Therapy Apps For You

By Marie Miguel

Updated December 06, 2019

Reviewer Stephanie Beebe, MSW, LISW-S

When you need help with your mental health-related issues like depression and anxiety consider using a therapy app. Therapy apps are a growing part of the telehealth world, allowing you to take control of your mental health care and get help from the comfort of your own home. A therapist app on your phone or device allows you to talk to licensed professionals who can give you the help you need. Thanks to therapy apps, it's much easier to talk to a licensed professional. Let me explain what that means for you.

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What Can a Therapist App Do For Me?

An online therapy app can be a lifesaver when it comes to managing your mental health care online. Being able to talk to someone at your convenience to get the help you need is useful. Mobile apps allow you to participate in mental health treatment and therapy sessions from anywhere in the world.

Sometimes, you need help when you're having panic attacks or other mental health crises. Other times, you need help because of a personal problem, which a therapy app can help with by providing text therapy and other therapy services for managing mental health disorders online. For example, you may get career advice or learn what to do next in school. These are just a few examples of what therapy apps can do for you. Using a therapy app can quickly help you relieve stress and anxiety related to important life issues like these.

Therapy apps use quite a few techniques to allow you to communicate with a therapist, and they all are user-friendly.

Text

Text therapy apps allow you to chat with a mental health therapist instantly through text or via video chat 24-hours a day. You can view the previous messages and notes from therapy sessions as well, allowing you to remember some of the advice. Having access to the written word can be better for some people, though you may miss a little bit of body language.

In-depth mental health conversations may require the therapist to take a bit to respond to you. Messages sent using your therapy app are available for you to check at your convenience. Luckily, most apps require the therapist to respond at least once a day, so you can be able to get the help you need.

Phone

Phone apps, also known as voice therapy, is when you speak with a therapist using your telephone or device and a compatible therapy app. When you login to your therapy app for phone or video chat therapy, you are connected to chat with a therapist using your own voice. Depending on the type of therapy recommended in your treatment plan, you may be able to combine phone therapy and text therapy sessions for a total online mental health solution.

Talking on the phone can be comforting, especially when you're having a mental health crisis. Hearing someone's voice and getting the help you need in real-time is a good move. Also, some therapists may use voice messages to communicate, making it a little more convenient.

Video

Video chatting allows you to get to the closest experience to a one-on-one session as possible. With video chat, you can speak with the therapist in real-time as long as your connection is reliable. With therapy apps that have a desktop feature, this usually makes video chatting better. Video chat sessions are great for couples therapy and marriage counseling sessions that involve another family member.

The Best Therapy Apps

With all that said, what are the best therapy apps and counseling apps available? There are a wide variety of mental health therapy apps available for download on mobile devices. The best online therapy apps can depend on what you need it for, the pricing, and what features you need. Let's take a look at some of these apps and see which are the best.

Choose an app that provides the best matching therapist for your mental health-related symptoms and issues. Focus on choosing a therapy app that offers access to trained and licensed professionals that offer a variety of mental health counseling options like how to cope with depression if this is your primary concern.

BetterHelp

This is one of the best known online therapy apps for diagnosing and treatment of mental health issues for good reason. Signing up is a breeze, and once you do, you have quite a few ways to find the best therapy solutions for your unique situation. BetterHelp employs desktop and mobile communication, giving you quite a few options for receiving mental health support. BetterHelp employs thousands of licensed therapists and their therapy app is a highly rated way to get help for common mental health disorders.

BetterHelp matches clients suffering from common mental health problems with a licensed therapist who provides the type of therapy you need to alleviate your mental health related concerns. It's one

Regain

Regain is another popular site that offers mental health services via an online therapy app. What makes Regain stand out from the crowd is the fact that this online therapy app specifically designed for providing couples with mental health awareness related counseling that may be affecting their intimate relationships. The goal of regain is to improve relationships by first improving the status of mental health.

Relationships can include marriages, long-term relationships, friendships, and family troubles. Like BetterHelp, Regain also employs licensed professionals. Regain allows you to talk one-on-one or together with your partner. Sometimes, both individual and couple's therapy are needed to repair the relationship.

Regain is one of the best therapy apps and a great place to start for couples who are ready for an alternative to traditional counseling. Intimate couples use the Regain therapy app to begin healing their relationships from the privacy of their own homes.

