Toxic Cooking Show
Misogyny, $800 first dates, simps, and high-value women: Social media has been busy cooking up and feeding us an addictive but toxic slurry of trends over the past few years. Here at The Toxic Cooking Show we're two friends dedicated to breaking down these trends, terms, and taunts into their simplest ingredients to understand where they came from and how they affect our lives. Join us each week as we ponder and discuss charged topics like personal responsibility and "not all men" before placing them on our magical Scale O' ToxicityAny comments or topics you want to hear about write to us at toxic@awesomelifeskills.com
Toxic Cooking Show
Swipe Left on BetterHelp: The Therapy App That's Worse Than Your Ex
We've all seen the ads - BetterHelp promises convenient therapy at your fingertips. But behind the slick marketing lies a company with deeply troubling business practices that every therapy-seeker should know about.
When Christopher Patchet, a licensed therapist, along with Lindsay McClane, looks on how BetterHelp operates. From selling sensitive user data to Facebook (resulting in a $7.8 million FTC fine) to allegedly creating fake profiles for real therapists without their consent, the revelations are genuinely shocking.
The toxic ingredients are plentiful: until 2017, BetterHelp didn't even require therapists to be licensed. The platform allegedly directed potential clients away from therapists they specifically sought out. Most disturbing is the revelation that BetterHelp notified Facebook each time users logged into their accounts or attended therapy sessions, creating a pipeline for targeted ads at vulnerable moments.
Despite knowing all this, many mental health influencers continue promoting BetterHelp to their followers. Even more telling: the company spent $8 million on podcast advertising in a single month - more than they paid in fines for violating user privacy.
This episode is just part one of our investigation. Next week, we'll explore how BetterHelp's practices harm both therapists and the clients who trust them with their mental health. If you've used online therapy services or considered them, this two-part series is essential listening that might change how you view digital mental healthcare forever.
https://www.socialworkers.org/News/News-Releases/ID/2613/Online-therapy-referral-company-that-used-deceptive-marketing-practices-is-no-longer-in-business
https://www.faithfulmind.org/listing/203185-Christopher-Patchet
https://www.hipaajournal.com/betterhelp-settlement-ftc-health-data-privacy/
https://vator.tv/2020-11-11-when-betterhelp-was-young-the-early-years/
Hi and welcome to the Toxic Cooking Show, where we break down toxic people to their simplest ingredients. I'm your host this week, christopher Patchett LCSW.
Speaker 2:And I'm Lindsay McLean.
Speaker 1:I am going to start off this episode with a disclaimer Ooh, this episode we are going to be talking about things that are from my personal experience, our personal opinions. You will be hearing the word allegedly a lot for things that haven't been proven yet. And the reason why I am starting off this episode with that kind of disclaimer is because we are going to be talking about BetterHelp.
Speaker 2:Ah yes, Aren't these the people who go after anybody who says anything that remotely looks like shit about them on the internet?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Hmm, that's always a good business model.
Speaker 1:BetterHelp has million, million dollar lawyers. We have a dog for an EP.
Speaker 2:I mean I will say maybe this would get us like super famous. Maybe we'd get like a lot more listeners if we had to get into like a legal battle. Betterhelp, Just saying it might be worth it.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to try to go down that road. I was about to say I don't live in the us, so that would be on you.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow, I'm just gonna throw you under the bus on that one.
Speaker 1:Be like bye I am going to start this with the beginnings of BetterHelp. No better way to start the beginning of a show than the beginning of how BetterHelp came to be. Betterhelp was founded and this actually shocked me founded in 2013.
Speaker 2:Whoa, we had online therapy when I still lived in the US.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes what.
Speaker 2:Damn.
