I Tried Coaching From E-Therapy Cafe Before Starting Grad School — Here’s My Review

After a decade of freelance writing and health journalism, I decided to make a big change in my career: head to graduate school to get my master’s degree in creative writing. While I was excited about this shift, I was also feeling overwhelmed. With my classes starting soon, I wanted extra support in the form of counseling to be sure I felt prepared.

Don’t be put off by E-Therapy Cafe’s website when you find the site. It does look dated and it’s very crowded with a ton of information, which can be overwhelming to read through. But if you can navigate through all this information, you can begin the sign-up process by clicking the “register” button on the menu at the top of the homepage.

Unfortunately, the “crowded” feeling doesn’t go away. The intake form I had to fill out to begin my sign-up was equally busy and poorly organized. For example, after it asked for my name and address, it asked me my gender and relationship status — but this was one question with multiple boxes to check underneath. Then, it asked about my “anxiety, stress, and energy,” with a list of options below, but I could only choose one response — which is difficult to do when you’re talking about three things. In my opinion, this question should have been broken up into three separate questions and I should have been able to select multiple answers to really answer in a comprehensive way.

The form also asked if I was experiencing thoughts of harming myself or others, with a disclaimer underneath stating that I should call 911 or go to the emergency room if so.

When I submitted this form, I was told to watch my email for subsequent intake steps.

Intake

The next steps — filling out a more comprehensive intake form — did indeed arrive by email. But be prepared: This form is detailed and long. Not only that, but the questions on this form are less mental health focused and more related to my goals for personal growth and coaching.

First, I was asked to identify three goals for therapy. Then was asked to go into detail about each one. Then I was asked to write about what changes I would like to see in my life, what I wanted my life to look like, and the stressors in my life. In some ways, these questions felt too repetitive — my goals were very similar to my “hopes for the future” I was later asked about, for example.

Scheduling Sessions

After I completed my intake form, I was able to choose what kind of session I was interested in. I could book a single session, eight sessions within one month, or purchase a quarterly package of 20 sessions. I could also book a trial session at a discounted price, which is what I choose to do.

Next, I was shown a list of providers — though rather than being called “therapists,” they were called “life coaches.” In skimming through their bios, it was clear that most of them were licensed therapists, but I think the reason they were described as “coaches” is because of state licensing requirements.

Once I chose my provider, I was able to see their availability. The soonest available time that worked for both of us wasn’t until the following week, so I decided to take that. This is when I realized that I wasn’t really scheduling the session; I was requesting it. I was told that I’d get a confirmation email once the appointment was approved by my provider and officially booked.

I was fine with this — until my chosen provider denied my session, which I found jarring and odd, especially since the email I received that let me know I’d been denied didn’t tell me why my provider had turned down my session request.

Rather than look for a new provider, though, I decided instead to just request another time — and thankfully, this time she confirmed within 24 hours.

I was reminded about my session with two emails: one the day before my session and the second 10 minutes before the session was scheduled to start.

I was able to log into the session via the E-Therapy Cafe website, which granted me access to a virtual waiting room. Since I was a few minutes early to my session, I spent a couple minutes hanging out there; my provider joined right on time.

Our First Session

This first session was an intake session: She spent the bulk of our time talking through the goals I’d laid out in the intake form I’d filled out during sign-up. She also asked me for more details about my life, including my family history and my current family situation. This is when I told her I was a mom with four kids.

I found her to be compassionate and attentive; she was easy to talk to. However, with a 30 minute session, we didn’t have very long to talk about much besides my intake form. She did, however, end the session by letting me know she’d upload a resource for me to check out into my patient portal after the session.

Scheduling Follow-Ups

I did ask her about scheduling another session before we said goodbye but she directed me back to my patient portal to request my next appointment. She also let me know that she’d been traveling when she’d declined my first appointment time and reassured me that her availability would be much more open going forward, which turned out to be true. I had way more choices for appointment times when I went to schedule my season session — including some late evening times — so I went ahead and booked two more sessions.

My Subsequent Sessions

Overall, my sessions at E-Therapy Cafe went well. I found my therapist to be attentive and she offered me practical advice, as well as worksheets and other resources to work through outside sessions.

During one of our sessions, I told her that I was feeling overwhelmed and I appreciated that she immediately responded, suggesting that we plan out the rest of my day together so that I could feel just a little less overwhelmed going forward. We talked through my tasks and schedules hour-by-hour and I wrote them down. Of course, this didn’t feel like therapy — it wasn’t — but I appreciated this type of coaching, especially in the summer right before my grad school classes were about to start. She was giving me practical and actionable help addressing my feelings and I left the session feeling more in control of my busy schedule.

