If you’re going through a breakup, dealing with mixed signals or having a tough time in a relationship, you might find yourself wanting to talk to someone for advice. Unfortunately therapy can be expensive and often you’ll have to wait for an appointment and go into a doctor’s office.
While the Covid pandemic has caused many psychologists to shift to telehealth, companies like Relationship Hero and Better Help offer purely remote services, available 24 hours a day. If you’re thinking of signing up to the platform and trying out their coaching, read on for my full Relationship Hero review:
What is Relationship Hero?
Founded in 2016 by Lior Gotesman and Liron Shapira, Relationship Hero is based in the San Fransisco Bay Area. The company offers coaching with relationship experts via online chat or over the phone.
The service is aimed at people going through relationship struggles who need someone outside of their situation to talk to and give them some advice.
Is Relationship Hero a scam or legit?
Relationship Hero is legit, although they do try to keep you coming back (and spending money) by sending emails and text messages to ask how you are and see if you’d like to chat. This could become addictive, so make sure you don’t end up spending money if you can’t afford it. Unfortunately if you’re going through a tough time and feeling anxious or unsure, it’s easy to become heavily reliant on these types of services.
How does Relationship Hero Work?
Upon sign up you’ll be asked to complete a short questionnaire. You’ll be asked about your relationship issue and some basic questions about you and your current partner or ex. You’ll then be partnered with a coach and start with a Strategy Session.
In the Strategy Session your coach will build a deeper understanding of your situation and develop a personalized, step-by-step plan of what to do to achieve your goal. They’ll summarize your situation and then identify road blocks that you may or may not be aware of, as well as any self-defeating relationship patterns. You’ll also receive advice on action you can take right now to get you closer to your goal, such as writing the perfect text message or improving your mindset.
After the initial Strategy Session, you can purchase bundles or a subscription to receive ongoing coaching. You have access to live 24/7 support from the company’s team of 100+ coaches.
You can book sessions in 15-minute blocks, so you could choose 15-minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes and 60-minutes. Options include phone call, text and video chat through the website or on the mobile app.
If you’d prefer to talk to a different coach or you need to speak to someone immediately, you can see a list of coaches and available time/slots. It’ll show you a profile of the coach, their availability and a picture.
If you talk to your coach via online chat, you’ll always be able to see a full transcript as well as any pictures you’ve uploaded in the Chat Room.
Pricing
Initially when Relationship Hero started the service was quite cheap and you could purchase cheaper bundles or do pay as you go at $1 per minute. Unfortunately the service now has a different pricing model and has become more expensive over time.
Today it costs $150 for an initial one-hour Strategy Session and and after that you can either purchase credits or sign up for a subscription. The company used to offer an initial 10-minute free coaching session but now it appears that the only way to get a free Strategy Session is to be referred to Relationship Hero by a friend.
Coaching sessions are 180 credits per hour for most coaches, although prices can vary by coach. At the time of writing, depending on what Internet browser I open, or whether I’m logged in or logged out, the price for packages seems to vary.
Bundle Pricing:
Guru is 180 credits for $358 (currently on offer for $268.50)
Hero is 360 credits for $716 (currently on offer for (433.50)
With both bundles you get access to 1-on-1 coaching sessions, group sessions and master classes. Credits never expire.
Subscription Pricing (billed monthly):
$45 per week ($180 per month) – 360 credits gets you 2 x one hour on-demand sessions per month.
$82.50 per week ($330 per month) – 720 credits gets you 1 x one hour on-demand session per week. So that’s four per month.
$150 per week ($600 per month) – 1440 credits gets you 2 on-demand sessions per week.
$281.25 per week ($1,125 per month) – 2880 credits gets you 4 on-demand sessions per week.
With all the above subscriptions you also get access to:
- group coaching sessions
- unlimited master classes
- free e-books
- access to a members only Facebook group
- unused credits roll over and never expire
What are the coaches like?
Coaches have years of experience helping people succeed with relationships and that they have been trained and certified by Relationship Hero. There’s a code of ethics that coaches adhere to, such as always treating clients with respect, maintaining objectivity and having the client’s best interest in mind.
Coaches are trained to provide actionable coaching that clients can use in order to help them accomplish specific outcomes. They’re also trained to be open-minded, non-judgmental, egoless, optimistic and self-aware.
They aren’t however, licensed therapists. If you look on the website some have bachelor’s degrees in Psychology or related fields, while others are simply certified by Relationship Hero.
Pros
Get instant help – Relationship Hero has coaches online 24/7, so you can talk to someone quickly and easily in whatever time zone you live in. This is great if you have a time-sensitive issue, for example if your ex just texted and you and you’re not sure how to respond. With relationships things change rapidly and sometimes you just need advice in the moment. So if you have an appointment in a week’s time that’s no good.
Option of call or message – You can choose between a voice session or messaging within the platform. If you don’t like phone calls (or perhaps you can’t because someone else is in the room) then you might prefer the messaging feature. Calling can save time though, since you can say things a lot quicker than typing.
Information is private – Coaches will always keep everything you say 100% private. Payments are also secured with bank grade SSL encryption.
Referral program – When you sign up you can send 3 invites to friends. Invite your friends to Relationship Hero and they’ll get a credit to try a one-hour strategy session free. When they have their session, you’ll receive 60 credits for referring them. If they become a paid client, you’ll receive another 60 credits.
Money back guarantee – Relationship Hero offers a money back guarantee so if you’re not happy with your initial strategy session you can get a refund.
Cons
Can’t give you advice on the following topics – finance, legal, mental/physical health and non-relationship topics. If you need help with things like anxiety and depression then this type of service might not be for you as it’s relationship focused.
Different coaches say different things – Coaches are humans and humans say/think different things, so what one coach might advise you isn’t necessarily what another would advise. Relationship Hero has may different coaches, so it might be trial and error finding the right one.
Expensive – While it was initially cheaper, Relationship Hero has hiked its prices. You can’t pay by the minute and you have to purchase a bundle.
Doesn’t take insurance – Relationship Hero doesn’t take insurance, although they’re happy to give you an invoice for reimbursement. If you have insurance, you’ll probably want to look at therapists within your health provider’s network.
Coaches sometimes leave, or change their work hours – I noticed that since Relationship Hero started, many of the original coaches on the site no longer seem to work there. Some of them also change their hours so if you’re on a specific time zone and prefer a specific time slot then you might find your normal coach isn’t available. If you speak to a different coach, they have to learn your story all over again, which takes up time.
Trying to get you to come back – If you don’t speak to them for a while, they sometimes message you to see how you’re doing or give free credits to come back. If you’re not careful, it’s easy to get sucked into spending money and becoming reliant on advice from a third party.
The Verdict
Due to the current pricing I would say Relationship Hero is now just too expensive considering these are not mental health professionals. You’d have to be bringing in a good salary to be able to afford $330 per month for one hour-long session per week. That’s about the same as a monthly car payment. While you can pause your subscription at any time, it’s still quite a lot of money to spend on coaching.
I realize therapy in general can be expensive but if you’re able to access cheap therapy through your insurance, or if you can access free counseling in your community (like in the UK) then you might want to look into other options.
If you need speedy, on-demand advice at any hour of the day then Relationship Hero could work for you but it’s quite pricey for a long-term coaching solution.
