As a non-profit, we’re not focused on clicks or selling advertising or making money—we’re focused on helping people.
HelpGuide began in 1999 as a small, local resource for the Santa Monica area in Southern California. Today, it has grown to become a major global resource for mental and emotional health. Our guides, tools, and support now provide a critical lifeline to millions of people around the world each year. That’s because there simply isn’t another website in the world that does what HelpGuide does.
From day one, our driving force has not been to amass clicks, rack up advertising revenue, sell products, or make money. We’re focused purely on offering well-researched, accurate information that can actually help people.
But we do much more than just provide information. We offer practical help by distilling the latest research and professional knowledge into motivating, easy-to-understand, and actionable guidance. We aim to be there for every person who needs us when they need us the most—regardless of where they are in the world, what challenges they’re facing, or what they can afford.
Our process
The HelpGuide team is a small but passionate group of people dedicated to providing you with responsible, helpful, and motivating mental health resources. Because of the way we work and our guiding principles, we’re always able to put you, the reader, first.
HelpGuide’s experienced writers and editors offer an unbiased picture of mental and emotional health issues without outside influence from advertisers or corporate sponsors. We stay on top of the latest breakthroughs in the psychological, social, and medical sciences, both through our own research and via our collaboration with Harvard Health Publishing, a division of Harvard Medical School. We fact-check everything and provide relevant references and citations. Unlike other sites, though, we also provide links to external sources that we think our readers could find useful—even if it’s a “rival” website. Our benchmark is always to ask ourselves: What is going to help people the most?
Our medical experts and professional advisory council members review our content to ensure it’s accurate, reliable, and up-to-date—and that it motivates those who turn to our site to make positive changes in their lives. Our articles are updated and revised frequently to ensure they remain current, useful, and relevant.
Other tools and resources on our site are also regularly improved and updated, as is the design and user experience of the website. We know that when you’re struggling with a mental or emotional health issue, you want to find the help and information you need as quickly and easily as possible, without having to scroll through lots of ads or extraneous content.
“Experts who care”
Since we’re so different from other mental health websites, HelpGuide maintains a unique voice. We want our readers to feel understood when they turn to our material for help—because we do understand the pain and desperation that can accompany mental health struggles. We’ve been there, too. Our website was born from that pain.
We also strive to use a supportive and compassionate tone, while maintaining professional language that reflects HelpGuide’s position as, in the words of one of our reader’s, “experts who care.”
HelpGuide’s credentials
HelpGuide is certified by Health on the Net (HON), platinum rated for transparency by Guidestar, and ranked as a Great Nonprofit for donors, volunteers, and funders.