Last Updated on March 2, 2024
These days, there are more people working from home than ever. For this reason, the thought of having therapy at your fingertips is tantalizing. You don’t have to leave the house, which is great for busy entrepreneurs, parents with small children, or those with severe social anxiety. But can you trust Cerebral with your mental health and credit card? Here’s our unbiased review.
What is Cerebral?
Cerebral is a remarkably young company. It was only founded in 2020 but since this was the time when the pandemic forced more people indoors, Cerebral grew quickly. Based in San Francisco, the aim of Cerebral is to provide mental health support online, ship medication straight to your door or local pharmacy, and provide therapy via video chats. The monthly subscription fee is lower than most other online therapy sites and you get therapy and pills without having to drive anywhere.
Is It Legal for Cerebral to Prescribe Medication Online?
For the most part, things seemed to be legal, and some clients benefited from having their medication dropped off on their doorstep. But in recent months, the authorities were alerted to the fact that Cerebral might be a pill mill. In other words, they are potentially over-prescribing medication purely for profit. The investigation is still ongoing but Cerebral has now stopped prescribing controlled substances to clients. They might still dispense other medications that are not controlled.
How Do I Sign Up?
The sign-up process is easy. You go to Cerebral’s website, create an account, and complete the online emotional assessment. The answers from the assessment are used to recommend the best therapy plans for you. It’s also used to suggest specific therapists or providers. Once that is done, you will receive an email to schedule a phone or video call with your contact at Cerebral. This first contact (the email) can happen as quickly as the same day that you signed up or a week later.
How Much Does Cerebral Cost?
This depends on the plan you choose. Cerebral offers three plans. The cheapest costs about $85 per month and is called the Medication & Care Counseling Plan. You can expect an evaluation of your situation and mental state, a diagnosis, a medication prescription if you need one, and regular therapy sessions with your counselor.
The Therapy Plan costs $259 per month. If you choose this option, you will be partnered with a licensed therapist. While the plan consists mainly of weekly phone or video sessions, you can also message your care provider anytime that you need advice.
The Medication and Therapy Plan is the most expensive option and costs $325 per month. It’s basically just the previous two plans’ benefits rolled into one.
Can I Use My Insurance Provider to Pay for Cerebral?
Yes, you can! However, read their fine print carefully before you sign up. You can only pay with certain insurance providers and in some cases, you have to co-pay. But Cerebral does accept multiple insurance companies, so don’t hesitate to check out this option to see if you qualify for a reduced monthly subscription.
How User-Friendly is Cerebral?
This depends on who you ask. Unfortunately, Cerebral doesn’t have good reviews across the board. While the majority of their clients are indeed happy with their service, calling it user-friendly, useful, and all sorts of positive things, there is a good portion of people who have had bad experiences.
What Are The Main Complaints About Cerebral?
Besides the over-prescribing debacle, Cerebral often falls short when it comes to providing the necessary mental health guidance to those who are in dire straits. Several of Cerebral’s own employees have expressed concern that suicidal or severely depressed individuals are not being given the 24-hour available assistance that they need. Needless to say, this can lead to very dangerous or even fatal consequences.
Some clients who only use Cerebral for lesser troubles have also reported similar issues. In some cases, the counselors never showed up for their video appointments. That being said, over 80 percent of Cerebral users are happy with their counselors and if you are not, you can always request to be paired with a new care provider.
What Qualifications Do Cerebral Therapists Have?
Cerebral claims to have licensed therapists only and you can check each counselor’s bio to learn more about their academic background and experience, and qualifications. Some care providers are even psychiatrists and medical doctors.
Do I Pay For Skipped Appointments?
Let’s say that you’re having a crazy day. Everything went wrong and you forgot about your appointment with your Cerebral caregiver. Maybe you were out of town or something important happened during that time that you couldn’t just drop and walk away from. Do you still have to pay even though you never technically received therapy? Unfortunately, yes. Cerebral won’t deduct missed appointments from your monthly fee.
Can I Book My Appointments A Month In Advance?
No, Cerebral only allows you to book your appointments a week in advance. This can be annoying if you need to plan out your whole month to balance your chores, responsibilities, work, and family.
What Therapies Do Cerebral Offer?
Cerebral offers several useful therapies including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), mindfulness, breathing exercises, grounding exercises, and stress management. Before you sign up, however, be aware that Cerebral doesn’t offer all therapies in all states. For this reason, if you are particularly interested in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), make sure your Cerebral offers CBT in your state before you sign up.
How Safe Are My Therapy Sessions?
We get it. You don’t want to spill your innards online and have those details float around the Internet. A big part of successful therapy is privacy. In this sense, one drawback with Cerebral is that you cannot receive therapy anonymously. The site needs to confirm your real identity during sign-up. However, they will not reveal their clients to the world. Cerebral uses encryption to protect all private information.
Our Verdict on Cerebral
So, is Cerebral the right mental health provider for you? We feel that Cerebral might be the right choice if you have insurance. This will bring down the costs to about $20 per month on your end.
This might also be a good place if you don’t have serious issues like suicidal thoughts, severe depression, or the legitimate need for controlled medications. Cerebral gets a lot of positive reviews from people who need general mental health care.
However, no company is perfect and we did find a few worrying hiccups with Cerebral. These include paying for missed appointments, that all the therapies are not available in all states, and that canceling one’s membership can be unnecessarily difficult.
At the end of the day, there seems to be no problem with the quality of therapy given. So, if you’re willing to jump through the occasional hoop, then you might want to try Cerebral.
However, we strongly advise that you take the time to shop around and compare the pros and cons of this company against other, similar sites. This way, you might find another online therapy site that suits your needs better.