Three Apps That Will Level Up Your Therapy Experience

Oh, technology. It’s no secret that all the technological advances we’ve seen in our lifetime have taken a toll on our overall wellbeing. We are constantly distracted, addicted to games and social media, and feeling more and more disconnected in our lives. And yet, technology is here, and smart phones aren’t going anywhere. But this isn’t necessarily bad news.

The thing is, if we use our phones wisely, technology can actually be a huge asset to us.

For a long time I’ve been passionate about mindfully exploring the role technology can play in improving our mental health. For example, here in San Francisco, the first mental health hackathon recently took place, and I was honored to be there as a consultant to assist teams of brilliant designers manifest tech-based solutions to solve some of the most pressing mental health challenges facing society today (See here for more about the event and one of the teams I worked with that day).

One area where you can find some great mental health tools is in mobile apps. I use apps with my clients all the time, and it has been a game changer. Long gone are the caveman days where the only option was pen and paper worksheets and handouts that easily get lost in a notebook or under a stack of mail. My clients find using apps is a great way to stay engaged on their goals between sessions, and it gives me more real time data so we can make strides in our work together faster and more efficiently. Here are three apps that you can integrate into your psychotherapy that will level up your experience in the chair:

1. Daylio
Free (Premium Version Available) – iOS and Android

Mood journaling is a key component to many evidence-based therapies, but remembering to journal daily is a real pain in the butt. Well, gone are the days of the pen and paper mood journal. With Daylio, you can set two reminders a day with the free version, or unlimited reminders with the paid version. The app will ping you and ask you to rate your mood, and will give you a series of emojis to tell it what you are doing. You can even add a journal entry, or add emojis for different moods you are targeting in therapy or different activities you are tracking. After keeping at this several times a day for several weeks, you’ll start to see patterns that can help your therapist shape your treatment plan and hone in on your goals. What activities do you tend to be doing when you feel the most happy or most upset? What time of day do you tend to hit a high or a low? With an app like this, you don’t have to guess. It’s also a great way to track your therapy progress and give your provider feedback on what’s working and what isn’t.

2. Therapy Buddy
Free – iOS and Android

Therapy Buddy was designed by a specific therapy clinic (which, full disclosure, I am not a member of), but anyone can download and use it, and I think it’s brilliant. So often, clients tell me that throughout the week they have the thought, “Oh! I’ve got to tell Asha that when see her!” But when she gets back to my office the next week, she can’t remember what it was she wanted to tell me! Or, I give a client an assignment to do that week, and then halfway through the week, she thinks, “Crap! What was that thing I was supposed to do?” With an app like this, you can keep track of therapy assignments, appointment times, and take notes on things you want to bring up in your next session. If you have trouble staying organized and want to make the most of every session, I’d give this app a try.

3. Virtual Hope Box
Free – iOS and Android

Virtual Hope Box is a beautiful all-in-one therapy tool. It’s so many things. It’s a meditation app, with guided meditations and breathing exercises. It’s a planning app, where you can make “coping cards” to plan ahead for how to cope with certain feelings or emotions, and schedule self-care activities. And it’s a motivational app, with inspiring quotes and a “hope box” where you can put in anything from favorite songs, a motivational video, photos of your dog, or even record a message of yourself that you can come back to in times of need. The one part of this app that I think can be a little troublesome for some is the “distract me” function, which has games like Sudoku in it to shift your attention when you feel overwhelmed. As I mentioned in a previous post, you don’t want to get into the habit of using distraction as a means of running away from your emotions. I encourage clients to “stack” their skills when working through anxiety, save distraction-based activities for when emotions are so heavy that other skills aren’t working, and then, when feeling a little a little calmer, try an additional skill like meditation. All in all, it’s an extraordinary app. You can build your toolkit with your therapist and then have those skills at your fingertips all week long.


In this modern age, there are so many unhealthy distractions and addictive apps available to us, but there are also a lot of great tools out there. So if you are like me and have a smart phone in your pocket all day every day, why not try out one of these free apps this week, and use technology as a means to live a calm, balanced, healthy life.