Counseling Apps

Below are some common apps to help with anxiety, suicide prevention, depression, and addiction and recovery:

ANXIETY

Breathe2Relax - Free | Breathe2Relax (iOS)
A simple, intuitive, and attractive mobile app designed by the National Center for Telehealth & Technology to teach breathing techniques to manage stress. The skills taught may be applied to those with anxiety disorders, stress, and PTSD.

Headspace - Free for first 10 sessions | Headspace (iOS) | Headspace (Android)
Targeted to anyone who wants to learn meditation to reduce anxiety and stress and improve their attention and awareness; good for a beginner to establish a regular meditative routine. The skills taught include mindfulness and cognitive diffusion, breathing exercises, meditation practice, tips for increased relaxation, concentration; may be applied to anxiety and depressive disorders, PTSD, and OCD, especially in conjunction with a health provider. 

Mindshift - Free
Targeted to help adolescents, teens, and young adults gain insight into and basic skills to manage their symptoms of anxiety disorders, including GAD, social anxiety, specific phobias, and panic attacks. It’s also useful for managing worry, performance anxiety, test anxiety, and perfectionism. The skills taught may be applied to individuals with physical, emotional, cognitive, or behavioral manifestations of anxiety, providing users with more helpful, balanced ways of thinking about feared situations. 

Pacifica - Free | Pacifica (iOS) | Pacifica (Android) | Pacifica (Web)
Targeted to help those with anxiety and mood disorders and stress, this app teaches deep breathing, behavioral exercises, excises and identifying cognitive distortions (negative thinking patterns), and learning how to replace them with positive thinking patterns. It’s also good for those experiencing bouts of anxiety between treatment sessions. The app does a terrific job of personalizing one’s cause of anxiety using voice recordings, and introducing CBT and reinforcing exercises between therapist appointments. This app is designed to be used in conjunction with therapy, not as a substitute for professional treatment. 

Panic Relief - Free, upgrade version $0.99 | Panic Relief (Android)
This app is targeted to help individuals with panic disorder access easy-to-use, empirically supported coping tools to better manage and move through panic attacks. The free version includes access to progressive muscle relaxation of the arm skill, while the upgrade allows access to the rest of the skills, including square breathing, diaphragmatic breathing, and progressive muscle relaxation.

Calm - Free | Calm (iOS) | Calm (Android)
Named by Apple as the 2017 iPhone App of the Year, Calm is quickly becoming regarded as one of the best mental health apps available. Calm provides people experiencing stress and anxiety with guided meditations, sleep stories, breathing programs, and relaxing music. This app is truly universal; whether you’ve never tried meditation before or regularly practice, you’ll find the perfect program for you.

What's Up - Free | What's Up (iOS) | What's Up (Android)
What’s Up is an amazing free app that uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT) methods to help you cope with depression, anxiety, stress, and more. Use the positive and negative habit tracker to maintain your good habits, and break those that are counterproductive. We particularly love the “Get Grounded” page, which contains over 100 different questions to pinpoint what you’re feeling, and the “Thinking Patterns” page, which teaches you how to stop negative internal monologues. Try it out for yourself.

Virtual Hope Box - Free | Virtual Hope Box (iOS) | Virtual Hope Box (Android)
The Virtual Hope Box (VHB) is a smartphone application designed for use by patients and their behavioral health providers as an accessory to treatment. The VHB contains simple tools to help patients with coping, relaxation, distraction, and positive thinking. Patients and providers can work together to personalize the VHB content on the patient's own smartphone according to the patient's specific needs. The patient can then use the VHB away from clinic, continuing to add or change content as needed. Patients can use the VHB to store a variety of rich multimedia content that they find personally supportive in times of need. For example, a patient can include family photos, videos and recorded messages from loved ones, inspirational quotes, music they find especially soothing, reminders of previous successes, positive life experiences and future aspirations, and affirmations of their worth in their VHB. A patient can also collaborate with their provider to create coping cards to use in response to personal problem areas they experience. Finally, the VHB provides the patient with positive activity planning, distraction tools, and interactive relaxation exercises including guided imagery, controlled breathing and muscle relaxation.

SUICIDE PREVENTION

Step Up Speak Out - Free
Step Up and Speak Out is a suicide and violence prevention campaign that promotes campus safety and greater awareness of mental health concerns. Users can be connected to the 24-hour suicide prevention crisis line geographically closest to the user’s physical location (within the state of Ohio). Information is also provided on risk factors for suicide, how to help a friend, and available mental health resources for Kent State's eight campuses.

MY3 - Free | MY3 (iOS) 
MY3 is aimed at people who are depressed and suicidal, and trains users to recognize suicide warning signs in others. MY3 asks you to choose three close contacts that you feel comfortable reaching out to when you’re down and keeps you connected to this core network. This best part of this app is that it helps you create your own safety plan asking you to think through and list your own warning signs, coping strategies and support network, so that you can easily act when you recognize your warning signs.

DEPRESSION

MoodTools - Free | MoodTools (iOS) | MoodTools (Android)
MoodTools is a self-help app targeting depression. It provides psychoeducation about risk factors and psychosocial approaches to treatment, a depression symptom questionnaire (PHQ-9), a thought diary, a suicide safety plan, and videos such as meditation guides. 

Happify - Free | Happify (iOS) | Happify (Android)
Need a happy fix? With its psychologist-approved mood-training program, the Happify app is your fast-track to a good mood. Try various engaging games, activity suggestions, gratitude prompts and more to train your brain as if it were a muscle, to overcome negative thoughts. The best part? It's free!

Moodpath - Free | Moodpath (iOS) | Moodpath (Android)
Moodpath is your pocket-sized mental health companion. Whether you are facing a rough patch or have concerns about your mental health, the app's goal is to support you through the difficult times and guide you out the other side. Moodpath asks daily questions in order to assess your well-being and screen for symptoms of depression. The screening progress aims to increase your awareness of your thoughts, emotions, and feelings. After a period of 2 weeks, the app generates an electronic document that you can discuss with a healthcare professional. More than 150 videos and psychological exercises are available to help you understand your mood and strengthen your mental health.

MENTAL HEALTH APP RESOURCES

• ADAA.org - ADAA Reviewed Mental Health Apps
• medicalnewstoday.com - The Top 10 Best Mental Health Apps
• themighty.com - 14 Mental Health Apps People Living With Mental Illnesses Recommend