Brightside Health vs. Cerebral

Brightside provides online mental health care to individuals 13 years and older. Our expert providers can help with anxiety, depression, and many other common concerns. We offer personalized psychiatry, clinically-proven therapy, and teen care.

Please note: Our providers do not prescribe controlled substances. Here is a list of medications we do prescribe.

• Online care is not a good fit for people with certain conditions or situations. These can include:
• Ongoing, high-risk self-harm behavior
• Schizophrenia or any symptoms of psychosis
• Some cases of bipolar disorder I or acute mania
• Severe substance use
• Medically unstable eating disorders
• Dementia
• Kidney or liver disease, long QT syndrome, seizures, or cardiac arrhythmias (restricted for medication treatment only)

If any of these describe a condition you’re experiencing, it’s best for you to be seen in person by a primary care provider who can help you find the treatment that’s right for you.

Brightside makes it easy to get life-changing mental health care from the comfort of your home. We offer psychiatry (medication), therapy, or both. 

Here’s how care at Brightside works 

1. Take a free assessment: Answer a few questions to help your provider better understand what you’re experiencing. View your results and choose psychiatry, therapy, or both.

Learn more about psychiatry

Learn more about therapy

2. Meet with your expert provider: Choose your provider and book your 1:1 video session. 

• For psychiatry: Your first session is typically 30 minutes and includes an evaluation, a conversation about your personalized treatment, and a chance to ask any questions. You and your psychiatric provider will talk about how you’re feeling—then decide on the best next steps, together. 
• For therapy: All of your therapy sessions are 45 minutes. Your therapist will ask some questions about you and your past experiences. Then you can talk about goals and go over how they can best support you. 

3. Follow your treatment plan: You can message your provider with questions at any time.

• For psychiatry: Take any medications as prescribed and stay in touch with your psychiatric provider about how you’re doing.
• For therapy: Continue your 1:1 video sessions and complete self-guided lessons. Our self-paced lessons help you practice skill-building exercises that are proven to help you feel better. Your therapist will review your responses and provide guidance along the way.

4. Track your progress, and start getting better: Share how you’re doing in check-in questionnaires so your provider can stay up to date. 

• For psychiatry: You and your provider will meet for follow-up appointments. Typically, you’ll see your provider every few months—or more often, if treatment changes are needed.
• For therapy: You and your therapist will typically meet weekly to talk about challenges and celebrate your progress. You can share what’s working well for you and where you want to go deeper. Your therapist will help guide you through your personalized program so you see the best results.

Our expert providers are handpicked for their ability to provide best-in-class mental health care. They have years of experience and active licenses in your state. 

All of our therapists have:

• A master’s or doctorate degree in clinical psychology, clinical social work, or counseling from an accredited program
• Experience delivering science-backed (also known as evidence-based) care for anxiety & depression

All of our psychiatric providers are:

• Psychiatrists or psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioners (PMHNPs)
• Exceptionally skilled at prescribing effective medication

Every provider in our network goes through a rigorous hiring and vetting process that you can learn more about here. They also follow the same high clinical standards as in-person providers.

Yes, learn more about insurance we accept here.

Brightside Health and its associated platform is HIPAA compliant and follows all HIPAA requirements including, but not limited to, the Privacy Rule. We encrypt data in transit and at rest. All communication with our software is done using signatures with a cryptographic hash algorithm. As well, all information is encrypted at rest once stored on our servers.

Mental health conditions are complicated. To make sure you are on the right treatment, and making appropriate progress, we will ask you to complete check-ins periodically to let us know how you’re doing. Your provider will review these check-ins to help them decide whether making an adjustment will help you get better, faster, and stay that way longer.   

You can also use this information to track your own progress over time.

If prescribed, your psychiatric provider will send your prescription to a local pharmacy for your convenience.

Your safety is so important to us. If you are in emotional distress or thinking about hurting yourself at any point, please make use of these resources:

• Visit: If you are having a medical or mental health emergency, call 911 or go to your local emergency department.
• Call or Text: You can call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and be connected with a counselor 24/7. Your conversations are free and confidential.

There is always help available. We also recommend reaching out to a family member or friend to let them know that you need help and support.

If this is not a life-threatening emergency, Brightside Health can help. Our Crisis Care program helps individuals who are experiencing suicidal thoughts and feelings and provides hope for the future. Please note that Crisis Care should not be used if you are seriously planning to harm yourself now or in the very near future. In those instances, 988 or 911 are appropriate resources, and we can be here to help in the future. At this time, Crisis Care is only available for individuals with accepted insurance. Please take the free assessment to check your eligibility.