Healthy Gamer Reviews 

I have tried several different professional mental health settings, but I have just completed my 20th session of one-on-one coaching and plan on signing up for more. I am not mental health expert, but I do believe that what Dr. K has created here is more directly and specifically addressing the mental health crisis, especially among young men. I cannot speak for experiences with this service outside of that demographic, but my coach has challenged and inspired me in areas where other mental health settings have left me disappointed and jaded. I also consider the sessions to be relatively affordable, though prepare to pay out of pocket. I also cannot speak for the group coaching, but if you are on the fence about one-on-one coaching I recommend you try it out, their billing department has always been communicative and helpful.

The 20 week coaching program with Healthy Gamer really helped me better understand my own internal state and thought patterns. Even though the coaches are not medical professionals, the simple act of asking thoughtful questions every week encouraged me to think more about my emotions and become more aware of when certain emotions arise. I can confidently say that I have a better understanding of myself after the 20 weeks and I feel more empowered in how to keep going forward and keep learning more about myself.

My experience was made by my coach. They were incredibly, patient, flexible, adaptable and supportive with the goals I had for myself. I was extremely stressed out about my job, faltering direction in life and lack of progress. My coach took the time to understand my situation, my thoughts, concerns and me as a person. The advice given was not only personable but actionable which led to vast improvements over time. I have really appreciated this program and I am thankful to have had the opportunity to improve my life.

Participating in coaching at HG has been one of the most important decisions I’ve made. When I went in, I didn’t think it was going to be anything more than a somewhat helpful to talk and what it ended up being was an incredible place where I was challenged to do and be better for myself. Incredibly thankful to everyone in my group, my coach, and all the people involved in the HG community!

Speaking from my personal experience, even the first session with Coach Lam completely changed my life. I'm so much happier now than before. I've discovered a new hobby that really fuels my day-to-day life. Coach Lam really knows how to ask the right questions. Thank you once again.

I've been to therapy in a few different clinics. HG Coaching was by far the best experience I've had in terms of mental health support.

I got better at recognizing and process my emotions in a healthier way. It helped me break some thought and behavioral patterns (e.g. causational, judgemental, black & white thinking) and better align my actions with my goals. I got better at checking in with myself and making a conscious decision about what it's important for me.

I learned about praise and forgiveness. I learned about how to listen to others. I got better at celebrating the small victories (and encouraging others to do the same) and not let setbacks deter me from pursuing my goals.

Overall, there isn't an aspect of my life that hasn't improved due to coaching. It's not for everyone and it's important that you find a coach that's a good match for you. If something doesn't feel right, speak up early and they'll be happy to help you out.

I've been to therapy and a psychologist 3 times before coming here. Coaching here has been the best experience so far by a long shot.

Really solid service. I have changed as a person because of the HG resources and coach that I started working with. I didn't have specific goals in mind, but coaching helped me in many areas of my life, while also having someone to talk to about my experiences, difficulties, and learnings over the 20 weeks. If you can't afford coaching, I would still absolutely recommend Dr K's Guide to Mental Health to anyone and everyone. It has the kind of information and wisdom that I wish was taught in schools. How are we supposed to play Life skilfully if we were never taught how to play?

My only qualm is that unless you really have something that you want to achieve going in, the 20 weeks can go by quickly without having specific goals set that you are moving towards. My words of advice would be to go through the 'Doing stuff' materials of Dr K's Guide immediately so you know how to make goals that you care about, and really push for your coach to keep you to them.

