New Partnership: Online Therapy with BetterMynd

As part of our mission to provide holistic services for all students, especially nontraditional and underserved populations, Upswing is thrilled to announce our new partnership with BetterMynd!

BetterMynd provides online mental health support through teletherapy to students no matter where they are. 1:1 teletherapy is the perfect fit for our Upswing platform as we continue to support all aspects of the student, from inside the classroom and beyond.

About BetterMynd

Campus counseling centers are a critical part of the student services environment, particularly as research shows that students are struggling with mental health issues more than ever. Unfortunately, the higher student demand and inability to meet that demand with on-campus resources have ultimately decreased availability and accessibility for students, including those who are the most in need.

BetterMynd helps increase access to mental health support by providing teletherapy services to supplement existing campus efforts. With a focus on flexibility and availability, diversity of counselors, discretion and safety, and convenience, BetterMynd brings state-licensed and HIPAA-compliant counselors right to your students’ phone or laptop.

In addition to the 50-minute scheduled sessions that students can take advantage of, BetterMynd provides 24/7 Crisis Intervention, Wellbeing Workshops, Medication Management, and more. Services can also be made available for Faculty and Staff, who may also struggle to find availability in other therapy settings.

Upswing + BetterMynd

This exciting partnership helps expand Upswing’s offerings by meeting students where they are to support their whole person. Not only are today’s students increasingly online, but they are also often working full time, taking care of their families, or experiencing a number of other barriers to traditional support services campuses may offer.

Limited access to campus support was one of the driving factors for Upswing’s founding, and we continue to innovate and stay true to that mission. Our free self-service mental health videos on our platform have been very popular, but this partnership with BetterMynd allows us to provide even more impactful support for students with teletherapy and crisis support.

Retaining students has always been about much more than academic success. Students may drop out of college for a number of reasons, and many of those are directly related to mental health. World-class tutoring services are much less helpful when a student is in crisis, and we are always working to find solutions to address all of the reasons someone may struggle to reach graduation.

Meet Maria: A Future Upswing and BetterMynd Success Student

Let’s take a look at a hypothetical student at a rural, mid-sized university. Maria is a 40-year-old single mother of three young children. She is taking a full course load this semester, and she is also working overnight to support her family. The weight of her full plate has been slowly accumulating, and even though she has never sought out therapy before, she has finally reached a point where she feels this is necessary. 

She calls the counseling center on campus, but they don’t have any openings for another three months. Worried about her own mental health and her ability to support her family through this stressful time, she soon learns that she has access to BetterMynd through her school’s partnership with Upswing. She’s been using online tutoring with Upswing, so this was a seamless transition for her.

After booking an online appointment with a real counselor for later in the week, she sees that there is a free workshop about family distress happening later that afternoon. Attending the workshop helped Maria realize that she is far from the only one suffering in a similar situation. Her therapy session a few days later gave her a little hope to keep moving forward, but this was just the beginning of the journey to take care of her mental health.

The end of the term is coming up, and Maria has not used all of her allotted therapy sessions for the semester yet. Fortunately, BetterMynd uses a roll-over model, so her session credits never expire! This helps her pick right back up where she left off when the previous semester ended. Maria eventually becomes the first person to graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in her family, and she has modeled the importance of taking care of one’s mental health for her young children.

There are countless ways that this type of mental health support can benefit students, and we are so excited to bring this partnership to college campuses across the country. To learn more about Upswing and BetterMynd, please feel free to reach out to us!