Circles (also known as Circles Up) is an online counseling and teletherapy platform offering help and support to their users by organizing and facilitating online support groups.
Circles specialize in group therapy for a whole range of challenges, mental health problems and life issues by matching their users with people who are going through exactly what they are and by providing trained facilitators to deliver the sessions.
In this Circles review, we are going to take a close look at what Circles Up can help with, how exactly it works and whether it is good value for your bucks. By the end of this review you will hopefully know whether Circles Up is the online group therapy provider for you.
Circles is now an established online therapy provider which has attracted a loyal network of users. However, it is not HIPPA compliant. Whilst all facilitators are “state licensed mental health professionals”, few (if any) are psychologists or even counselors. If you are seeking therapy for a debilitating mental health issue or are in crisis, then Circles may not be right for you.
However in terms of facilitating group therapy, they do this extremely well and have proven very good at what they do.
| Year Founded | 2018 (as Seven Chairs) |
|---|---|
| U.S Based Company | Yes |
| Number of Licensed Therapists | Unknown |
| Accepts Insurance? | No |
| HIPAA Compliant | No |
| Therapy Modes | Zoom/Video Conferencing |
| Available Treatments | Group Therapy Sessions |
| Average Price | $30 per week |
| Sign Up Time | Few Minutes |
| Response Time | Can take a few days to get matched to a group |
| Mobile App | Yes |
| Website | Circlesup.com |
| Customer Reviews | 78% Positive |
| Our Editorial Rating | 4 Stars |
| Current Promotion | None |
The signup process for Circles is pretty fast. You firstly have to complete a short questionnaire that explores mental health goals, age, your living circumstances, and what you want to accomplish from group therapy. Once you have done this, Circles Up uses the information to help find suitable circles to join.
Before you decide to join a group you can check out the facilitators bio and profile although you can’t actually speak with them before you attend a session.
Circles are held once per week by video conference and are 60 minutes long. Whilst the facilitators direct and lead the session, the emphasis is always on encouraging the participants to open up, to share and to support each other.
Remember that the first session is free and if you don’t find it helpful then you are free to walk away. If you do decide to sign on then you can always cancel at a few days notice.
Circles only has one pricing plan – a subscription plan that costs $30 a week. In return, you get:
1) 1 Group session per week.
2) Chat with your Circle members or facilitator on the Circles app 24/7.
3)Access to Circles Up content, including self-help exercises, blogs, and webinars.
As you probably know by now, Circlesup only offers group therapy and does not offer any kind of treatment such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or Psychoanalysis.
There are a wide variety of different circles including one’s for dealing with the death of a spouse, sibling, parent, friend or child as well as groups helping users to deal with narcissistic personalities in their lives. Other groups include circles for coping with divorce or separation and complicated grief.
All facilitators are state licensed mental health professionals. However, note that this term includes life coaches and clinical licensed social workers. From what I can see none of the facilitators are MD’s and none of evn fully qualified counsellors. Still, for this kind of therapy the facilitators are perfectly adequately qualified.
If you are looking to join an online support group then Circles Up are one of the best providers out there. They are experienced in matching users with the right group and in facilitating high quality group therapy sessions.
They can help find groups to help you deal with a whole variety of different life challenges and are regularly starting up new circles to cater for members’ needs.
However, this kind of therapy is not suitable for everybody and not necessarily the best way to deal with mental health issues such as depression and anxiety; these may be better deal with in one on one sessions.
Also, $30 per session is not cheap and you may be able to find a local, in-person support group for cheaper – in fact some of them even operate for free. If price is a concern, we suggest you check our affordable online therapy page, or our page about therapy sites that take insurance.
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