I just completed my 20 weeks of personal coaching and here is my review. For a few years, I was having marriage troubles, specifically related to me being too defensive, stubborn, and not empathetic toward my partner in highly emotional and heated arguments. For the past year, I worked with a therapist to understand more about emotions and empathy, but I got to a point where I learned enough from that therapist and I needed to find someone else to talk to because I felt I wasn’t learning from that person anymore. In this search for a new therapist, I had been watching a bunch of HealthyGamerGG videos about emotions, and I related to a lot of them, so I decided to give HealthyGamerGG personal coaching a try. I understand coaches are not the same as therapists, but I really wanted to talk to someone who could really relate to how I think about emotional topics at a logical and technical level. As with speaking with any new therapist or coach, the first few weeks are pretty slow as we’re just getting to know each other, but after a few sessions, wow, I felt like I was learning so much. I learned about how to be aware of my emotions, specifically the fight or flight feeling that causes me to be defensive, how to sit with my negative emotions, and how to effectively communicate my emotions to my partner. These skills helped me navigate my marriage and arguments better, to the point where I can confidently say it played a huge part in saving my marriage (my coach would say I put in a lot of work and effort to save my own marriage). Anyway, obviously everyone’s situation is different, and every individual will learn something different from their coach depending on their own goals. If you’re like me, where I grew up not knowing the true meaning of saying sorry or thank you to someone or not knowing how to deal with negative emotions when you were younger, I highly recommend coaching. I think my situation was definitely unique in that I was highly motivated to change my behavior and demeanor in order to save my marriage, and because I had been speaking to a therapist for the past year, I already had a good sense of how to prepare for and drive our sessions. If you’re new to mental health and looking for someone to talk to, I would highly suggest following Dr. K’s advice, which is to speak with a coach or therapist for at most 3 sessions, and if you didn’t learn anything or felt like they couldn’t relate to you or didn’t “get you”, then find someone else to speak to. I had to go through at least 5 different therapists before I understood what I was really looking for in a therapist or coach. And finally, as cliche as it sounds, it will always depend on your will and determination to change something about yourself; it really is true.
TL;DR: If you grew up playing video games as a kid (arguably too much) and no one taught you the value of talking about your emotions and you want to learn about it as an adult, personal coaching might be for you.
Pros: affordable ($50 per session is great value compared to my previous therapists which could charge $150-200), great for people who think logically and technically (like gamers), coaches listen and give actionable and tangible feedback to practice (I asked for homework every week)
Cons: you might not get the experience you’re looking for if you don’t really want it and put it the work and effort

I did more than 20 weeks of group coaching. Nobody can say that I didn’t give it a fair shake. The problem with advertising group coaching to a bunch of socially inept and professionally inexperienced people is that you then have a group full of those people. Attendance was spotty, the coaches were pretty hands-off for the most part, and while 20 weeks seems like a lot of time, it’s really not much when you have 7 people who all want to tackle their biggest challenges and insecurities. Save your money for a decent therapist.

I found the couching program very helpful, however it is not therapy.

Working with someone who shares a significant amount of cultural overlap was a very rewarding experience. Traditional therapy often feels very clinical, whereas I had a much more casual relationship with my coach. This type of relationship, along with shared opinions and common reference points helped me leverage this program in unique and productive ways.

I think the best way to sum it up is that your coach is like a supporting role to your main character in a movie; they're not there to lead your healing journey, they simply offer a new perspective. Your path is yours alone to walk, but talking it out and reassessing your stance with a fresh set of eyes can often be the change you require to get unstuck.

At the end of my 20 weeks I can easily say this is the single greatest step I've taken for my personal growth and overall wellbeing in my life. I made immense progress in a very short period of time and will no doubt look back on my coaching experience decades from now as a critical catalyst towards my overall happiness and wellbeing!

Personal coaching changed my life for the better.
After 32 weeks of personal coaching my understanding of my emotional state is on another level. My relationships have greatly improved and I feel so much happier and content with my life. I would absolutely recommend it.

I completed 20 sessions of 1-on-1 coaching, after trying group coaching out for about 4 sessions. I really enjoyed my experience with my coach! Coaching isn't the fix to all of your problems but can really help you navigate challenges. I stuck with the same coach for my entire duration, & I preferred this experience much more in comparison to my years of traditional psychotherapy where I'd be circling around the same problems and never really reaching any of my goals. I highly recommend, but would like to note that your coach is mostly there to encourage you to put the work in yourself that way you can navigate your issues on your own. You have to be willing to work on yourself and separate from your ego.

