11 Best Online Therapy Companies Offering Grief Counseling

Grief brings up all manner of sensitive subjects and vulnerabilities as you move back and forth through its stages. You deserve a therapist who will give you their undivided and compassionate attention as you work through these heightened emotions. And we believe that at Teladoc, you can find just that. Its licensed providers garner consistent praise from users and reviewers for taking a personalized, studied approach to their care. 

Available in all 50 states and accepting most insurance plans, Teladoc offers 45-minute phone and video sessions with licensed therapists and clinical social workers. You can also see a psychiatrist for medication management through Teladoc, if you think you need extra support while working through your grief. 

Individual therapy costs $99 per session. It’s $209 for an initial psychiatry appointment, and subsequent psychiatry sessions are $109 each. Teladoc is also in-network with most major insurance plans, meaning that for some with insurance, the cost can be as low as $0. But you need to sign up and make an account in order to find out exactly what you’ll be paying for Teladoc’s services.

Teladoc received one of the highest user ratings of any company included in our survey of 10,000 therapy users. Of the 105 Teladoc users we surveyed, 97% rated Teladoc therapy as excellent, very good, or good, and 90% said the care they received was a good value for the money. Fifteen percent of Teladoc users said they sought out services for grief and loss. 

When we tested Teladoc, one of our testers said she felt satisfied with the quality of care she received and noted that both therapists she tried during her month of testing “felt qualified, warm, caring, and attentive to my needs. They were available at times that suited my busy schedule, responded to my messages quickly, and worked to accommodate my needs.”

The symptoms of grief can make it difficult to get out of bed—let alone be on-camera for a video therapy session. And, because grief is non-linear, the hardest moments can hit when you least expect them. For all of these reasons and more, having the option of a live text chat with a therapist can be an invaluable tool. Enter BetterHelp. 

When you sign up for BetterHelp, you’ll be asked a series of questions about yourself, including why you’re considering therapy. At this step of the questionnaire, you can choose “I am grieving” and the platform will do its best to match you with a therapist who specializes in grief counseling. Once you’re matched, you can choose to meet with your therapist for a scheduled phone, video, or live-chat session. At any point ahead of your scheduled sessions, you can switch to a different mode of communication, so the format of your therapy can be tailored to your needs on the fly. 

Regardless of the mode of communication, each weekly appointment will cost between $60 and $90, depending on your location and therapist qualifications (BetterHelp practices surge pricing, which means that the more demand there is for mental health services in your area, the higher the price for those services will be). 

Among the 105 BetterHelp users we surveyed, 12% came to the platform primarily looking for grief support and 86% of all users rated their experience positively. More than three-quarters felt their provider met most or all of their needs and 97% said their therapists were well qualified.

Fewer than half of Americans under 50 have lost a parent, and the proportion only falls from there when considering younger age groups (although the pandemic has tragically changed those statistics somewhat). Even fewer have lost a child, sibling, or partner in young adulthood. If you’ve lost a parent or other close loved one as a young adult, you may not know many people your age who share your experience and can relate to your grief. While it’s not a replacement for grief counseling, The Dinner Party was founded to fill the gap in support for grieving young adults with virtual meet-ups. While you don’t have to bring any actual food, you certainly can if your dinner table is feeling lonely. 

This completely free nonprofit connects young people from across the U.S to one another, so they can grieve, remember, and even laugh together. The Dinner Party was founded by two friends who had each lost a parent in their 20s and struggled to relate—or relay their experiences—to their peers. What began as their own personal potluck for young adults who had lost someone evolved into a nationwide network of in-person parties and then, during the pandemic, a fully online constellation of virtual tables. 

When you sign up for The Dinner Party, you can choose to “pull up a chair” to existing “tables,” some of which are open to anyone dealing with any sort of loss, while others are for only specific groups, such as survivors of suicide deaths, adult orphans, or BIPOC or LGBTQIA+ folks. If you don’t see a group that fits your situation, you can join a waitlist or, if you prefer one-on-one connection, The Dinner Party’s staff will help match you to a peer through its “Buddy System.” 

