Best Online Family Therapy of 2024

Online therapy provides a virtual space for people to meet with a therapist through video, audio, or text platforms. Family therapy can be a great tool for any family struggling with challenges or needing support.

In-person therapy can be beneficial but may not be convenient for everyone. Many families have busy schedules, and some may live in different areas. Online therapy allows family members to meet together from their homes at times that work for everyone.

Our reviews team researched the best online therapy services for your family depending on factors like price, specialties, and appointment availability. Read on to learn more about our picks and how virtual family therapy works.

• Best Overall: Thriveworks
• Most Affordable: Open Path Collective
• Best for Families With Young Children: Little Otter

We independently investigate and recommend products and services we believe will enrich the lives of our readers and meet their specific needs. We’ve spent many hours carrying out in-depth research on the online therapy market. You can trust our review because we did the legwork for you in these specific ways:

• Engaged in ongoing independent research
• Mystery shopped each of the brands
• Contacted the brands’ customer service teams to ask questions and gauge responsiveness
• Consulted leading psychologists and psychiatrists
• Became customers of online therapy providers ourselves
• Reviewed academic research about the efficacy of online counseling versus in-person therapy
• Read hundreds of verified customer reviews from trusted third parties such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and Trustpilot

* Without financial aid

Family therapy is a type of group talk therapy, or psychotherapy, that provides support, guidance, and education to your family to help improve the group’s overall well-being and relationships, according to the Cleveland Clinic. The American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy states that about 90 percent of people who went to family therapy report that their overall emotional well-being improved after treatment.

Family therapy can help with things like interpersonal challenges, mental health conditions, and behavioral issues that affect the family unit. Online family therapy is similar to in-person family therapy; the only difference is the medium of communication. “Instead of physically meeting in a therapist’s office, family members interact through their devices, allowing them to connect regardless of their physical location,” says Brent Metcalf, a licensed clinical social worker at Tri-Star Counseling in Kingsport, Tennessee. “It is similar to traditional in-person therapy in terms of its goals and approaches but is conducted remotely.”

Online family therapy has also been proven to be just as effective as in-person therapy for improving mental health and overall relationships, according to a study published in January 2021 in the Clinical Child Family Psychology Review.

Seeking individual therapy and support is important, but you may benefit from family therapy if your whole family unit has shared concerns or challenges that should be addressed.

Just as there are different types of individual therapy, there are different types of family therapy. The kind of family therapy that is best for your group depends on the specific challenges you’re facing and your dynamic.

Marriage Counseling and Couples Therapy

Marriage counseling and couples therapy addresses problems, concerns, or challenges faced by partners in a committed relationship, according to the American Psychological Association (APA). While couples therapy is often considered a separate type of counseling from family therapy, we included it because some family units are partnerships.

This type of therapy allows both partners to identify problems within their relationship and work with an online therapist or counselor to solve issues, improve communication, and strengthen their relationship.

Brief Strategic Family Therapy

Brief strategic family therapy is a short-term program focused on children and adolescents ages 8 to 17 with behavior problems. According to the National Gang Center, therapists will meet with the family for 12 to 15 sessions over the course of three months.

Brief strategic family therapy aims to change the child’s behavior patterns when they’re responding to specific situations or environments. It also explores the different family interactions and how they may be related to the child’s behavioral problems, according to the National Gang Center.

Structural Family Therapy

Structural family therapy focuses on your family’s specific structure or hierarchy. The primary focus for this type of therapy is on the direct interactions that occur between family members, according to the APA.

In structural family therapy, participants are encouraged to look at how family members interact with one another. These insights are used to develop better, more productive interactions. The goal is for family members to discover alternative behavior patterns by analyzing their relationship dynamics.

Systemic Family Therapy

Most people have multiple roles within their family. For example, your partner may be a parent to their children and a child to their parents. All of these interconnected roles are explored in systemic family therapy, according to the Cleveland Clinic. In this approach, your therapist will consider the different contexts within your family — including your culture, religion, political views, and socioeconomic status — and how they impact your family unit’s dynamic.