Speaker 1:So it was. It was founded by Alon Mattis, who was trying to find therapy. He he worked a lot, so his time schedule was very, very kind of just out there. He didn't have like a nine to five job, so therefore, sometimes he would need therapy in the morning, sometimes in the evening, and it's hard to find a therapist that does some mornings, some evenings. So his idea was that he wanted to create an online service for therapy. He partnered up with Danny Breitgarner and they started up this small business of online therapy BetterHelp it was. Eventually, betterhelp was acquired by Teladoc in 2015. Teladoc bought BetterHelp for $3.5 million in cash and $1 million in a promissory note. Betterhelp it continued. It was growing pretty slow at first but as things kind of picked up, there was a slight thing that happened in 2020 that caused people not to go out too much. I forget what it was. It was.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I just remember being home a lot during that time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and maybe feeling the need for more therapy than usual.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cause things were like really weird and stressful, so maybe so so they picked up, they picked up and and definitely in 2020, they, I mean they went ballistic and I mean that's when I remember seeing stuff about them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, was related to the pandemic and people being like, oh my God. And then suddenly BetterHelp was like sponsoring stuff on videos and you see people suddenly like really talking about going to therapy. I don't think I ever saw like any of my friends be like I'm seeing a BetterHelp therapist, but clearly we suddenly realized that maybe this was a thing that we needed in our lives.
Speaker 1:So I do remember seeing BetterHelp advertisements prior to 2020, nowhere near the point that we see it now, but yeah, I do definitely remember in 2020, I mean it was all over the place. Do definitely remember in 2020, I mean it was all over the place. So I mean, since the beginning of BetterHelp it's been a pretty shady type of business.
Speaker 2:Really. Well, yeah, from my opinion, it was a very shady company I guess I'm also legitimately surprised that, like they didn't at least start off kind of okay like I get, when they got bought out that maybe that would have been like a downhill or like when covid happened, they saw easy money and jumped on it. But I guess I'm also not too surprised if they've just always been allegedly a little bit on the the sketchy side so.
Speaker 1:So, starting off, one of the things was is that up until 2017, they you didn't have to be a licensed therapist. You didn't have to be licensed period are you serious?
Speaker 2:seriously are you telling me I missed my golden opportunity to get on BetterHelp and be a fake therapist and make money fuck?
Speaker 1:so 2017, they finally got caught out, and because they were actually using the word get therapy online and for them to be able to say the words get therapy online, you have to have oh, what is it? Oh, therapist.
Speaker 1:What what now I? I I'm giving better help the benefit of the doubt that maybe they might have used people who graduated college and just did not have their their actual license as we had, or they were in training to get their license. But regardless, up until 2017, you did not have to have that actual license in hand that is horrifying yeah it's really, really horrifying uh, well, you know, and we start off horrifying and uh, we it just goes downhill from there, okay, good uh, in, it just goes downhill from there.
Speaker 1:Okay, good In 2023,.
Speaker 2:They were called out by the Federal Trade Commission for selling data to Facebook, snapchat, all these different places?
Speaker 1:Wouldn't that be a violation of HIPAA? Yeah, big time Ooh. So they got fined $7.8 million. Good, which is good. I you know, I'm glad that they got fined $7.8 million, okay. So just to kind of put it to you this way, me as a provider, if I were to say, hey, lindsay, I'm working with this client. If I were to say, hey, lindsay, I'm working with this client, this is the person's information and I start talking to you about him or her or whatever, and the person that I'm talking about finds out, or anybody finds out, as a matter of fact, I can get reported, I will get hit with a HIPAA violation. Get reported, I will get hit with a hipaa violation and my fine would be anywhere from 10 000 to 100 000 and better help paid how much?
Speaker 2:7.8 million dollars that doesn't feel like a lot. That is for first events.
Speaker 1:And the thing is okay. So with HIPAA it is very, very and this is one of the biggest reasons why I never use any examples for my practice on this show is because of the fact that if you say one thing, that let's say that I was talking about a situation, and even in the situation the person's able to pick up that oh shit, he's talking about me. They can, they can go off and they can get me. Yeah. So I mean, even though I'm not giving you any information of this person, the fact that I'm giving you information of what is talked about in my sessions, I can get hit with a huge fine. So, not even purposely doing something, I can get hit with a huge fine BetterHelp. On the other hand, they purposely were selling information to Facebook, to Snapchat, instagram.
Speaker 2:I like Snapchat better.
Speaker 1:And it gets even worse. How?
Speaker 2:do you get worse from selling people's personal medical information to facebook?
