Best Apps for Therapists to Use with Clients
Americans spent a record 3.8 trillion hours on mobile apps during 2021. That’s an average of 4.1 hours a day on a mobile device, a 30% increase from the previous year.
With how prevalent phone use is, mental health professionals can leverage the power of technology to aid their clients’ progress and treatment organization. Research shows mental health apps work because they are user-friendly, increase engagement in treatment plans, and make it easier to monitor symptoms. They work so well there are now approximately 10,000 to 20,000 mental health apps available.
When doing a quick search for mental health apps for therapists to use with clients, it’s easy for both clients and clinicians to feel overwhelmed. We’ve sifted through some top-rated options, so you don’t have to. In choosing what would make our list, we considered what features were available and if they were evidence-based.
What are the Best Apps for Therapists to Use with Clients?
Headspace
This simple app helps users practice mindfulness and meditation. With series addressing stress, sleep, anxiety, focus & productivity, relaxation, centered fitness & tension release, there’s something for every experience level and lifestyle. Users can choose between short 3-minute mini-meditations for a quick mental shift or longer meditations for profound impact.
Therapists are unable to follow along with their clients’ progress within the app itself, but this could also lead to discussions in therapy on barriers that might come up during meditation practice.
Key Features:
- Stand-alone meditations
- Meditation courses on mindfulness, coping with cravings, dealing with distractions, and better sleep
Price: $12.99/month or $94.99/year
Rating: 4.9/5
Dailyo
Dailyo is a journaling app that helps set daily goals and track moods. Users can select an emoticon that best represents their mood and add notes on their daily activities. When the app detects a pattern, it pinpoints trends where moods decline and offers suggestions on how to bring it back up.
This app does not allow therapists to track their client’s progress or moods automatically. However, some app users have utilized the graphs generated in the app during therapy discussions to help facilitate discussion and remember details regarding their moods between sessions.
Key Features:
- Simple emoticon-styled mood tracking.
- Month over month and year over year data set tracking.
- Easy activity selection to highlight lifestyle options
Price: $23.99/year
Rating: 4.8/5
Moodkit
Developed by two clinical psychologists, this app is based on the ideologies and methods of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). With over 200 activities, users receive specific steps to reduce negative feelings and enhance well-being—track moods, negative thoughts, and stress management with an in-app journal.
Therapists do not have direct access to their client’s usage or journaling. However, by using the app, clients will be better prepared for sessions and can refer to their journal or symptom tracker during sessions to help facilitate discussion and treatment plans.
Key Features:
- Evidence-based
- In-app journaling
- Large variety of activities
Price: $5
Rating: 4.3/5
Calm
Offering various meditation programs, Calm helps users sleep, relax, and practice breathing exercises. Beginner and experienced meditators are provided information to learn how to destress and meditate, no matter where they are in their journey. Sessions range from 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, or 25 minutes long to accommodate any schedule.
While this app helps encourage or reinforce positive thinking practices, particularly for those with a solid meditation or mindfulness base, therapists do not have direct access to monitor their client’s progress or usage.
Key Features:
- Individual exercises
- Open structure
- Calming background sounds
- Easy to follow meditations
Price: $15/month, $70/year, or lifetime subscription for $400
Rating: 4.8/5
Bearable
This app tracks moods, mental illness symptoms, medications, sleep, exercise, food intake, and social interaction. Clients can share charts tracking activities and their emotional impact with practitioners to track patterns and determine if a treatment plan works. Information can also be linked to the client’s Apple Health Kit if they are iPhone users.
This app does not allow therapists to track their client’s progress automatically. However, clients do have the option to send information to therapists or physicians directly from the app.
Key Features:
- Evidence-based
- Multi-function tracking
- In-app journaling
- Symptom tracker
- Medication reminders
- Can integrate with Apple Health Kit
- Driven by community input
- Tracks sleep, medications, exercise, and food
- Users can send information to therapists or physicians
Price: Basic version is free; the premium subscription is $5/month or $28/year.
Rating: 4.7/5
Noble
Designed by therapists for therapists, the Noble app provides crafted between-session support. Therapists assign a pre-created Roadmap based on the client’s unique situations and needs, guiding them through automated lessons, action items, and assignments, increasing the effectiveness of one-on-one sessions. Topics currently include healing from betrayal trauma, addiction recovery, and managing anxiety.
Noble is an app for therapists to use with clients directly. Not only are clinicians able to assign specific roadmaps based on their client’s needs, but they can also monitor progress and provide extra support through messaging all from within the app.
Key Features
Like the apps listed above, Noble provides:
- Evidence-based
- In-app guided journaling
- Guided goal setting
- Guided mindfulness and meditation practices unique to each Roadmap
- Integrated CBT techniques unique to each Roadmap
- Interventions to manage stress and symptoms
- Continual updates driven by community input
The app also includes:
- Ability for therapists to track progress and view journal entries
- Interventions to manage betrayal trauma symptoms and triggers
- Interventions to manage addiction triggers
- Interventions to manage anxiety
- Strategies for parents supporting a child’s mental health
- Secure messaging platform between individuals or groups
- Scheduling management
- Specialized and targeted guided meditations
- Automated meeting reminders
- Clinical assessments (coming soon!)
- Passive income for mental health professionals
Price: Clients pay a monthly fee. You set the price and keep 100% of the money!
Rating: 5.0/5
Utilizing Apps for Good
Mental health apps are fantastic, convenient tools to help boost moods, build coping skills, support journaling, and provide informational resources during healing.
There are more apps for therapists to use with clients on the market than ever before. Utilizing the best apps as part of a therapy plan can help clients practice evidence-based exercises for between-session support, leaving more time during one-on-one sessions for focused work.
Noble aims to continue growing and developing quality materials to help build out better between session care. We support mental health professionals and patients to stay on track while logging progress. By enabling patients and counselors to continue care outside of sessions, Noble is paving a smoother path to healing. Contact Noble today if you have questions about integrating our platform into your practice.
