The 6 Best Online Trauma Therapy Services

Types of Trauma Therapy

Trauma therapy differs from other types of therapy in a few specific ways. “One key aspect of most effective therapies for traumas such as PTSD is that they include a significant component of re-experiencing thoughts and feelings associated with the past trauma within the safe confines of the therapy sessions,” explains Dr. Susman. “This can include talking at length about past traumas or writing detailed accounts of the traumas.”

The best evidence-based trauma therapy modalities are: 

• EMDR: This approach retrains your brain in terms of how to respond to trauma memories
• Prolonged exposure therapy: This safely reintroduces you to triggers until your response is no longer based in trauma
• Somatic therapy: A body-centric approach based on the idea that trauma and traumatic memories are physically “stored” in the body; it works by releasing the tension and stress associated with trauma from the body with a combination of talk therapy and exercises focused on connecting the mind and the body
• Internal family systems therapy: This modality recognizes that some inner parts of our personalities (like parts that protect us in the face of danger) have been pushed to the extreme by trauma and tries to realign those roles into healthy ones again (e.g., a part of you is still working overtime to deal with a threat that is no longer there so you work on relieving that part of you from its protection “duties”)
• Cognitive processing therapy: This is a type of cognitive behavioral therapy that was designed to treat PTSD by recognizing unhealthy, unhelpful, or incorrect thoughts (e.g., “I deserved what happened to me”) and working to change them
• Trauma-informed therapy: An approach to therapy that is specifically mindful of how trauma affects your behaviors, thoughts, and general mental health, as well as your ability to engage with treatment in the first place

Many survivors of trauma also find support groups or group therapy helpful. In fact, one meta-analysis (a study of lots of studies) found that group support helped significantly reduce symptoms of PTSD. You can often find support groups or group therapy via online therapy directories or by searching for local trauma-focused organizations.

How Do You Know If You Need Trauma Therapy?

If you’ve recently experienced a traumatic event—for example, if you were in a car accident, were the victim of an attack, or escaped an abusive relationship—trauma therapy might help you. This is especially true for people who are having difficulties functioning in their everyday lives. Trauma can affect your ability to work, to maintain relationships, and take care of yourself properly. So if you are noticing that things in your life have become too challenging to handle after experiencing a trauma, trauma therapy might be right for you.

Paying for Online Trauma Therapy

Some online therapy companies that treat trauma, such as Talkspace and Thriveworks, also accept health insurance—if you want to use your insurance to pay for therapy, most companies will let you search for your plan when or after signing up. If your insurance is accepted, you’ll only be responsible for your copay. 

Other companies, such as BetterHelp, offer subscriptions, where you’ll pay a certain amount per month for a set number of sessions, while others charge per-session. Online therapy directories like Inclusive Therapists often allow you to filter your therapist options by cost or by which insurance they take. 

How I Review Online Therapy Services

I’ve spent years testing and surveying real therapy users and reviewing their experiences to help rate and share the best online therapy services. You can see a full breakdown of our online therapy research and testing process on Verywell Mind.

Reviewing Trauma Services

To compile this list, I examined what services each online therapy company says it offers, looking specifically for mention of trauma or PTSD. I then investigated which therapy modalities the companies provide in the treatment of trauma (e.g., EMDR, CBT, etc). I also checked all of my testing insights to see if anyone was seeking help for trauma or PTSD.

Expert Insights

I consulted with two mental health professionals to get insights into trauma therapy modalities, theories, and effectiveness:

• Yolanda Renteria, LPC, a trauma-trained psychotherapist
• Dr. David Susman, PhD, a psychologist and professor at the University of Kentucky

Firsthand Experience

I had 65 different people sign up for talk therapy with all 55 online therapy companies reviewed. Over the past three years, I’ve published 153 reviews  (here are our reviews for BetterHelp and Talkspace, for instance). I had my testers try out each company’s therapy services, and if the company offered other services (like couples therapy and kid or teen therapy) we tested those too. 

I asked each tester to try each service for at least a month, which usually meant between two and six sessions at each company. I also asked testers to switch therapists partway through, if possible, in order to get a holistic idea of the offerings and quality of each company. My testers were located all across the United States and abroad, meaning I gained extensive information about each company’s services in a variety of areas.

User Surveys

I surveyed more than 8,000 therapy clients who are currently using one of the 55 online therapy companies tested or who had used one in the recent past, as well as users of 27 different online therapy directories. I collected 350 different data points in which I asked users to evaluate each company’s services, from their therapist’s qualifications to whether they found a therapist who met all their needs to how they’d rate the company overall. 

Why Trust Verywell Mind

Hannah Owens is Verywell Mind’s Mental Health Editor. Hannah is a licensed social worker with a clinical background in community mental health. She’s worked at programs treating those with serious mental illness, providing both individual and group therapy. In her time at Verywell Mind, Hannah has designed and run years of online therapy testing, overseeing and editing reviews of the top online therapy companies out there and writing and editing roundups of the best online therapy services based on our extensive and thorough testing. Hannah brings her unique combination of both clinical and editorial expertise to her work for Verywell Mind.

• Licensed social worker since 2019
• Clinical background in community mental health
• Specializes in serious mental illness
• Believes in the mission of online therapy to make mental healthcare more accessible