ETCReflect E-Journal

In addition to our three video calls, I also tried E-Therapy’s e-journal offering, which is called “ETCReflect,” which, by the way, costs the same as a video session at $65.

I’ve previous tried other online therapy platforms with messaging therapy options, including Talkspace and BetterHelp, so I guess I assumed this offering would be similar, but that could not be more untrue. This was not a chat (even an asynchronous one). Instead, you had to “book” the e-journal “session,” and then also email customer service to let them know I booked this option in order to receive secure link to what I’d just booked.

Confused, I emailed customer service and not only asked for the link, but also asked them what exactly I was “booking.” Did I have to log into my journal at a specific time? No, customer service reassured me — I could click on the link at any time — but they did not tell me why I had to book this or request a link, rather than just be able to access this from my portal.

When i clicked the link, I was directed to write an entry — which could be up to 700 words — and informed that once I clicked submit, it would be sent to my therapist and she would then respond.

I completed 700 words, explaining in detail what was going on that week and how I was feeling about a few challenges I faced.

My therapist responded quickly and responded in detail, giving me suggestions and asking a few clarifying questions. I appreciated her thoughtful response, but I was a little bothered by the inability to chat back and forth about the questions she posed. In order to respond to her questions, I would have needed to initiate and pay for another e-journal session.

Because I booked on an individual basis, I didn’t need to pause or cancel a subscription on the platform. I did, however, book an extra session just to see what it was like to cancel or reschedule. The website doesn’t seem to have an option to reschedule, but canceling was as easy as clicking the cancel button on my client portal below my appointment widget. It immediately confirmed my cancellation.

You do have to cancel 24-hours before the session starts, though, or you’ll be charged for the whole appointment (or have a credit deducted if you bought a bundle).

E-Therapy Cafe’s therapy sessions may only be 30 minutes, but truth be told, in online therapy, that’s not all that unusual. Talkspace also offers 30-minute therapy sessions and each session costs more ($99 or more) when you break down your subscription cost into four sessions, as is included in your monthly subscription.

Like BetterHelp, E-Therapy Cafe doesn’t accept insurance — which may be a real drawback for some, especially considering that Talkspace is in-network with multiple insurance plans, allowing you to cut down your out-of-pocket cost for therapy to the cost of a copay, which, depending on your health insurance plan, could be less than the $55 to $65 per session E-Therapy Cafe charges.

In the end, E-Therapy Cafe reminds me most of Online-Therapy.com. For example, OnlineTherapy.com too allows you to access an online, guided journal — and these entries can be sent to your therapist to discuss in your video calls. This is somewhat similar to the journal option at Online-Therapy.com.

After three live video sessions and one e-journal session, I finished my trial of E-Therapy Cafe with mixed feelings. I found that the services provided by my therapist were helpful as coaching sessions to help me manage my day-to-day stress and feelings of overwhelm and I can tell from the therapist bios I perused that most providers are very well qualified.

However, because of its emphasis on coaching and the fact that you can work with a therapist not licensed in your state as a “coach,” I do not think this is the right service for everyone — especially if you’re dealing with more severe mental health issues, including depression.

I also found the platform itself in need of improvement. Compared with other platforms, the website looks dated, crowded, and visually unappealing. The intake could be streamlined, simplified, or better organized for a more user-friendly experience. And after completing the e-journal, I felt I would have preferred the back and forth of asynchronous messaging (like what is offered for free with Talkspace and BetterHelp) or a live video session.

The team of writers and editors at Everyday Health are independently testing around 65 online therapy programs in search of the best platforms on the internet. As we test these services, we also consult with a dozen licensed therapists to gain a better understanding of what is most important in an online therapy service. We also surveyed therapy users about their experience with online therapy, including the platforms we are currently testing.

Using a standardized form, our testers are guided in evaluating each platform across the same categories, including the type of therapy modalities offered, the user-friendliness of the platforms, and affordability.

I’m a professional health journalist, and I spent a month attending three sessions at E-Therapy Cafe and testing out their E-Journal option. During the trial, I followed testing documents to make detailed notes about E-Therapy Cafe in the following areas:

• Website appearance and usability
• Sign-up
• Intake
• Provider availability
• Provider experience
• Modalities used
• Additional services provided
• Affordability
• Payment methods accept
• Insurance plans accepted
• Scheduling sessions
• Technology performance during sessions
• Therapist relatability and expertise during sessions
• Ease of cancellation and rescheduling