We have not had the opportunity to survey any users of The Dinner Party yet, but we recognize this service’s importance, and after consulting with three licensed therapists, we felt the service was important to include on this list. 

“As a young adult who has experienced a loss that does not usually affect your age group, like the loss of a parent or a child, you might feel alone in your grief,” says Hannah Owens, LMSW, a subject matter expert. “The Dinner Party therefore provides the important service of connecting you with others who understand your loss, which can be imperative in working through your grief and learning to keep living without your loved one.”

A loss early in life disrupts the already turbulent teenage years in ways that may not fit neatly into the adult image of grief. Teens are still going through developmental changes that alter the way their grief presents and potentially put them at risk for further mental health risks. Teen Counseling employs more than 13,000 therapists—with staff in every state—who specialize in adolescent mental health and can help teenagers (and their families) understand what they are going through. 

Teens can sign up for counseling themselves, but will need parental or guardian consent to begin sessions if they are under 18. Whether you are a teen signing yourself up, or a parent initiating therapy for your adolescent child, you’ll fill out an intake form that will include a question about why you or your teen is seeking therapy; You can select “loss of a loved one.” After providing this and other basic information, such as age, gender identity, and location, you’ll be matched with a licensed therapist. If you’re a parent signing up on behalf of your teen, it’s at this point that you’ll be able to invite your child to join the therapy platform. Once the teen and therapist have a shared therapy “room,” parents will no longer have access to these communications. 

A teen can then choose to have weekly sessions with their therapist via live chat, phone, or video, along with unlimited asynchronous chat five days a week. Whichever platform they choose, the cost will be between $60 and $90 per session, billed monthly (and again, using surge pricing, like parent company BetterHelp). 

Teen Counseling users who responded to our survey were split on the ease of this sign-up process: 59% said it was easy or very easy, 35% rated it neutrally, and 6% found it challenging. However, once sign-up was out of the way, 85% of Teen Counseling users rated it positively overall and an equal proportion said their therapists were well qualified. Eighty-eight percent of users rated Teen Counseling better than services they’d used in the past. Fifteen percent of the 105 Teen Counseling users we surveyed told us they were seeking help specifically for grief and loss.

Our testing of Teen Counseling was equally positive. In fact, one of our Teen Counseling testers who tried the service with her teenage son reported that “he said he enjoyed talking to his therapist and that she was giving him ‘a different way to look at things’ that he hadn't thought about before.” She also reported that “he indicated that he wanted to keep engaging in therapy using the Teen Counseling platform even after this review was complete.”

Children only begin to understand the concept of death between ages 5 and 7, and that confusion can complicate their ability to accept and cope with the loss of a loved one, particularly a sibling or parent. The licensed child psychologists, clinical social workers, and psychiatrists at Little Otter are powerful allies as you and your little one navigate their grief. 

Little Otter prides itself on being selective; it only hires the top 4% of applicants. The providers are all specialists in child mental health and family systems and are well qualified, according to 79% of users we surveyed. The company works with children from infancy through age 14, putting together a team and care plan to ensure that as a child gets counseling, parents, co-parents or guardians get coaching to stay in the loop about how best to support their young kid through grief. Little Otter approaches the mental health care of a child as a family-involved process, and offers sessions with parents alone or along with their kid. The company also offers psychiatry and medication management. 

However, it must be noted that prices at Little Otter are steep. The intake fee is $90, and one 45-minute session with a therapist is $200. An initial 75-minute psychiatry evaluation is $500, and each 30-minute follow-up session is $250. You can also buy bundles of four or 12 therapy sessions for $680 and $1920, respectively.

Three-quarters of the Little Otter users we surveyed rated the company’s services positively and 81% said Little Otter compared positively to other services they’d used in the past. Fourteen percent of the 105 users we surveyed sought services through Little Otter because of grief and loss. If you’re considering signing up for Little Otter, you should be aware that sessions are not cheap, and it may take three or more preliminary sessions—during which a therapist comes up with a care plan and establishes your child’s and family’s baseline—before the core therapy really begins. 

