Calmerry Review

Calmerry Online Therapy Review

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, roughly 1 in 5 American adults (or over 52.9 million people, as of 2020) lives with a mental health condition. Despite the commonality of these conditions, the people who live with them are far too often made to feel stigmatized, alienated, and alone, unsure where to turn for help, support, or people they can trust. 

Beyond stigma, another societal barrier that far too often deters people from seeking the help they need is accessibility. Here are some sobering statistics on that barrier, courtesy of Mental Health America:

• Around 10.3% (or over 4.7 million) adults living with a mental health condition in the U.S. are uninsured
• Nearly 1/4th (or 22.3%) of all U.S. adults with a mental health condition reported that they were unable to attain the help they need
• A staggering 59% of young people suffering from major depressive disorder don’t receive any treatment
• Inversely, only 28.2% of American youth with severe depression receive consistent treatment
• Nearly 1/3rd (or 29.4%) of all U.S. adults living with a cognitive disability were unable to access the help they needed due to costs

The last thing a client deserves to deal with is a denial of essential help and healthcare when they need it the most. While online therapy has done good work in closing some of those accessibility gaps, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic creating a greater demand for remote care than ever before, accessibility barriers (particularly economic ones) still remain.

But if you’re having problems with finding affordable, consistent online therapy, Calmerry may offer you the solution. Here’s what you should know regarding Calmerry’s online therapy service, the areas of mental healthcare it serves, and whether or not its telehealth therapy platform is right for you.

How Calmerry Works

Calmerry was created by a team of experienced entrepreneurs from the US and Europe, led by entrepreneur Alex Vitchenko, in October 2020. Vitchenko and his team recognized very early on during the COVID-19 pandemic that the crisis would create an exacerbated demand for mental health services and services that could be safely conducted remotely.

For better or worse, the team’s assumptions turned out to be correct; the American Psychological Association found that the number of psychologists who reported receiving more referrals nearly doubled in 2020 compared to the prior year. 

While online therapy isn’t a new, post-COVID innovation, and Calmerry is far from the first to approach offering such a service, Calmerry is seeking to disrupt the conventional online therapy space by applying a new, novel approach to its proven, tried, and true efficacy. 

For starters, Calmerry’s approach goes above and beyond to elevate the client’s experience in a way that few competitors have up until this point. Right from the jump, new Calmerry users will be able to see the elevated level of care and consideration that the company affords its users with its simple, straightforward, and personalized signup process.

Upon signing up for Calmerry, you’ll just have to offer a username or password, enter the 3-number security code for verification, and answer a series of personalized questions used to flesh out your profile and match you with a best-suited online therapist. These questions account for very important factors pertaining to your treatment, like:

• Your age
• Your locale
• Your gender identity
• Your relationships
• Your employment
• Your counseling background
• Your personal struggles

Calmerry will use the aforementioned information to match you with an appropriate mental health counselor. All of Calmerry’s therapists are licensed, certified, and have their credentials verified and vetted thoroughly by the company prior to hiring. 

Calmerry’s roster of therapists and counselors covers a wide range of specialties, including fully licensed LCSWs, LSWs, LPCs, LCPCs, LMFTs, and LMHC counselors. Once you’re matched with the right Calmerry counselor, it’s pretty easy to navigate your dealings with them through the simple, intuitive, but effective personal portal for clients, which consolidates prudent features like:

• Messaging
• Subscription Info
• Video Sessions
• Reflection Helper
• Therapy Progress
• Helpful Tips

Calmerry puts a considerable amount of thought into tailoring the optimal experience for its clients, as well as making sure that they’re matched up with the right person from the outset. But in the unfortunate rare case that you might experience a mismatch, Calmerry makes switching therapists an exceedingly easy, painless, and effortless process. 

Simply submit a request through the private client portal to reach out to the customer support team to explain the issue, and Calmerry should be able to resolve the issue quickly. In terms of the specific issues and conditions Calmerry therapists are capable of treating, the team is well equipped to tackle a rather varied range of them.

Calmerry Counseling Options

Calmerry delivers remote telehealth services through two different avenues of treatment: text chat counseling, as well as audio and video counseling sessions. Essentially, these video sessions are akin to traditional, in-person therapy sessions, minus the magazine-laden in-person waiting room, the big in-person office, or the cushy in-person office couch. That doesn't mean that you can't still get quality mental health care from your cushy couch at home! 

Calmerry's plans (which we'll explain more in-depth below) are geared toward allowing clients to have one video therapy session a week, or one video counseling session a month, depending on the client's preferences and behavioral health needs. Ostensibly, Calmerry will match you with someone from the outset (hopefully the ideal match for your specific needs), and you can choose whether or not you want to depending on your personal preferences. You can chat every day during the day, for 5 out of 7 days a week.

The messaging component is also billed monthly, and in case you feel skeptical about the therapeutic benefits of texting, you should know that writing out and journalling thoughts have long been shown to be effective therapeutic strategies, which are corroborated and backed up by a years-long body of research. For years, scientists at prestigious institutions like UCLA have been meticulously analyzing the therapeutic efficacy of journaling. One famous late-2000s study of theirs actually recorded observable changes in the neuroimaging scans of test subjects who journaled, showing that putting your feelings down into words really does have a salient therapeutic, cathartic effect.

Journalling your thoughts might not only just be beneficial for mental health, but overall physical health as well. One seminal JAMA study followed 107 clients suffering from asthma and arthritis, and almost all of them observed demonstrably improved symptoms after writing out their thoughts. Other studies and research journals have observed a similar therapeutic correlation between journalling and an improved immune system. Plus, you probably don't need neuroscience to figure out how beneficial it can be to have even one safe person to confide your thoughts and feelings to, right?