Speaker 1:well. So they not only were they selling information to facebook, but they were also anytime that somebody were to log into their better help account, anytime that they had a session, they alerted facebook to let them know. And this way, when you were going on facebook afterwards and it was like um, you would see an ad for like, hey, you got anxiety, you know, or these are, uh, these are reasons, or these are things to do when you have anxiety and no oh.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, that is such a violation of privacy on every level, even if this was not like medical information. The medical information makes it that much worse.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, the thing is that, yeah, the fact that it's not medical information is because now you have somebody who Facebook now knows that they're signing up for anxiety. Facebook now sees when they're logging into their account, facebook now sees when they're most vulnerable. And now Facebook is giving this person a chance who allegedly I guess, just to save our ass, allegedly is thrown in Bill Smith's anti-anxiety tricks.
Speaker 2:Well, because I know that, having done some work on Facebook ads in the past for different companies I've worked on, I know that you can kind of go through when you're running an ad and you can pick, like, which interest groups to show it to and they call it interests. But if you look at some of these interests, this is not somebody who has, like, professed an interest and, you know, clicked I'm interested in. Because I remember, because of the specific work I was doing, I realized that you could target people who were interested in volunteering, in donations, in that type of thing, and that's not something you ever say on Facebook, that's something that Facebook picks up about you and your activity. So I would imagine, if I ever went back into that, you probably could find some people who are interested in something to do with mental health or whatever. I would bet that Facebook has that option and then advertisers could use that to target people really directly. And then, yeah, facebook would like super pinpoint you and be like, hey, you're feeling like shit right now and I know it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I think that that's disgusting in so many different ways.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that's horrible.
Speaker 1:So this started in 2018. Mm-hmm, and they finally got called out in 2023. So only two years ago. Oh my God, oh my.
Speaker 2:God, I mean, they were doing it for five years and they were doing it during COVID.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, and I know they milked it during covid allegedly, of course, if they actually did this well no, so they, they actually have been, they actually good I, I was saying allegedly to save our ass because of, like, what facebook would be doing, uh, with that information, right, and so you know, but the actual act of selling that information to Facebook, we know that they've done that. We, 100% we know they got, they were caught out by the Federal Trade Commission, they got fined by the Federal Trade Commission and so I mean this is legit 100%.
Speaker 2:No, allegedly this happened this is legit a hundred percent? No, allegedly this happens. I have that much less respect for the people who run multiple better help ads on their YouTube channels now.
Speaker 2:You know, and and that was I remember when, you and I, when we first started talking about podcasting it was one thing that we said was like oh yeah, if we get cool enough to actually get to run ads, there is one company that we will. Was like oh yeah, if we get cool enough to actually get to run ads, there is one company that we will never run them for better help yeah, oh god.
Speaker 1:Second problem is and this is according to the national nswa, which is the National Social Workers of America Association is basically the oversighting government council for social workers in general across the United States. So on the National Social Workers Association website, so on the National Social Worker Association website, they were stating that there was a website called CareDash. So what CareDash did was, if you so, for me to be able to practice therapy and to be able to bill insurances and things like that, I have to have an MPI number.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:That MPI number. It's public information. If you looked up my name right now and Googled Christopher Patchett MPI, you will see flat out my number.
Speaker 2:Okay, and that's used to like taxes or to track your degree. That's used to actually charge the insurance companies.
Speaker 1:Okay, basically, that's my medical number, that's my medical ID.
Speaker 2:Gotcha.
Speaker 1:So what Caradash was doing was they were going down public information MPI number. If you have an MPI number, caradash would take that information and they made a profile for you, which sounds nice, you know. Thank you, you made a profile for me. Yeah, yeah, I see that look, I see that look.
Speaker 2:I'm suspicious about this.
Speaker 1:You're like if this is coming up on the toxic cooking show? Like you know, this is definitely not a good profile.
Speaker 1:So, so that much is. So. What would it end up happening is, let's say, somebody you told a friend of yours saying like hey, you're, you're having anxiety. You know, I, I know a really good therapist. I saw blah, blah, blah and recommended your, your friend, to joe simon, whatever the person be like okay, cool, you know, and takes lindsey's advice and looks up Joe whatever, and they find the CareDash profile for this person and they're like cool, they click on the contact Joe whatever, and it will send them to BetterHelp.
Speaker 2:Interesting.
Speaker 1:So that much is 100% fact. This point forward is allegedly Okay.
