Faithful Counseling Company Overview

To be honest, there isn’t too much information on the web about Faithful Counseling. What we were able to discover after a bit of digging is that Faithful Counseling was started in 2017 by telehealth giant Teledoc, a massive company that is known to operate a large and varied selection of online health services and platforms.

Faithful Counseling’s reputation seems to have grown quite quickly among the Christian community, with over 100,000 people visiting their website every month, and has become known as an online Christian therapy platform where the online therapists can help their patients address whatever mental health issues they are struggling with by making God a part of the process.

Faithful Counseling claims that their main goal is to improve their patient's physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. In fact, Faithful Counseling have a “Statement of Faith” (which can be viewed on their website) which fully outlines their beliefs, aims and hopes. Their stated goal is to not only improve the person’s state of physical and emotional well-being but also their spiritual state of mind as well. Their Statement of Faith, which can be found on their website, is a testament to that.

Speaking of their website, on browsing through it, you are sure to come across their list of the advantages they believe they have over traditional in-person therapy. The list includes:

• Patients are free to connect with their online counselor at any time since their online counseling services include not only scheduled live sessions but also live text counseling if their particular counselor is flagged as being available at that particular time on their website
• Patients can engage with their online therapist using either voice calls, video calls or text messaging
• Faithful Counseling’s online Christian therapy services are significantly cheaper compared to traditional in-person therapy
• Faithful Counseling also guarantees that patients will be assigned an online counselor that best suits them and their particular needs. If the patient is unhappy with their assigned online counselor, they are free to switch to a different online counselor at any time

That being said, Faithful Counseling has also stated that while all of their online Christian counselors are capable of providing spiritual insight based on their personal knowledge, beliefs, and wisdom, they might not have the formal training to properly deal with your particular faith-based issues. They have also stated that if patients are seeking counseling related to strictly spiritual matters, such as connecting with God, biblical wisdom, or spiritual warfare that their needs would be best served by what they term “traditional pastoral counseling”, which is usually offered by a church.

What does Faithful Counseling do?

The online counselors at Faithful Counseling specialize in dealing with a number of mental health issues and conditions from a Christian perspective and are more than happy and capable of assisting their patients to deal with whatever problems or issues are standing in the way of them achieving their goals.

At the moment, Faithful Counseling has over 1,000 fully qualified and state-certified Christian counselors, with many of them specializing in areas that include:

• Addictions
• Anger
• Anxiety
• Bipolar
• Career
• Chronic Impulsivity
• Conflict
• Depression
• Eating
• Educational Assessments
• Family
• Grief
• Health
• Intimacy
• LGBTQ
• Life Transitions
• Parenting
• Relationships
• Religion
• Self-Esteem
• Sleeping
• Social Behavior
• Stress
• Substance Abuse
• Trauma & Abuse

What don’t Faithful Counseling do?

While Faithful Counseling should be considered by anyone looking for an online therapy platform that counsels from a Christian perspective, it may not be the answer for everyone. Certain individuals and situations may benefit more from a more intensive in-person therapy approach or traditional pastoral counseling” offered through a church 

Faithful Counseling may also not be your best option if any of the following is applicable to your particular situation: 

• You have had thoughts of hurting you, your partners or anyone else
• You are under the age of 18 and are still under the care of your parent or legal guardian
• You find yourself in a crisis or emergency situation
• You have been officially diagnosed to be suffering from a severe mental condition
• You have advised undergoing psychological supervision or psychiatric care
• You have been ordered by a court or other authority to undergo therapy or counseling
• You are in a physically abusive relationship and you feel that your safety or even life is at risk
• You do not have ongoing access to a reliable internet connection 

How does Faithful Counseling work?

With Faithful Counseling you can choose to interact with your online therapist in any of the following ways: 

• Exchanging delayed response text messages with your online Christian counselor
• Live video calls
• Live voice calls  
• Live text chat 

Patients are not limited to just one form of communication with their online counselor and can switch between the options listed above depending on what best suits their needs at any particular time.

Signing up

When you sign up with Faithful Counseling, you will first have to complete an online questionnaire, as with most online therapy services. However, with Faithful Counseling being an online Christian counseling platform, it only makes sense that a number of their questions are faith-based. Overall, there are 20 questions that need to be answered during sign up. We strongly recommend that you are as truthful and accurate as possible as this information is used to match you to your ideal online Christian counselor.

Some of the questions asked include:

• Are you male or female?
• Are you an English speaker?
• How old are you?
• Which country are you in?
• What is your relationship status?
• Have you ever been to counseling before?
• How would you rate your current physical health?
• How would you rate your sleeping habits?
• How would you rate your eating habits?
• How would you rate your financial status?
• Are you currently experiencing overwhelming grief sadness or depression?

All in all, the questionnaire should take about 5 minutes to complete. Once you are done with the questionnaire, the next step is to create your private account. Many potential patients will be happy to hear that they do not have to supply their full name and can use a nickname on the site, ensuring that patients can remain anonymous and their privacy is protected. 

