Apps for Mental Health

There is a growing market for apps that aim to support your mental health. Whilst they cannot replace the experience of therapy where an expert listens and tunes into your specific difficulties, they represent a helpful tool that you always have at hand. Some are aimed at building specific skills, like breathing or meditation, and others will guide you in understanding psychological principles that you can apply in your life. Be sure to check whether qualified professionals were involved in developing the app. Here are a few that I have come across that I find helpful.  

Breathing Zone and Respirelax+: The simplest and most efficient way to calm down, regardless of what you are struggling with. These two very simple apps that just guide your breathing. 

Smiling Mind: Developed by an Australian charity, this free app has a variety of mindfulness programs for all ages, including children as young as 3 years old, as well as for classrooms and the workplace. 

Calm Harm: A free app that offers ideas to 'ride the wave' of difficult feelings. It is intended to help cope with the urge to self-harm, but the ideas are useful to manage other urges and overwhelming feelings in general. 

Catch It: This is a free smartphone app that functions as a mood diary to help you become more aware of how your thoughts and feelings are linked and begin to change the way you think and feel.

​WellMind: Free app developed by the NHS with information and advice on dealing with stress, anxiety and depression. It includes self-help guides and a body-map to see how mental health problems can affect the body.

Moodkit: One-off payment for an app developed by clinical psychologists and based on CBT principles, with four integrated tools to help you track your mood, engage in mood-enhancing activities, identify and challenge problematic thinking and journal templates to promote well-being. 

SAM (Self-help App for the Mind): Free, community backed app with a mood- and trigger-tracker, self-help content in different formats, as well as a social feature allowing you to give and receive support.

​MindShift: Free Canadian app (available in English and French) with a number of CBT-based tools to tackle worry, perfectionism, panic, social anxiety and phobias. In addition to mood-trackers, thought journalling, and healthy habit tips, this app also has specific behavioural tools to encourage you to actively test-out unhelpful beliefs and face fears, as well as a community forum, breathing and grounding exercices and coping statements to help in moments of anxiety.

CBT Thought Diary: A free app based on CBT principles and which guides you in tracking your emotions and thoughts, identifying patterns and spotting unhelpful thinking styles.

Side by Side: Supportive online community, developed by the UK-based mental health charity, Mind.