Speaker 1:So what would end up happening is, let's say, somebody did look me up and they just Googled my name. They saw the CareDash profile and they said contact Christopher patchett and send them to better help. I, I did work for better help for a short amount of time, but even before I'd worked for them, it would send them to better help. And if they try to book an appointment with christopher patchett, oh shit, christ, christopher Patchett is completely booked up here. Why don't you try one of these other therapists?
Speaker 2:That's a lie. Yeah, how have they been able to do that? Allegedly, of course.
Speaker 1:Shit practices.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I guess people wouldn't know this. It's not like you're clicking through eight different therapists and you'd be like wow, everyone's magically booked up whenever I try and do it this way but not that way. It wouldn't necessarily catch your attention, but that does mean that work that would have gone to you is being given to somebody else, if that's actually what's happening.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah and that, and that's the thing is that. So now this person who was recommended, or who was given my name for a recommendation, they're now saying, okay, well, I guess he's booked up. Like you know, like I'm, you know, I'm not going to sit around and wait for a therapist for the next four or five months.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, try one of these other people. Yeah, might as well just try one of these other people. I'm really interested now because I know that to a certain extent, there have been issues with people finding therapists that have openings for them and doctors who have openings for them, and I have to wonder if maybe this was not part of it is that people were looking them up and ending up like this and accidentally being given not accidentally being given or finding information that was maybe not totally correct about that person's availabilities, and that's why there's like therapists are booked up for months. No, they aren't. They have openings.
Speaker 1:Oh God, yeah, yeah, yeah it's.
Speaker 2:That's slimy.
Speaker 1:It's slimy and we'll get deeper into this as we kind of go on. Oh no, so as far as far as uh kardash goes, kardash is no longer. Uh. They were since national, uh social workers uh association kind of mentioned about them and everything like that. I don't know if they got shut down like by legal means, or if they were just so if they maybe uh felt themselves to be in danger yeah either way, it's suspicious yeah, so, uh, so I mean care dash is no longer.
Speaker 1:But so I was just curious and I typed in my, or googled my name and better help, lindsay, you've known me for 14 years, you old fuck. Hey.
Speaker 2:Just you wait. There's something coming for you soon about that.
Speaker 1:You're old too.
Speaker 2:I know, I know.
Speaker 1:So you've known me for 14 years. How good of a Christian would you say that I am?
Speaker 2:On a scale of one to 10, I would say you are a 0. Yeah, not a Christian, buddhist atheist or Buddhist agnostic.
Speaker 1:I consider myself to be a Buddhist agnostic. Okay, so like, I definitely believe in the philosophy of Buddhism, even though I don't fucking really practice it, because one of the things is is I shouldn't be cursing but I say fuck that, but I do believe in the philosophy of it. I it's just as far as the religious aspect of things. I consider myself to be atheist, agnostic, whatever. When I looked myself up on google christopher patchett, better help I saw a website, faithorg oh no looking for a christian therapist contact christopher patchett oh, no, yeah, I mean it's.
Speaker 2:It's funny because it didn't happen and, like you know, this has been okay. But I am imagining it like somebody who is christian and is like actually trying to look for this and if they ended up with you, oh, nobody would be happy you know, and that's the thing, is that okay, I, I will never claim to be a christian, uh, therapist, there's nothing wrong with it.
Speaker 1:You know, like absolutely I, I'm all for it. If somebody is that, if somebody is has that strong of a belief in Christianity, then chances are they're going to want to talk to somebody who shares those same values and those same, that's fair. Yeah, so you know a hundred percent. I agree with you. Know anybody who's listening, you know if, if that is your thing, more power to you, that. Uh, but faithorg I wouldn't.
Speaker 2:Oh no. So I clicked on it and it took me to BetterHelp Really yes, was this when you still had your BetterHelp page active, because I know that you have stopped working for them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know we're going to get into that. Yeah, I mean, if you did this today, you would still see my name. And then my guess would be and again this is 100% guessing that the person would look me up. They see faithorg, they go on to BetterHelp. And again this is 100% guessing that it would be the same thing of well, christopher Patch is completely booked up right now. Why don't you try?
Speaker 2:one of these other Christian therapists. Although in this case that would be a good thing, this poor soul who is looking for Christian therapy would not end up with you. Absolutely, I mean you know, and that's the thing.
