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One of my biggest pet peeves of adulting is dealing with insurance. Deciphering an explanation of benefits or figuring out what my plan will cover before even receiving care is about as enjoyable as stepping on a LEGO in the middle of the night. Which is probably why finding a therapist has stalled on my to-do list for years.
The desire to go has never been the issue. It's the mental load of figuring out who's in-network, what it'll actually cost, and how to choose from an overwhelming number of options that keeps this task in the ‘I’ll deal with it later’ column.
Grow Therapy is built to remove exactly this friction — and everything that goes along with finding a new provider. They’re a mental health platform that does what the traditional healthcare system has never quite managed to: make finding a licensed, in-network therapist simple.
Grow Therapy accepts over 125 insurance plans and has 26,000+ licensed therapists at the ready. Plus, when it comes to cost, sessions average $21 with insurance, with some patients paying as low as $0 depending on their plan. Here’s why Grow might finally be the nudge I needed to find and book a therapy appointment.
We like
- Accepts over 125 insurances and makes it easy to estimate cost of service with their free cost estimator tool
- Easy-to-use website: navigate providers by experience, gender, identity preferences, availability and more
- 26,000 licensed and vetted providers
- Instant online booking
- No subscription
- Flexible cancellation. You can cancel for free up to 24 hours before a scheduled session
- Some providers can be available as soon as the next day with nights and weekend appointments available as well.
We don't like
- Majority are virtual telehealth sessions so may not be a good fit if you’re looking for IRL support
First Things First: Your Insurance May Already Cover Therapy
I don't doubt the value of therapy. According to the American Psychiatric Association, close to 75% of people who start see real benefits within six months. Think: improved mood, better stress management, stronger relationships and more.
But what the research hasn’t dug into (yet) is the percentage of people like me who put off talk therapy (aka psychotherapy) because the mental load of figuring out where to even begin just feels too insurmountable. One of the biggest assumptions keeping most people like me stuck? That therapy is just too expensive.
What I didn’t fully understand until digging into Grow Therapy and their unique healthcare model is that your insurance plan likely already covers their service.
In many cases, health insurance covers therapy through mental health benefits, meaning you may only owe a copay per session, a coinsurance percentage or nothing at all if you’ve already met your deductible. Most people just don't know how to access it, or assume the process of finding an in-network provider is more trouble than it's worth.
What’s more: under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, insurance plans that cover mental health must do so on comparable terms to physical health care. In other words, mental and physical care can’t be treated differently, so talk therapy coverage can’t have stricter limits or higher cost-sharing than comparable physical medical services.
With the average PPO insurance plan already covering therapy through mental health benefits, Grow Therapy’s model makes accessing that coverage straightforward. Case in point: I used their free cost estimate tool to see how much my estimated per session cost would be with my specific insurance plan, all without having to log into my health insurance portal or make a phone call.
It was a refreshing experience. Insurance has always felt like a black box — you know the coverage exists somewhere in there, but extracting it requires more effort than I ever had to give. Grow Therapy pulls back the curtain. With 125+ insurance plans accepted and sessions averaging $21 with insurance (with some as low as $0 depending on your plan), cost stops being the biggest barrier to keep putting it off.
The Logistics
Beyond the free cost estimator, Grow Therapy is about as far from a typical healthcare experience as you can get. I didn’t encounter any red tape or ever feel like I was just a number in a bloated system.
It’s a cinch to sign up. I’m talking even quicker than navigating and signing into my son’s classroom portal. The onboarding starts with five straightforward multiple-choice questions: your age, what you'd like to talk to someone about (anxiety, depression, coping skills, couples counseling, and more), whether you have a preference for your therapist's gender and more. The last question — how do you want your session to feel? — is the only non-multiple choice question. The whole thing takes a few minutes.
Perhaps most surprising is that the flow is built around the patient’s preferences rather than the platform's convenience. Bonus: I wasn’t prompted to enter an email or create a login until close to booking, which means it was pressure-free to explore without committing.
After answering the onboarding questions, Grow serves up provider options, all filterable. Beyond specialty and insurance, you can sort by gender, identity preferences, availability, specialty and more. Every provider has a full profile: a photo, their credentials and licensing, treatment methods, insurances accepted, location, availability, and patient reviews. Plus, you can book a session right on the provider’s profile.
Therapy Without All the Extra Hassle
Most of us know we could benefit from therapy and it doesn’t necessarily need to be reserved for a big life event.
What's kept it on the to-do list can be mostly blamed on the system itself. Health insurance is confusing to navigate, even for mortgage-paying, responsible-for-little-humans adults like myself. And, it’s designed that way.
Grow Therapy understands these flaws and they’re intentionally working to reverse it, making care attainable, approachable and affordable.
If navigating insurance has prevented you from finding a therapist (and I admit, I was firmly in that camp), Grow Therapy is the platform that finally makes this a non-issue.
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