“Online family therapy is a time for you and your family to meet with a therapist to discuss concerns, goals, and recent problems that you would like to find either support or solutions for,” says Jennifer Vincent, LMHC, owner of The Brave Life Therapy in Indianapolis.

While some people may feel like they should only go to family therapy when there are major problems, that isn’t always the case. Vincent says if you are even questioning whether or not you need support, that’s enough of a reason to seek family therapy.

You can also seek family therapy if you are experiencing new or frequent challenges. “Online family therapy can be considered when families face various challenges impacting their relationships, communication, and overall well-being,” says Metcalf. According to Metcalf, these challenges may include:

• Conflict
• Difficulty communicating
• Life transitions (like moving to a new home, or a new member of the family)
• Behavioral concerns
• Parenting difficulties
• Any situation where the family dynamic is causing distress

Online therapy can be a great way to explore and resolve these challenges. “Online family therapy is particularly useful when family members are physically separated, have busy schedules, or when in-person sessions are not feasible,” says Metcalf.

To find a provider that is best for you and your family, here are some things to consider when you look for an online family therapy service.

Make Sure They Are Available in Your State

When selecting a virtual family therapy service, make sure therapists are available in the states where you and your family live. Unfortunately, not every online therapy platform has therapists in every state.

Your therapist must be licensed in both the state where they live and the state where you live, according to the APA. If family members live in different states, your therapist must be licensed in all of them in order to treat the whole family.

Look for an Experienced Licensed Online Therapist

The therapist you choose should not only be state-certified, but they should be a licensed healthcare professional. According to the Cleveland Clinic, most family therapists are licensed marriage and family therapists (LMFTs), but they can also be psychologists, social workers, or counselors.

If you are looking for a therapist with specific experience, find a platform that provides background information on their therapists, including their specializations. Some platforms allow you to filter your search results based on these specialties.

For example, if you have a family member in the LGBTQ+ community, you may want to consider looking for a provider who specializes in LGBTQ+ therapy. If you are a parent who wants to overcome challenges with your child, you may look for a therapist who specializes in child-parent relationships.

The specialty you look for will depend on your family and your therapy goals. An online family therapist may specialize in:

• Child-parent relationships
• Blended families
• Trauma
• LGBTQ+ families
• Substance use disorders
• Couple and marital issues

Our reviews team extensively scrutinizes online therapy platforms to make sure we only recommend those we believe will make a difference to our readers. Together, we’ve researched prominent brands by mystery shopping the platforms, understanding the experiences of real customers, and consulting with independent mental health professionals to better understand why people seek out online therapy. Our method includes going past the paywall to test online therapy platforms for ourselves, conducting in-depth interviews with focus groups, and deploying surveys to gain real customer insights.

We used our collected data to develop a scorecard to evaluate the platforms we tested ourselves. Read more about how we researched and tested online therapy platforms in our online therapy review methodology.

Online family therapy can be a great resource for families — especially ones who live in different places or have busy schedules. If you’re struggling with challenges within your family, online family therapy is a safe place to explore these challenges and work toward a solution. Even if you aren’t facing specific challenges, you can turn to a family therapist if you’re looking for extra support from a professional.

Thriveworks features therapists with different backgrounds and specialties, as well as same-day or next-day availability in some cases. It is also one of the few virtual therapy platforms that accepts insurance from certain providers. Open Path Collective is an affordable virtual option, as long as you meet a set of financial requirements. Little Otters is a platform specifically designed for families with young children, and the platform also offers psychiatry services.

If you are in crisis, waiting for an online therapy appointment is not safe. In case of an emergency, call 911. That includes plans to harm yourself or others. If you’re having suicidal thoughts, you can call the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988. Help is available 24/7. You can also send a text message to the Crisis Text Line at 741741. A crisis counselor will respond via text to help you stay calm and make sure you’re safe.

You can also reach out to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 800-662-HELP (4357). The SAMHSA helpline is a free, confidential, 24/7, 365-day-a-year treatment referral and information service for individuals facing mental or substance use disorders.