So all in all, it's a huge deal that Calmerry covers both of these bases. But what issues and treatment areas does Calmerry stand to serve by covering both of these bases? If you deal with one of the conditions listed below and are in need of support, you may want to consider Calmerry.

Conditions Calmerry Treats

Per Calmerry’s website, the online therapy platform serves the following range of treatment areas:

• Stress
• PTSD
• Childhood Trauma
• Anxiety
• Eating Disorders
• Depression
• Grief
• Anger Management
• OCD
• Emotional Abuse
• Low Self Esteem
• Relationship Issues
• LGBTQIA+ Therapy

Your therapist’s approach toward approaching these treatments will be personalized to your unique mental health needs and your unique personal situation. With that in mind, Calmerry also prioritizes providing a range of flexible plans meant to serve unique personal price points. 

Calmerry Cost

Calmerry offers a messaging plan and two messaging + video plans. Every plan is priced at two different tiers; one geared toward new customers, with the other geared toward recurring customers. Below are the Calmerry plans you’ll find in both pricing tiers:

New Customer Plans

• Monthly Messaging Plan: $41.99 per week or $167.96 a month
• Monthly Messaging + 1 Video Session: $51.99 per week or $207.96 a month
• Monthly Messaging + 4 Video Sessions: $67.49 a week or $269.96 a month

Recurring Customer Plans

• Weekly Messaging Plan: $56.99 a week or $227.96 a month
• Monthly Messaging + 1 Video Session: $74.49 a week or $297.96 a month
• Monthly Messaging + 4 Video Sessions: $89.99 a week or $359.96 a month

You might be reviewing these plans and wondering; does Calmerry accept insurance? While Calmerry doesn’t take insurance, they do try to make their pricing rates comparable to the co-pay rates you would get out of most health insurance plans. Calmerry doesn’t offer free trials either, though they do offer 30% new client discounts to get started more affordably.

The people behind Calmerry know that you shouldn’t have to foot a massive bill if you want to get the behavioral healthcare you need the most. So rather than expecting clients to foot a massive bill, Calmerry fits the bill around their specific billing budget. 

Calmerry vs. Talkspace

Are you curious how Calmerry stacks up with bigger competing teletherapy services, like Talkspace or BetterHelp? Ultimately, the three platforms all serve a similar means to similar ends – matching clients (based on their profile) with whom the provider deems the best person to meet their needs. Both Calmerry and Talkspace's plans allow for unlimited messaging and weekly live video sessions with your chosen counselor. Depending on your own personal needs, any one of those three providers could match you with a verified:

• Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC)
• Licensed Clin. Social Worker (LCSW)
• Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC)
• Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (LMFT)

Unlike Calmerry, however, Talkspace accepts insurance, and is able to refer you to a psychiatrist, should you need medication to deal with your specific behavioral health conditions. That said, Calmerry offers a slightly more generous welcome deal (more on that below), saving users a whole $10 more off their first month. We wouldn't necessarily argue that one platform is objectively "better" than the other, but everyone's behavioral health needs and insurance plans are all different. One platform may be better suited to serving your specific health needs and budget than the other, but that's ultimately up to you to decide.

To make that decision a little easier, you can take a check out our Talkspace review here, where we take a very extensive, comprehensive deep dive into what the platform has to offer. If you like what you see, you can get started by signing up here and using the promo code "RELIEFSEEKER"!

Calmerry vs. BetterHelp 

Like Calmerry, BetterHelp offers users a fairly similar package; live video therapy sessions conducted by a counselor matched based on personal preferences, with a messaging chat functionality to supplant those live sessions. The providers therapists' are vetted to such an extensive degree that only 15% of the therapists who apply for BetterHelp are approved to serve on the platform.

Both Calmerry and BetterHelp's therapists are extensively vetted, and extensively well equipped in a wide variety of evidence backed therapeutic approaches, including:

• Cognitive-behavioral therapy
• Dialectical behavioral therapy
• Motivational interviewing
• Interpersonal psychotherapy
• Psychodynamic therapy
• Mindfulness based cognitive therapy, etc.

Both platforms serve similar therapeutic areas fairly well, but depending on your financial and insurance situation, Calmerry might potentially offer the better deal. But if you're curious about BetterHelp and how exactly it compares with Calmerry, you can read our full review here.

Calmerry: Pros & Cons

Depending on your personal mental health needs, Calmerry may offer you your own personalized set of advantages and disadvantages. In the interest of impartiality, here are all of the potential pros and cons you can expect to run into on the platform.

Pros

• Offers affordable teletherapy care 
• Flexible plans based on client's preferences and personal budget
• Matches clients with the best therapist based on preferences & needs
• Makes it easy to switch if you aren't matched with the optimal counselor
• Generous first-month welcome offer (trust us, it's pretty generous)

Cons

• Doesn't accept health insurance
• Doesn't offer psychiatric services
• A relatively new platform
• No free trial

Obviously, these pros and cons may all vary on an individual, case by case basis. But on the whole, we feel that most clients will come away satisfied with the mental health care that Calmerry has to offer.

Is Calmerry Legit?

Calmerry is as legitimate an online therapy resource as they come. All of their therapists are trained, licensed, vetted, and have accredited Masters or Doctorate degrees in their field. 

While you shouldn’t expect instant, transformative results overnight, you can use Calmerry with the trust and assurance that a reputed professional is there, to help guide you toward the optimal headspace you want to get to.

Calmerry Promo Code

Calmerry lets new clients join with 30% off their first sessions, which adds up to $90 off your first month – no promo code required!

Whether it’s through Calmerry or through one of the other 300+ providers we’ve mentioned on our site, we hope these reviews will help you in your search for affordable, effective relief.