Favorite Counseling Apps

There are so many amazing apps on the market these days! There are apps that are geared towards self-care, coping skills, automatic thoughts, reframing thoughts, offering support and many of them are FREE! Here are a few of my favorites:

Calm: Cost to download: FREE!

Calm is a wonderful app for meditation and sleep. This app offers a variety of free meditations that can help reduce anxiety, lower stress and help you attain better sleep. Calm also offers sleep stories which are basically bedtime stories for adults!

Pocket CBT: Cost to download: $4.99

Pocket CBT is literally like having a cognitive behavioral therapist in your pocket! This app will walk you through a stressful situation by having you identify your thoughts, physiological sensations, emotions and behaviors. Once you have identified these the app will help you rationalize your thinking and challenge your thoughts so that you can reduce your stress level surrounding the situation.

Thought Diary: Cost to download: FREE!

Thought Diary is very similar to Pocket CBT but its FREE! Thought diary will ask you your mood, what emotions you are feeling, what’s happening, what negative thoughts you are experiencing, help you identify cognitive distortions (thinking errors) and will assist you to challenge your negative thoughts.   

Triangle of Life: Cost to download: FREE!

The Triangle of Life app is a cognitive behavioral therapy based app for children. This app teaches children the basic concepts of CBT (how our thoughts, feelings and behaviors function together) using scenarios and games. The player of the game is a Lion who helps other animals understand their daily experiences and helps them create more healthy and positive thoughts.

Virtual Hope Box: Cost to download: FREE!

Virtual Hope Box is an app that does exactly what its name says. This app is a virtual place where you are able to store favorite coping skills, visual reminders of things that make you happy, distractions (puzzles and games) and inspiration.  

Wysa: Cost to download: FREE!

The Wysa app is an intelligent chat box that uses artificial intelligence to react to the emotions you express. This app offers meditation, coping skills, cognitive behavioral therapy in a nonjudgmental chat format.

Although apps can’t replace therapy these can be super helpful in-between therapy sessions or when maintaining the progress you made after therapy has ended.

What to expect when starting Therapy

Am I crazy? Am I going to have to lay on a couch? Will it make me depressed? Will I cry? Will I have a panic attack? Will I have to talk about painful things? How long will it take for me to feel better?

Many people are nervous about going to therapy for the first, or second, or thirtieth time. No matter what stage you are in in the process, take a deep breath; you are on your way to a better life! Go you! Remember, feeling nervous is normal, especially when you are doing something new or something that you know will be a challenge. But embracing change is hard! So be kind to yourself.

What can I expect? Well, this really all depends on the therapist you choose. At my office in Altamonte Springs clients can expect a warm, friendly, empathic environment where they can come in, kick off their shoes and sit in whatever way makes them feel most comfortable (even if that means laying on the couch...I have to admit, it is pretty comfy!). The first thing I want my clients to know is that everything you’re experiencing is normal. Let me say that again, everything you’re experiencing is normal. For something to be “abnormal”, it would mean that no human had ever experienced it before, and I can almost guarantee that’s not the case (unless you’re an alien, in which case, I come in peace)

People choose to come to therapy for all sorts of reasons, all are valid and any challenge you face can be conquered with a little help from a therapist.

What you choose to work on in therapy is 100% up to you. You are in the driver’s seat! The great thing about therapy is that it can be a completely different experience for every single person. Just like everyone’s life journey is different, everyone’s therapy experience is different. Therapy is completely customizable to each of our individual challenges. This means that everyone’s number of therapy sessions is different. Some people only need a few sessions and some people continue therapy for years; it all depends on the individual.

Taking the first step can be so exciting! Think about all you have endured to get to this point in your life, you have come a long way! I like to think of therapy like hiking up a hill, it might be a little difficult, but you have a hiking partner (aka your therapist) who is there to give you the tools you need to keep going. I promise the view from the top is worth the hike!