.
Their standard services range between $40 and $70 per week and are billed on a monthly basis. When you sign up for Faithful Counseling, you will have access to unlimited text messages that you can send to your counselor at any time of the day, and optional phone or video-based sessions that you can schedule with your counselor every week for no additional cost. If you wish to schedule more than a weekly video or phone call, you can choose a more robust package or change your subscription. You can also change or stop your subscription at any time.
Privacy Features
Privacy is a major concern for any individual utilizing online counseling services. Fortunately, Faithful Counseling has taken several steps to make sure that all of their customer’s information stays private and confidential. In fact, the company claims that they operate with privacy standards that are far more advanced than what is required by law.
Some of the privacy features that are offered by the company include:
- Option to use a “nick name.” You don’t need to identify yourself by your real name if you don’t want to.
- Faithful Counseling has servers that are hosted in a “A Grade” facility—meaning you can rest assured that this platform has invested in the best security and protection possible.
- Ability to utilize federal and state confidentiality laws. Everything you tell your counselor is protected by strict federal and state laws.
- The company does not work with any insurance companies, nor do they work with employers. This means clients do not have to worry about any of their information being shared, reported or filed.
- The “shred” button. This is a unique feature that appears next to every message sent in the online platform. If you click “shred” the message is deleted and will no longer show up in your account.
- Encryption protection on all messages. Every message that you share with your counselor is secured and encrypted by 256-bit encryption. This is the same level of encryption used by banks.
- A+ rating on Faithful Counseling’s browsing encryption system (SSL).
It is clear that Faithful Counseling understands the delicate nature of online counseling—which is why they offer so many privacy features for their users. When you sign up to use this platform, you can rest-assured that your information will stay private.
Usability
Faithful Counseling strives to make the counseling process as simple and as seamless as possible, and it shows with their user-friendly platform. You can connect with your counselor at any time, and you are never limited to individually scheduled sessions. You also have the choice of communicating with your mental health professional in a manner that you are most comfortable with—which means phone, video or messaging.
Of course, if you ever have any questions, Faithful Counseling makes it simple to get more information with their detailed FAQ page and Contact form that you can use to learn more about this service before you ever sign up.
The platform is extremely user friendly, so if you are able to place a phone call, use video chat or send an instant message, you should have no issues using this interface. The entire site is designed to be as simple as possible, so that customers don’t have to worry about struggling with complex platforms in order to get the help they need.
About the Counselors
The key to success with any online counseling service is having the right counselors. This is something that Faithful Counseling takes very seriously.
All of the counselors are not only practicing Christians, but they are fully licensed, trained, experienced and accredited psychologists, marriage and family therapists, clinical social workers or licensed professional counselors. This means they have the following credentials:
- A Master’s Degree or Doctoral Degree in their field
- Qualified and certified by their state’s professional board after completing necessary education, training, exams and practice
- Possess at least 3 years and 2,000 hours of hands-on experience
While Faithful Counseling uses a specific process to ensure you are matched with a counselor that fits your needs, you are always welcome to switch counselors, if needed to ensure you have the best fit possible and the best overall experience possible when using this virtual counseling service.