With mental health apps for smartphones and tablets, anyone can access mental health information any time of the day or night. Clients can use apps in conjunction with (or even instead of) psychotherapy. Clinicians can use them for medication or diagnosis information, personal development, recommendations for clients, and much more.
Why Mental Health Apps in Psychotherapy and Counseling
- Mental Health apps are easy to use
- They are likely to increase your efficacy
- If you recommended certain M.H. Apps to clients who have iPads, iPhones, Androids, etc.
- they would appreciate it
- they would think you are ‘cool’
- they may tell their friends (make a referral)
Mental health apps are expected to become a $600 million industry in 2012, and for good reason. Anyone with a smartphone (such as an iPhone) or tablet (such as an iPad) can download an app and begin using it within seconds. Thousands of mental health apps are free, and thousands more are just 99¢ or a few dollars. The apps do not expire and can be used every day for years.
As examples, mental health apps can help with:
- People who have a hard time relaxing
- Veterans struggling with PTSD
- Gay clients home for the holidays with homophobic families
- A tense businessman who needs stress relief during the course of the day
- A young woman seeking to catalogue her dreams
- Children seeking to process and heal from their parents’ divorce
- People who can benefit from charting their mood swings and sharing it with their psychotherapists
- And much, much more!