Best Online Trauma Therapy: Tried and Tested in 2024

Company | Price | Insurance Accepted? | Types of Therapy ------- | -------- | -------- | -------- BetterHelp | $65-$90 per session | No | Individual Little Otter | $195-$500 per session (self-pay rates) | Yes | Children, parents, couples, family, psychiatry Talkspace | $69-$109 per session (self-pay rates) | Yes | Individual, couples, psychiatry Inclusive Therapists Directory | Varies by therapist | Yes | Individual, relationships, family, children, teens, group, psychiatry ReGain | $60-$90 per session | No | Individual, couples or relationships Talkiatry | Depends on insurance (no self-pay options) | Yes | Individual, children, teens, psychiatry Thriveworks | $200 and up per session (self-pay rates) | Yes | Individual, family, couples, children, teens Reclamation Collective | Varies by therapist | Yes | Individual, couples, family, children, teens, group Circles | $50 per month | No | Group Choosing Therapy | Varies by therapist | Yes | Individual, couples, family, children, teens

Guide to Choosing the Best Online Trauma Counseling

What Is Trauma Counseling?

Trauma counseling addresses symptoms of PTSD and complex PTSD, including intrusive thoughts, avoidance, negative changes in cognition and mood, and increased reactivity to reminders of traumatic events. Trauma-focused therapy modalities can directly address your response to traumatic events, helping you become less triggered by them, while non-trauma-focused modalities like stress reduction and interpersonal therapy can help you process trauma while you manage stress and reduce the symptoms of PTSD.

Trauma-informed therapy is a method of applying compassion, clarity, and cultural humility to each session, so individual clients can start to feel safe during therapy sessions. Trauma-informed therapists try to avoid triggering a trauma or stress response.

What Types of Trauma Counseling Are Offered?

When you start working with a therapist who specializes in trauma, ask about different modalities. You may find you are comfortable with some, and not with others. Some use cognitive approaches to help you deal with depression and intrusive thoughts, while others rely on more somatic approaches that aim to help you dislodge traumatic memories that are still stored in your body.

Some common therapeutic frameworks for working with trauma are:

• Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)
• Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE)
• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
• Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET)
• Somatic Experiencing (SE)
• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (SP)
• Internal Family Systems (IFS)

Comparing Online Trauma Counseling

Factors to consider when choosing online counseling for trauma include:

Price: Depending on the platform or therapist you work with, prices can vary greatly. Trauma work can take a while, so consider longer-term budgeting and whether you want to ask for sliding-scale rates.

Session Length: Session lengths on virtual therapy sites generally range from 30 to 60 minutes. Seek advice from your practitioner about which modalities work within the timeframe of your sessions.

Topic: Sometimes trauma sufferers have experienced an acute event that has impacted their social, emotional, physical, and spiritual health, and other times, people working with complex trauma can’t name a specific event. Depending on the modality you work with, you may focus on an event, memory, or felt sense, or on problematic behaviors, thoughts, or feelings, like shame.

Scheduling: When you have experienced trauma, your system can become more easily overwhelmed. Find an online therapy platform that makes scheduling easy for you—not another stressor.

Location: Online trauma therapy allows you to participate in sessions from the place of your choosing. Because the material associated with trauma can be highly personal and potentially triggering, find a place that is quiet, confidential, and comfortable.

Method of Counseling: Research shows that online counseling is nearly or just as effective as in-person therapy. Your therapist will be able to tell you if video, phone, or messaging is most effective with the modality you are trying.

Ease of Switching Between Therapists: Take a few minutes to explore how easy it is to switch therapists on the platform you want to use. Cumbersome logistics or having to request a new therapist from your existing one can be overwhelming, especially if you are dealing with sensitive and traumatic memories and symptoms.

Who Is Online Trauma Counseling Right For?

Online trauma counseling is right for anyone ready to address the impact of traumatic events they’ve been a part of, witnessed, or heard about, or who is concerned about some commonly occurring mental and physical health challenges, including depression, insomnia, and substance use.

Online counseling may be better than in-person if you feel more safe in your own space. Others might find the establishment of a “safe space” in a therapist’s office more grounding.

What If I'm Having Thoughts of Harming Myself?

If you are in crisis, having suicidal thoughts, or feel you may harm yourself, call 988, the national suicide and crisis lifeline. This is not the time to seek help through a therapy or psychiatry website. The trained staff at the suicide and crisis lifeline can help you address and deal with immediate mental health issues. This number is preferred over 911, where the first responders are the police and the person who takes the 911 call may have little training in or experience with mental health issues.

If you are considering calling 988, please know that your local police department may be notified of the emergency if the situation is severe and will often be the first to respond. This type of intervention can be traumatic and often damaging or fatal, particularly in communities of color that may have experienced police brutality and tension.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Are the Signs That You Have Trauma?

Trauma can be signaled by shock, anxiety, sleep disturbances, memory loss, feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and dissociation. When someone experiences trauma, they perceive that an event or series of events is threatening their lives, integrity, or sanity. They often feel overwhelmed, scared, isolated, or out of control.

What Is PTSD?

Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is the long-term effect of unprocessed trauma, which can include mood swings, flashbacks, nightmares, dissociation, anger, being on high alert, and physical symptoms like headaches and nausea. For someone to have a PTSD diagnosis, they have to have been involved in, witnessed, or heard about a traumatic event, or, like many first responders, been repeatedly exposed to details from traumatic events. For a PTSD diagnosis, you must also have recurrent intrusive negative thoughts, recurrent disturbing dreams, dissociative responses like having flashbacks, and experience intense and prolonged psychological distress and physiological responses when exposed to reminders of traumatic events or experiences.

How Long Does It Take for Trauma Counseling to Work?

For some trauma-focused therapies,