An important aspect of therapy is applying what you learn or discover in your sessions to your day-to-day life. Research shows that this is the key to maximising the benefit of treatment, but many clients can come across barriers to implementing new skills. One way to address these barriers can be making the most of the e-Mental Health options available to help you integrate skills into your daily life. While there are many options available, it can be difficult to know which will work best for you. I’ve shared 5 of my favourite free applications below that you may find beneficial:
WorryTime (Free) – Recommended for Anxiety and Worriers.
Download
This app is a digitised form of a simple intervention for rumination and worry. It allows you to set aside a particular time of the day in which you worry and problem-solve the concerns that pop into your mind during the day. As a worry comes up, you type it in and it locks it away. This allows you to be able to focus on the task at hand knowing you will address that concern at the time you have chosen. Often when you get to “worry time” you no longer feel the need to address it or you have time to problem-solve the concern without causing excessive distress.
Stop. Breathe. Think. (Free) – Recommended for anxiety, depression, trauma, and general mindfulness practice.
Download
This application is a mindfulness app that recommends mindfulness exercises based on how you feel physically, mentally and emotionally. The app guides you through a brief process of checking in with yourself and then presents you with 4 mindfulness exercises that would benefit you given the information you put in. I like this app because it takes away the pressure of choosing the right mindfulness activity and presents you with 4 options of different lengths (from 2-15 minutes) so you can select the one that fits best with you.
CBT-i Coach (Free) – recommended for insomnia and sleep difficulties.
Download on iPhone or Android
Do you have difficulty sleeping? Do you sleep too often or too little? This app is a great way to track the quality of sleep as well as the habits and behaviours that may be impacting on your sleep. It also includes some great information about sleep and some tips to improving sleep.
Calm Harm (Free) & Clear Fear (Free) – Recommended for symptoms of self-harm, suicidal ideation, distress tolerance and anxiety.
Download Calm Harm | Download Clear Fear
These are two fantastic applications that I cannot recommend enough. They are my go-to applications to recommend to clients who tend to rely on unhelpful ways of coping with distress, such as self-harm and avoidance. However, they are also very useful for many kinds of distress. Both of these applications have a large array of adaptive coping strategies that are categorised based on what you feel you need in the moment such as “comfort”, “distraction”, “release” and “breathe”. Once you select a category, you identify how long you need the activity to be (5 minutes – 15 minutes) and are presented with a number of techniques to try.
These applications do not replace the benefit of receiving individualised and targeted therapy by a Psychologist. If you experience any of the symptoms mentioned above, it may be beneficial to see a Psychologist to assist you in identify and support you in addressing these difficulties.
Sophie Antognelli (M Psych (Clinical), B Psych (Hons – First Class) is passionate about working alongside individuals and families to live more full lives, overcoming difficulties they may face. Sophie’s interests are in child and adolescent mental health are emotion regulation issues and anxiety. Sophie is interested in working with her adult clients to regain quality of life through early psychosis intervention, the management of symptoms of depression and anxiety, as well as the broader clinical issues of perfectionism, adjustment to life stressors and low self-esteem. She developed these interests across her work in both inpatient and outpatient hospital settings. Alongside her clinical work, Sophie is also involved in a number of research projects exploring new approaches to anxiety disorders – with specific interests in investigating potential new avenues for addressing unhelpful thought patterns in health anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder and hoarding disorder.