Once you have supplied your username, email address, and picked a password, you need to check your email inbox for a mail from Faithful Counseling. Simply click the link in the mail you’ve received to verify your email. Once you have done so, you will be taken to a much shorter questionnaire based on your therapy and online counselor preferences. Questions include whether you would prefer your online Christian counselor to be male or female and what type of experience you would prefer your online counselor to have.

Once that questionnaire has been completed, you will be automatically directed to a secure payments page.

Using the information from the questionnaires, you will be matched to your most suitable online Christian counselor within 24 hours. If you are unhappy with the e-therapist you have been paired with, you are free to change and have another counselor assigned to you.

After you have been assigned an online counselor, you will receive another email. Clicking the link in this mail will take you to your own private therapy room. This is the room you will use to engage with your counselor at any time. Only you and your online counselor will have access to this room, ensuring your privacy is safeguarded. Anytime your counselor leaves you a message or replies to one of yours, you will receive a notification via email that they have done so. You can message your e-therapist at any time without having to schedule a session since you have access to your private therapy room 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

Live chats

Unlike the delayed response communication option, you will have to schedule a session whenever you wish to interact with them in real-time. When you want to schedule a live session, simply click on the appropriately labeled button and you will be instructed how to go about scheduling it.

With live chats, you are able to communicate with your online Christian counselor in real-time. Live chats can be done via text, video, or voice calls.

Voice Call Sessions

This is a convenient way to interact with your online counselor in real-time via either a landline or your cellphone. To set up a voice call session, simply schedule a session with the counselor. Once they have agreed to a time, you simply log on to the Faith Counseling website and enter your private therapy room. Once both you and your online counselor are both in the room, they will ask you for you to enter your phone number. The system will then contact you using the phone number supplied and connect you to your online therapist. The number you are using will never be shared with your counselor.

Video Call Sessions

This type of live session allows you and your online counselor to interact face to face, much as if you were interacting via Skype. Like a voice call, you will first need to schedule your video call session with your online Christian therapist. Once you have both agreed to a time, you simply log on to the Faithful Counseling website and enter your private therapy room. Once both you and your online counselor are both in the room, they will ask you to start the session. Once you click on the appropriate button and confirm, you will be connected to your e-therapist and you will be able to see each other on the screens of your phone or computer.

How secure is Faithful Counseling?

• Never having to use your full name
• Communications between you and your online relationship counselor have safeguarded thanks to strict state and federal laws
• Faithful Counseling has no direct contact or interaction with any insurance companies, so there is no need for any of your information to be shared, reported or filed with them
• There is a “Shred” option that appears next to each message you send. Clicking this option will totally remove it from your account
• All communication between you and your online Christian therapist undergo 256-bit encryption

• All Faithful Counseling’s servers are hosted an "A Grade" facility, which promises highest levels of security and protection
• Faithful Counseling follows best practices and provides world-class safety and encryption thanks to their use of an SSL browsing encryption system 
• All of the Faithful Counseling databases are scrambled and encrypted so that if they are ever stolen, they will be totally useless to the thieves

Who are the therapists at Faithful Counseling?

All of the online Christian counselors at Faithful Counseling are fully trained Ph.D./PsyD’s, LMFT’s, LCSW/LMSW’s or LPC’s. Every online counselor either holds a Master’s degree or a Doctorate in their particular field of practice and have at least 3 years and 2,000 hours of practical experience. In addition to all of this, every online counselor at Faithful Counseling are practicing Christians and have affirmed their beliefs through Faithful Counseling‘s ‘Statement of Faith.

How much does Faithful Counseling cost?

Faith Counseling offers the following subscription plans: 

• $80 a week billed weekly (this includes unlimited messages and 1 live session in a week)
• $65 a week billed monthly (this includes 4 weeks of unlimited messages and a live session once a week for $260)
• $45 a week billed quarterly (this includes 3 months of unlimited messages and a session once a week for $540)
• $35 a week billed yearly (this includes 12 months of unlimited messages and a live session once a week for $1,820)

Faith Counseling’s online Christian counseling services are not usually covered by the majority of health insurance, Medicare or Medicaid. What’s great to note is that Faith Counseling offers financial aid to those who cannot afford their usual rates.

Pros

• You choose how much of a role Christianity plays on your online therapy process

• While Faithful Counseling is an online Christian counseling platform, non-believers and followers of other religions are free to make use of the services they offer
• Faithful Counseling offers a free 7-day trial
• You will be matched to your ideal online therapist before you’re asked for payment
• Financial aid is offered to those who cannot afford the regular subscription costs
• You can interact with your online therapist using any of the following methods - live chats, video sessions, audio sessions, and messaging services 
• The sign-up process is quick and easy
• You will be matched to the online Christian therapist that best fits your needs in less than 24 hours
• Faithful Counseling offers educational seminars on a variety of topics for free

Cons

• Online therapists may be slow to respond
• There is no assurance that you will be matched with a counselor who views Christianity in the exact same way as you do 
• There have been reports of certain therapists give generic worksheets and not interacting much 
• The sign-up process is automated and there is zero interaction with a human until the point you connect with your online therapist 
• There have been reports of a lack of professionalism from certain online therapists, with them confusing clients and get facts confused
• You may be asked to do a live assessment before starting your online therapy