Speaker 1:But the thing is that hopefully they had let Better help know that they were looking for a Christian therapist.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, cause if they're just like then saying, oh, why don't you try this person, this person or that person Clearly, if this is indeed the case, they haven't done the background work. To be like was the first person the X, y, z that that person like came in looking for, and so then are these other people. Because I would imagine on better help, like on your profile, you had a way of setting, like what types of therapy or specifics that you do.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, and Christian therapy was not one of them.
Speaker 1:Obviously, obviously. Yeah, that doesn't bode, well, see we, we we, we take care of problems that way.
Speaker 1:There you go and then and then also with the the whole thing of looking up my name Just in general I also did see it was health grade which actually had my profile from psychology today. When I worked for BetterHelp I just started doing private practice therapy and I made a profile on there. I have a Psychology Today profile which I actually pay for, and then the health grade. I see they took the information off of my Psychology Today page and same thing. The moment that you go on there you read my profile and you say, hey, I want to work with this guy.
Speaker 2:And contact person and it will take you to better help.
Speaker 1:Interesting how every single site seems to lead to BetterHelp. It's suspicious. I mean, we don't know if BetterHelp is paying these people and we're not going to make that assumption.
Speaker 2:No, it's good to point out when things you know, the math ain't math.
Speaker 1:And the math is not math in here. Oh, I love it, do you? And, and and on top of so, okay, so these were the, these were the, the, the, the worst of the worst, of BetterHelp itself.
Speaker 2:So we're stealing people's private health information and selling it to Facebook, and we are potentially misdirecting people to other therapists when they try and look up someone specific.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 1:That's pretty solidly shit. So let's let's look at their advertising.
Speaker 2:So I hate their advertising. I do not want to look at any more of it. Skip it whenever I see it oh my god.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I'm. I would think by now you've heard a better help, just just for the fact that it has been advertised over and over again. If you want to watch a youtube video, it seems like every fucking yeah, oh my god, it never ends podcasts, except for this one, because, yeah, we will never advertise for better help. We will never advertise for better help and I think after this, uh, you know, we we've kind of pulled away our um any type of agreement with them.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Uh. So yeah, if you're listening to this and all of a sudden you do see that that this uh, you know episode gets pulled, better, how probably offered us a fuck ton of money, Billions we got it After this we got to discuss how much we're willing to go for. Uh, so advertisements everywhere, every fucking where.
Speaker 2:I want to know their advertising budget.
Speaker 1:Well, so remember when I was saying about how they got fined by the FTC? Do you remember what that number was?
Speaker 2:It's like seven something million, seven or eight million.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 7.8 million. Okay, so a loan in December of 2023. This is the same year that they got that. Fine, a loan One month. And we're not talking about YouTube, we're not talking about the money that was spent on Instagram, we're not. This is just podcast loan. Podcast One month $8 million spent on advertisements.
Speaker 2:Get out. No wonder they're everywhere. They literally are $8 million in one month. I mean, I know that podcasting is like a really big thing and so, like there are tons of podcasts, you'd be hitting Damn.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm sure I don't know this for a fact. I'm sure I'm almost positive that I did hear it on Joe Rogan.
Speaker 2:They're turning the freaking frogs gay.
Speaker 1:No, joe Rogan. He's oh God, he was frogs gay man. No, that's Alex Jones. Oh, okay, I thought it was Joe Rogan.
Speaker 2:He's, oh God he's. He was Frog's gay man.
Speaker 1:No, that's Alex Jones.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, joe Rogan was the one who. Why are you listening to Joe Rogan?
Speaker 1:Oh God. Well, so he's actually.
Speaker 2:I swear to God if you say, well, I don't agree with everything he says, but some of the stuff I am going to punch you through the screen.
Speaker 1:No, I do not listen to Joe Rogan. So he was the one who was doing the whole thing of back in 2020 of vaccinations, and he was the reason why a lot of artists is pulled away from Spotify. Do you remember that whole thing?
Speaker 2:I do yeah, Cause I know I think he is still the top podcaster.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he, he's, but yeah, yeah, so he actually has been sponsored by better help. So I'm sure just you know, considering the fact that he gets millions of listeners per day.
