One very good choice in my area is Catholic Charities. They have licensed counselors as well as students under supervision, and they charge a mere $35 per session. This is a great choice for those who are uninsured or have trouble getting in somewhere.

My Christian health sharing ministry shared all costs for a Catholic therapist while I was seeing him. Since this is not a "health insurance" arrangement, I didn't need to worry about whether he was in-network or approved; he just submitted his bills to them. My health sharing ministry also has a service that "reprices" bills, i.e. renegotiates them based on market rates and lops off overcharges that commonly occur.

And yeah, "BetterHelp" has this illusion of availability, and that can be very alluring to people in distress, and that's a dangerous thing. If someone gets mixed up with gig-worker counselors, they may find themselves worse off than when they started. "Good things come to those who wait", as it were.