Mental health has been starting to gain more awareness over the past few years, and is now at the forefront of our health and fitness routines. We all live under the stress of our studies, work and private life pressures – and the pandemic over the past year has just made things worse.
We have looked into the apps below to see how they might help our mental health and wellbeing. What we found is that they could potentially be an empowering tool to mindfully manage your lifestyle and allow you to embark on your wellness journey whether at home, for a few quiet moments at work or for long term mental health support.
Needless to say you should seek professional help if you are struggling with your mental health or just feel like you need support as these apps are not intended to be a substitute for professional treatment. We have collated a variety of apps, from inclusive therapist platforms and LGBTQ+ focused care to mood analysis apps and those which monitor behaviour patterns. They are all intended to help you better understand your own mental health and needs.
FREE
Moodfit is here to help you monitor how you’re feeling. Filled with vital wellness tools to aid a happy, balanced life, it uses a questionnaire format to help determine your specific needs. The app has everything from self-care goals, gratitude journals and cognitive behavioural therapy, with articles and audio files that can help you better understand the emotions you are experiencing. The app even goes as far as to ascertain what certain food groups may be affecting your mood. It aims to change your way of thinking by building new habits that help you achieve your goals. Besides indicating possible reasons and causes for our behaviour patterns, the app also sends push notifications to give you some gentle motivation to keep smashing your goals.
Mood Mission is all about coping ‘missions’, backed up by scientific research. Focusing specifically on feelings of stress, depression and anxiety, the app endeavours to teach the user about why certain solutions may help to improve our emotional well-being. Mood Mission aims to give the user the tools to implement coping strategies into everyday life. The app tracks your emotional well-being and offers tailored, effective, evidence-based solutions. Activities on the app are both emotion and behaviour based, using techniques such as breathing exercises, methods for refraining from negative thoughts and physical exercises to benefit a happier mind.
FREE TRIAL & PAY
Headspace is your answer for at-home guided meditation. The app offers soothing meditation from a variety of experienced teachers to bring five minutes of calm to what can often be a busy day. It aims to improve your sleep, mindfulness and stress levels, with structured sessions that offer the same benefits as in-person classes.
Free Trials available up to 14 days
One month: US$12 / £10
One year: US$69.99 / £50
Student Membership: US$ 9.99 / £10 per year
Shine was born from the need for a more inclusive wellness industry. Founders Marah Lidey and Naomi Hirabayashi, started Shine, “because we didn’t see ourselves—a Black woman and a half-Japanese woman—and our experiences represented mainstream ‘wellness’”. Our emotional health is largely affected by our backgrounds, with only 1 in 3 Black adults in the US receiving the mental health care they need. With a team of 85% BIPOC, Lidey and Hirabayashi have created a space for people of all experiences and identities, to come together under one common goal; improved mental health. Shine offers free meditations, sends daily motivational texts and offers inclusive mental health support to work places, to better improve employee emotional wellbeing.
Free 7 Day Trial
US$11.99 a month
US$53.99 a year
Seeking help for emotional wellbeing can often come with feelings of nervousness and anxiety. Talk Space, a therapy based app, connects users with professional mental health experts, aiming to provide a service that is accessible from wherever, whenever. Talk Space therapists cover everything from existential-humanistic approaches to dialectical behavioural therapy and mindfulness. The app uses unlimited messaging therapy, offering various forms of communication with your expert via texts, videos, audio messages and video chat.
Free trial and initial consultancy
Payment plan average: US$50
PAY
Pride Counselling was founded on the basis that “that individuals in the LGBTQ community suffer from mental health issues at a disproportionately high rate”. Pride Counselling provides tailored mental health care for people from every gender, orientation and identity for anything that interferes with your emotional happiness. Counsellors are experienced in specific issues spanning stress, anxiety and relationships to parenting, addictions, religion and much more. Pride creates a space for the LGBTQ+ community to work through life experiences and traumas in a safe and comfortable environment.
Prices range from US$60 to US$90 per week
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