BE MINDFUL ON THE MOVE
Practise self-care with a mental health chatbot
YOU WILL LEARN How Woebot can help with mindfulness
YOU’LL NEED Woebot (free), iOS 13 or later, some peace and quiet
Many of us are finding things really hard right now, and sadly the thing that’s making things so difficult for so many – COVID-19 – is also making it hard for people to access the support that could help them. What if technology could step in?
That’s the promise of mental health apps such as Woebot (free), which is being described as “the future of mental health”. It’s a “therapeutic relational agent” – in other words, a chatbot for therapy. The idea behind the app is that you check in every day and talk to it just like you’d talk to a human therapist; through a combination of AI and natural language processing it can understand and adapt to your emotional and cognitive state, helping you discover ways to feel better.
Help at hand
As we’ll discover in this tutorial, Woebot is really simple to use, and because it’s free there’s no downside to trying it out. We think it does a good job of helping you explore your feelings, and of introducing you to concepts, techniques and tools that you can use to make positive improvements.
That said, it’s also important to understand what Woebot isn’t. It isn’t a magic bullet, and it isn’t designed for people who are in a mental health crisis. If you need to speak to somebody urgently, forget about apps and get on the phone or get online: in the UK, you can text SHOUT (or YM if you’re under 19) to 85258 or call 116 123 to get immediate help.
Carrie Marshall
Woebot is a “therapeutic relational agent” – in other words, it’s a chatbot for therapy