Speaker 2:That's true that that's going to. A couple of those celebrity endorsements would cost you big, but still 8 million just for podcasts.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And they also blanket YouTube, like there are multiple YouTubers across different genres who I have seen who have done better help advertisements across different genres, who I have seen who have done better help advertisements, you know, and the thing is, is it's it's literally there for a while. If we were only by products based on what we've seen on youtube, I would have said like a year ago, the only things in the world that exist are better help and the become a lord by buying the Scotland or Scottish piece of land or whatever the fuck that was. Oh God.
Speaker 2:I didn't get that one. I definitely got better, I think, cause well and out myself here, I use an ad blocker for a lot of YouTube videos, not for all of them, but for for the most part when I watch. So I only see the ads where the person, the host, is reading it out. And those were the ones. That was like you were getting tons of better help. Also, weird games, but you know what I'll take the games. I'll take June's Journey any day over the better help one. Please make it stop.
Speaker 1:No, and oh god, the uh, no, the uh, the scottish lord thing that that was the same thing where it was who's being read out in the middle, yeah, you know, like right in the middle, you know uh, and just to give you a second, you know to.
Speaker 1:You know, let's bring you to our sponsor today, you know, and it was uh, but yeah that it seemed like there for for about a month or two. Those were like the only two things that were ever like being like advertised oh, I also get hello fresh a lot online, so much hello fresh yeah, I've been seeing that a little bit here. So yeah, so in one month they were able to. They paid more for a podcast than they did to selling off information of.
Speaker 2:We can only we can only guesstimate, like tens, probably hundreds of thousands of people, probably even millions I mean, you imagine, most people have facebook yeah whether they use it actively or not, and I think people don't also don't realize that facebook has the ability to track you across other websites and such too.
Speaker 1:So like facebook, then having this access on top of all of that or like that information going back and forth, really really not good yeah, yeah, and then, and considering the fact that that this was all going, that that whole thing was going on during the whole like pandemic yeah, you were definitely talking about millions of people and again, per person, per incident, very, very, very least I would get $10,000, fine, after probably the second, third, fourth, fifth, billionth fucking uh time doing it wrong. It would probably be a hell of a lot more. Yeah, oh, so there's two influencers that that I kind of want to bring to to everybody's attention. So there is one influencer well, not an influencer. He does little sketches on on instagram, so he goes by the name boston be a man, and it's very, very tongue-in-cheek. So I'm gonna play one of his normal little sketches If you can't fix something chuck a fucking wrench across the room.
Speaker 2:Be a man.
Speaker 1:So okay, if you can't fix something, chuck a wrench across the room. Be a man Very tongue-in-cheek. Hopefully people pick that up and realize that that's satire. That itire that is again very tongue-in-cheek is not meant to be real, and hopefully people are picking up that the other guys in the room are laughing, which is scary within itself yeah, personally I look at that type of thing. It's like no jokes here so that was, that was b-man.
Speaker 1:Uh, that, that's his normal gig okay I want to now so shit, boomer jokes yeah, pretty much Okay, so I'm going to play for you his advertisement for Better Help.
Speaker 2:Okay, Sad don't be.
Speaker 1:Be a man. So do you hear that Sad, don't be Be a man?
Speaker 1:And then it says underneath it better help right, I just, I just won't be sad, then right, but then I wouldn't need better help, right so I mean it's oh, my god, it's okay, uh, again, you know, if you realize that it's tongue-in-cheek, that it's sarcasm or it's satire, then the fact that BetterHelp quickly comes up on the screen, get help with BetterHelp at the very end. I mean, if they are picking out that it is tongue-in-cheek, that's not going to look like it's uh, real or meaningful, like no, you also have not convinced me that this is like a trustworthy.
Speaker 2:If this is how you advertise and obviously I'm clearly not the target audience, I fully acknowledge that. But I'm just saying like if I ran across that video I'd be like what is this like?
Speaker 1:this doesn't seem legit yeah, and and then, if you, I guess it isn't so and if you don't pick it up, that it's satire the fact that that better help is promote or being promoted through. If you're feeling sad, throw a wrench, like as a therapist like I, I I would never send that mixed message.