Still, when we tested the service ourselves, we were pleased with the services we received at Little Otter. “After completing an introductory session and two sessions with one of its experts, I was impressed with the company’s attention to detail and the quality of parental coaching I received,” said one of our testers, while another noted that her 10-year-old daughter quickly developed a rapport with her therapist, who was able to help her talk through some difficult feelings.

As you move through the phases of your grief, your needs may shift. Thriveworks’s unique scheduling system offers you the flexibility to schedule sessions with your therapist as often or infrequently as you want. 

Thriveworks has more than 2,000 licensed therapists and clinical social workers in nearly every state in the U.S. (although the number of providers available varies widely from location to location). One of its key contrasts with competitors is that your online grief counseling process begins with choosing your own therapist. You will need to enter your location, and can choose “grief/loss” as what specialty you are seeking. You’ll then be shown the bios and availability of appropriate therapists and can book your first session. Session pricing, which ranges from about $15 to $40 with insurance and starts at $99 without, is a la carte, so you don’t need to commit to a specific frequency or number of appointments. You can go online and book time with your therapist whenever they are available. 

Ninety percent of Thriveworks users we surveyed said the care they received there was excellent, good, or very good, and 78% said their therapist met most or all of their needs. Eighty-five percent of users rated Thriveworks highly for having diverse therapists; 86% said that the company’s services compared favorably to others they’d used, and 15% specifically sought care for grief and loss. 

When we tested Thriveworks ourselves, we found the Thriveworks therapists to be genuinely caring and attentive. One of our testers did say the price tag was too high, but more than three-quarters of users we surveyed said the service was worth the money.

There are few shocks more severe than the loss of a child, which leaves the bereaved feeling as if time is moving out of order. Through Compassionate Friends, you can connect with others who are also going through the unimaginable. 

The nonprofit organization hosts daily, virtual live chat groups for mourning parents, grandparents, and siblings of children who have passed away. Groups meet primarily in the mornings or evenings and are completely free to join. While they are not led by licensed professionals, they are guided by vetted moderators who have been through the loss of a child. Compassionate Friends is not a substitute for professional counseling, but it can be a great source of peer support. If you need an empathetic ear between the hours of the organization’s meetings, you can join its Facebook groups for 24/7 chat access. 

Because Compassionate Friends is a volunteer-based peer-support organization, it was not included in our surveys of online therapy companies, but this long-standing charity has brought comfort to many grieving loved ones since its inception as a series of in-person meetings in the U.K. in 1969. 

“Because the loss of a child brings such specific and intense grief, it’s incredibly important for those experiencing that loss to have a way to connect to others who have been through the same thing and can help guide them through this tragedy,” says Owens.

If you’re unsure about what you need in the wake of a loss, you’re not alone. That’s why Grief in Common offers a host of different forms of support groups, open to anyone who is grieving, at a low cost. 

When you sign up for Grief in Common, you’ll be asked to create a profile that describes you and the loss you are coping with. This facilitates the website’s “Make a Connection” function, which allows individual members to find other grievers they might relate to. Grief in Common’s open-ended live chat is available to anyone who is coping with a loss, 24/7. You can also opt to join drop-in weekly general grief support groups or monthly specific groups. Or, you can schedule a one-on-one session with a “grief coach.” While these coaches are not necessarily licensed professionals, they are people with experience in supporting those who are dealing with a loss.

Grief in Common has a library of resources for free and joining the live chat costs only about $1 per month. Weekly general grief groups meet over Zoom and cost $20 per session. There are also dedicated monthly Zoom support groups for particular kinds of loss (such as loss of parents) and seminars, each of which cost $25. For individual support from a grief coach, Grief in Common offers a free 15-minute consultation. Each 55-minute appointment thereafter is $75. 

While Grief in Common is not technically an online grief therapy company (so not one we could survey users about), it maintains an active and broad platform of thousands of members and we felt it was an important resource to include on our list. 

“Finding peer support after a loss can be incredibly bolstering for many people,” notes Owens, “and being able to connect with those who have experienced the same type of loss as you can make grieving feel easier and less lonely.”