Exactly 52 weeks ago, I started my first sessions of both 1-on-1 Personal Coaching and Group Coaching.

DISCLAIMER: Who your coach and group is will probably impact your experience. Do some window-shopping if you feel like they aren't the right fit. With that said, here are my experiences with both group and personal coaching.

(TLDR: Both fill different needs. If you feel lonely and like you're the only one experiencing your problems, do group coaching. If you want to get something closer to typical therapy, but with more of a proactive approach, do personal coaching. I would personally recommend trying both for a week or two.)

1-on-1 Personal Coaching:

Personal coaching was one of the best things I ever did for myself. I was incredibly lonely, depressed, and burnt out. Signing up for coaching was an act of desperation for me, but through it I've learned how to genuinely become happy. Here's what I gained from personal coaching.

- Figured out my personal hierarchy of needs
- Truly learned that my suffering is not invalid because other people have it worse
- Became more aware of my thoughts and emotions
- Developed values such as gratitude, curiosity, and connection
- Learned how to meet myself where I'm at
- Learned organizational skills (for ADHD)
- Improved my mindset when it comes to burnout
- Learned how to process emotions on my own
- Learned empathy for myself
- Learned how to catch when I'm angry
- Developed empathy with others
- Figured out how to set the right goals
- Learned how to love making music again
- Discovered purpose

The only thing I would change about my coaching sessions is maybe having a little more direction. But I think that if that were the case, we wouldn't have discovered some of the underlying thoughts and feelings, so it's kind of a trade-off there. My coach was incredibly compassionate and was honestly so fantastic.

Group Coaching:

Group coaching is a pretty different feel from Personal Coaching. I think it draws a lot of inspiration from AA. If you feel like you need to talk every week about your problems, then group is not for you. Group feels like a friend group that you can always talk to about what's really going on in your life. Here's what I gained from group:

1) Learned how to comfort others and be more compassionate
2) A feeling of community and camaraderie
3) Learned not to try and solve other people's problems (very important for men)
4) Developed genuine friendships
5) Learned the value of journaling and also how to journal (my coach was big on having us journal each week)
6) Had something social to look forward to going to each week
7) Learned from other's experiences how I could improve my own life
8) Cried a few times in front of my group mates

Overall, I think group was fantastic. The one criticism I have of group is that at the end of each session, we would compliment each other. It was really nice receiving those compliments, but it was incredibly stressful to give them. I think that was particular to my group though and is not universal.

Conclusion:

Coaching is genuinely one of the best things you can do for yourself, and you will get benefits out of both personal and group. Stick with them both as long as you can afford them. Your experience will change depending on your coach, but in my experience of the two coaches I had, both were exceptional. They just have very different styles. If you're nervous about the 1 star reviews, just go for it regardless. You'll truly never know until you try. Also you can pick your coach. I can recommend Forest heavily.

I've had two experiences with this service so far, one with group coaching and one with solo coaching. Overall, both were helpful, but I personally think that my issues might not have been a great fit for the service. I have ADHD, and mainly I was looking to find some other people to share experiences with (I didn't really have friends to talk to) and feel like I had some more agency in my life.

With group coaching, at the time I was on a very low dose of medication which I didn't realize wasn't helping my symptoms. During most of the sessions I found it hard to concentrate, and by the time I had organized my thoughts enough to contribute to the conversation, it had already moved on. I'm aware that it can be hard to organize people into groups due to everyone having unique issues and different availabilities, but I felt like maybe I misreported what I was struggling with when I signed up, because everyone else seemed to have specific issues with family/friend relationships or self-confidence, while I struggled more with motivation and feeling stuck in life due to my ADHD. I listened to the group members vent their frustrations about friends and family and I kind of had to just nod and act engaged while I had Twitter open on my other monitor or something. That being said, the conversations we did have were good and I did get some insight into setting boundaries and making your feelings known to others.