Speaker 2:That, um no because people you know a lot of jokes and and stereotypes and stuff like that. The reason they're funny is that there's an element of truth to them to a certain extent, and so people tell that joke is like a ha ha, this is what you should do. It's not funny, though, because people actually do do it, and it's not cool to be in that situation where you have a partner who's like threatening violence to you. It's you can try and like, put it like oh, this is, this is funny, this is a joke. Who's like threatening violence to you. It's you can try and like put it as like oh, this is, this is funny, this is a joke. It's not a joke. We don't joke about that. It's a lot of stuff we can joke about. Yeah, not this.
Speaker 1:So then and then there, there's another influencer that I. I actually really respected her up until the fact that I saw her promoting for BetterHelp. So she has her doctorate. She is a mental health professional. She goes by the name Truth Doctor, doctor, she herself. She has overcome borderline personality disorder, which is a very difficult disorder to have. So the fact that she's been able to overcome it and the fact that she is promoting awareness for it, bravo. And again, I followed her. I thought that she was pretty amazing.
Speaker 1:But the thing that as soon as I started seeing her having advertisements for BetterHelp but as a mental health professional, I would hope that somebody would actually do a little bit of research because, again, this is not like brand new things that have been going on. We go back to, like I said, 2017 that it came out. You didn't even have to be a licensed therapist at the time. We see that the NSWA has kind of called better help out on that as well. You see that the FTC has called out better help on that. I personally would not want to promote something like that, seeing that, again, the ftc ruling, that was only two years ago. I would like to see a lot more time, especially when you're talking about hipaa violations there's also the fact that this is your field, like I get it.
Speaker 2:You're a diy youtuber and better help comes to you and it's like hey, I'll give you this money if you promote me. Right, you're not going to look into it as much, it's not what you do. So I have a little bit more grace for that type of person who's like eh, okay, within reason, of course, but for somebody like this, I'm like you should have been far more aware of what was going on and you absolutely should have looked into and you should be looking into any company who sponsors you.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:I do expect that.
Speaker 1:And the thing is, you know, so she has a huge following on TikTok and Instagram and things like that, so she is making money through both of those platforms. Through both of those platforms she also does a podcast, which I don't know how big that is, but she may or may not be getting revenue through there. She's so. She's also a doctorate in psychology, so I'm sure she's seeing clients on a one-on-one basis and she's getting plenty of revenue through there. I've seen her advertising her own program of, you know, like hey, like let's venture off, and and you know, we're going to go here and then we're going to learn more about this, and it was, I mean, way out of my price range. But I'm guessing and and again this, I don't have anything to prove it that she is making some revenue off of that trip. So I mean, you know, it's not that she's a starving fresh out of college thrown into the field.
Speaker 2:Struggling to survive, taking anything she can get, exactly.
Speaker 1:You know she's very subtle. She's been doing this for years. Exactly, you know she's very subtle, she's been doing this for years. She's, I'm sure, making very well, at least a good living, and she's promoting this, so it's. I think that is very irresponsible, considering the fact that she should A what's going to what better help has done and what better help does, not only to the therapist, but also what they do with the, the clients, and how, how. That is dangerous for both sides, and we'll definitely talk about that next week.
Speaker 2:You're going to leave us on the cliffhanger. There is so much shit on better help that we have to do two parts.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, indeed, I am shot. So I there there. There is a lot of things, that that there are problems as far as the way that better help is at least to me as a therapist and and again, we're gonna have to do the whole allegedly and everything like that, because, um, we don't want a letter of cease and desist that they are very, very, very well known for, and then also how it is very damaging for the most important person, which is the clients themselves. And we'll also do where do we go from here? And we'll rate BetterHelp on our tale of toxicity next week.
Speaker 2:I already know what I'm going to rate them Spoiler. Green potato Of course Half a green potato.
Speaker 1:So join us next week when I go into further details of how this is very damaging. Follow us on.
Speaker 2:We've got Facebook, instagram and Blue Sky are the sort of active ones. They will be active.
Speaker 1:And you can always contact us at toxic at awesome life skillscom, and looking forward to seeing you next week. My name is Christopher Patchett. I am LCSW.
Speaker 2:And I've been Lindsay McLean.
Speaker 1:Bye.
Speaker 2:Bye.