A peer support group is not a replacement for therapy, and therapy cannot provide the same particular kind of comfort that you might find among people going through the same thing you are. But Circles can provide a combination of the two, with closed, tight-knit support groups guided by licensed professionals. 

Circles operates online and via Apple or Android apps. Upon signing up for its free version, you’ll be able to choose topics you’re interested in drop into relevant peer-led support groups. Topics include grief as well as divorce/separation, parenting, LGBTQIA+, and many more.

But the company also offers support for two topics on its premium Circles+ platform: grief/loss and divorce/separation. With the $79 per month subscription (you get a free one-week trial), you’ll be matched with a group of no more than 10 other people coping with the loss of a loved one, based on similar needs, identities, and schedules. Each group is led by a grief counselor or therapist through 12 weekly live video sessions. After the initial 12-week program, group members can continue meeting for as long as they want. Members also have 24/7 access to a live private chat room. 

Eighty percent of the 105 Circles users we surveyed rated Circles positively overall, and 77% said that the group support services met all or most of their needs. According to 83% of users, the professionals who led their Circles groups were well qualified, and 80% said the service was a good value for the money. Ten percent of Circles users we surveyed turned to Circles because of grief and loss.

Our Circles tester felt that her group facilitator “was lovely, welcoming, funny, and personable,” and that she “felt very heard, supported, and emotionally buoyed by the 60-minute session.”

Grief can trigger a series of additional stressors, including the financial burdens a family often endures following the loss of a loved one. Grief counseling can be much more affordable through your insurance—often costing only your copay—and LifeStance offers a full range of insurance-covered care for you and your family. 

LifeStance employs about 5,600 licensed therapists, psychologists, nurse practitioners, and psychiatrists who are trained to address the mental health concerns that may arise as you grieve a loss. The company offers both in-person and virtual therapy sessions in 34 states. You can choose one-on-one therapy sessions for yourself or your children, or family sessions. LifeStance can also connect you with one of its grief support groups (although these only meet in person; the company’s website and providers can help you find one in your area).

LifeStance can also take care of your medication management or psychiatric needs. While individual grief therapy sessions can cost anywhere from $150 to $300 out of pocket, the company accepts most insurance plans, so you may only be responsible for your copay. 

Of the 105 LifeStance users who took our survey, 12% said that grief was the primary reason they sought counseling. The company had an 88% approval rating among users surveyed, and 90% said their therapists’ qualifications were good, very good, or excellent.

After experiencing a loss, you might feel stuck in your grief. “Getting unstuck” is the central mission of E-Therapy Cafe. The company was founded by a military spouse and licensed counselor, Jude Black, PhD, when she struggled to find reliable online support for herself and her husband as they bounced around the country and, in his case, overseas for deployments in Afghanistan. E-Therapy Cafe’s goal is to use its HIPAA-compliant platform to help its clients move forward from anything holding them back from living life to the fullest, including grief, trauma, anxiety, and relationship issues—all problems that can accompany a loss. 

Whether you want individual or couples counseling, you can subscribe for a membership with discounted rates—$55 for a single 30-minute live chat, live video, or virtual journal session, and $45 to $49 per session of any type of session with monthly subscription. You can also pay $50 for a single trial session. E-Therapy Cafe does not accept insurance, but it aims to give clients flexibility by allowing them to downgrade, freeze, or cancel their memberships anytime (within 24 hours of an appointment or renewal). 

E-Therapy Cafe scored highly in our survey, with 94% of the 105 clients we surveyed rating it positively. Seventy-seven percent said that, if they had to find a new therapist, they would start their search with E-Therapy Cafe again, and 82% would recommend the company’s online therapy services to a friend. Ninety percent of our survey participants said their therapists were well qualified and 80% said E-Therapy Cafe was a good value. Ten percent of E-Therapy Cafe users sought counseling specifically for grief.

When we tested E-Therapy Cafe, we also found it to be very helpful. “To an almost overwhelming degree, E-Therapy Cafe coaches and therapists have a bountiful mix of certifications, specializations, and training,” said one of our testers. She was ultimately able to find “someone who created a therapeutic alliance that I felt was both safe and productive.”