With online relationship therapy, you can watch as your relationship improves quite a bit as you and your intimate partner begin to feel comfortable addressing relationship issues and mental health concerns that may be interfering. Therapy works. Relationships that are falling apart can improve in the blink of an eye. Already stable relationships may see even more improvement. You will be surprised by how much of a difference it makes. As the name of the service suggests, you have a lot to regain from using Regain.

Talkspace

Talkspace is an online therapy app that operates very much like Betterhelp.com. The Talkspace app provides online mental health services. You may be familiar with the popular Talkspace mental health campaigns featuring celebrities like Michael Phelps. It offers thousands of therapists for providing mental health diagnosis and counseling as well. Just like BetterHelp, you can match yourself to therapists who are the best fit for the job.

Talkspace focuses more on their app. Although the Talkspace app focuses more on the user experience, their therapy app is lacking one of the critical desktop features that BetterHelp offers to make attending video mental health chat sessions easier for clients.

If you're someone on the go, this may be no problem for you. Getting the help you need to mitigate your mental health related concerns (from any location) is always convenient, and it's something online therapy always has going for it. If you need help, Talkspace may be the one for you. Use it and see how it compares with BetterHelp.

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Breakthrough

So, what is so breaking about Breakthrough? This service comes from people who have had experience, and they are notable for their scheduling system. You can pick appointments using the app and you don't have to wait for a response. Scheduling is always important, especially in online therapy, when you may need help at a certain time. Breakthrough makes it a whole lot easier.

One of the best features of Breakthrough is that some health insurance plans pay for this service. With most of these apps, you will have to pay out of pocket, as online text, voice, and chat therapy has yet to catch up to insurance. However, Breakthrough has, so it may be the service that you may want to check out. Unfortunately, if you don't have insurance, it is really expensive, so if you have to pay out of pocket, the other apps may be the best for you.

Also, there is more quality control, with the therapists having to do at least five sessions a month.

If you have the insurance, Breakthrough may be worth checking out, so give it a whirl and see if it's right for you.

Faithful Counselling

Faithful Counseling is similar to BetterHelp, but it uses counseling from a Christian perspective. Faith-based counseling is something you can get from a pastor or someone else qualified in your church, but Faithful Counselling allows you to get help anywhere from a licensed therapist. Find a spiritually informed therapist who can help with your problems, figure out what it all means in God's plan, and help you connect with God spiritually. If you're religious, it's worth checking out.

Pride Counseling

When you are part of the LGBTQ+ community, you need someone who understands your struggles and is friendly with your identity. Pride Counseling allows you to get help from someone who specializes in the LGBT community. You may be a gay man who is worried about coming out to his parents. You may be a trans person struggling for acceptance. You may not even know what gender you are and need guidance. Pride Counseling employs many therapists who are LGBTQ+ friendly, allowing you to get the help you need from someone who can understand your struggles. While other apps have LGBTQ+ therapists as well, this is the app that guarantees you get that support.

Teen Counseling

The teenage years are filled with struggle. Finding your sense of identity in this world, figuring out what career you want to pursue, dealing with hormonal changes, dealing with your peers, learning to drive… there's quite a bit on the plate for a teen, and managing it all can be a challenge.

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Teen Counseling allows you to get the help you need from a therapist or counselor licensed to work with a teenager. Parents can get their kids an invite to it. For teens, everything is confidential except if someone is being abused or if you're considering harming yourself. Otherwise, you don't have to worry too much about your therapist telling your dirty little secrets to mom and dad.

Which is the Best for You?

The best therapy app for you will depend on what you need help with and where you want it. Some of these apps allow for desktop communication, with a fast email response time for answering questions, while others are a little more strict. Some are broad in what they cover, while others have a specific focus. This specific focus may be more up your alley if you just need a therapist to cover that, but if you have a variety of issues, a general app may be the best for you.

Everyone is different and may need their own unique approach to therapy, so it's hard to pick one and say it's objectively the best. The good news is that there is help available. Looking into all these apps may be your best bet. They don't require too much to get started, either, which is why many people love them. Some may even offer a free trial so you can start getting help risk free, then cancel if it's not right for you.

Conclusion

These are just a few of the many online therapy apps available. With telehealth growing, there will be even more apps you can use. I say to try them out and see which is the best for you. It can be a replacement for traditional therapy, or at the least, something used alongside it.