Fast forward to 2023 and I decided to do solo coaching as I was once again feeling stuck in life and frustrated with living with my family at 25 years old. My coach did a great job at validating my feelings and providing genuine support and advice for some of my issues, but I still found it hard to concentrate at times and would often unintentionally ramble about a topic until I forgot what my actual goals for the session were. Part of the blame is on me for that, but I also felt like sometimes my coach would lead the conversation he felt was important when it was really a minor issue for me, and I would feel internally frustrated that we never got to address my real problems. In the final few months I was doing a lot of trial and error with my medication (I just recently found a dose that seems to work, yay!) and soon the sessions just became about my experiences and frustrations with that and I could tell my coach was getting a little tired of it. At a certain point it felt like we started to disagree about how important medication is for me and how much I should actually expect it to "fix" my life, and it almost felt like my subjective experience was being invalidated. I got the typical advice of limiting distractions, improving nutrition, and making general lifestyle changes. I tried my best to explain how I've tried a bunch of lifestyle changes and still find it incredibly hard to get anything done, and how vitally important I felt it was for me to find the right medication. I renewed my plan for a few weeks but after that I decided that maybe an ADHD-specializing psychiatrist or therapist would be better.

I don't think these criticisms I have are necessarily a fault of the program and I think it's not a one-size-fits-all thing. I think if you have a legitimate mental condition like me, coaching might be worth it to try before you jump straight into therapy, but don't expect it to be 100% effective at solving your problems. And no matter what you're struggling with, you still have to put in the effort to follow your coach's advice and make meaningful change or else you'll be talking about how you've made no progress week after week.

My experience with Group Coaching was great!
Access to the program through the Healthy Gamer site and discord was simple & clear. The nature of the programs and what one can expect in them was made clear also. The programs are reasonably priced. The weekly meeting schedule (with access to your particular Discord group chat) was particularly helpful. (AKA one's ability to interact with the group and/or coach is nearly unlimited and encouraged) Seriously, if you are considering group coaching put any of your thoughts and feelings in the group chat at any time. Your inner experience is absolutely relevant to the group, no matter how mundane. Coach's feedback and guidance was appropriate & helpful. A number of group members changed groups/dropped out etc., and the changes were handled with minimal disruption. Coach kept tabs on individual concerns and progress, and the experience felt approachable & casual (often fun). Coach was attentive and clearly invested in our (the group) well-being.

Recommended. Thanks HG

Overall, it did not help me. Coaches are 100% hit or miss and theres no screening process for clients to try their coaches. Why am I paying upwards of $50 a session to talk to an unqualified individual who is supposed to help me understand and resolve my issues?

More details on the coaching experience I received:

2020: I received 8 free personal coaching lessons from a coach "in training". The coach did not particularly add anything useful in helping me explore my issues. However, they did validate my emotions.

2022: I received 8 weeks of free career coaching (per their pilot program). I think this coach was decent because he was actually trained and he seemed competent. The problem was that I couldn't do the things he wanted to me to do.

2023: I paid for 8 weeks of personal coaching with someone who should've been trained. He seemed smart. The problem is that he wasn't helpful at all. I felt that he didn't care to try to help me with my issues. Like, I had to lead the conversations and do all the work. It was not worth it. A complete miss on Healthy Gamer's side.

Uncovering childhood trauma can be incredibly excruciating. I am so grateful that I found this program that provides trustworthy coaches. My coach has been incredibly supportive and understanding throughout the process. He is patient and always knows how to ask the right questions to get me to think. I feel heard and understood during every session. Now that my session is almost over, I can confidently say that I have gained a lot of different perspectives. Thank you guys so much for making such valuable and important resources accessible.