When to appeal for help

There is no replacement for a therapist, but therapy apps have their place, writes Karen Nimmo.

Your mood is low, you are irritable and wound up and you are sleeping badly. You are also struggling to balance your postpandemic flexi-work arrangements with your frenetic home life.

Weekends don’t feel fun any more and you have lost interest in getting on your mountainbike, hanging out with friends or even going for a walk. You have reached out for therapy but there are long waitlists for appointments. It will take months to see someone and it is expensive.

A friend suggests trying a mobile therapy app, but you are reluctant to put anything more on the to-do list and you are a little cynical. Your phone as a therapist? Do these apps even work? the weekend, they are there; if you are travelling, they go with you.

Like many therapists, I support the use of evidence-based apps – for the people at a mild level of mental/emotional difficulty.

They can be a helpful supplement to therapy, providing practical strategies– such as breathing techniques, soothing sounds, meditation and mindfulness strategies – and are useful additions to your psychological toolkit.

Clients have said apps have helped them through a rough day and kept them on track with daily reminders and practical exercises. Others use them to get to sleep – to the sound of rain, ocean waves or soothing voices.

They can also serve to gather personal data by tracking mood changes and increase awareness of stress triggers and symptoms.

The affordability is hugely attractive.As the cost of living continues to soar, it is hard to justify seeing a therapist when you are struggling to pay the grocery bill.

But mobile apps are still in their infancy and they are no replacement for a trained mental health clinician, especially when someone has moderate to severe difficulties such as depression, PTSD or suicidal thoughts.

As good as an app might be, it can’t combine all the pieces of your story to make an accurate diagnosis.

It can’t personalise your treatment or write you an adequate safety plan. An app might assign you some homework, but it is not going to care if you do it or not. There is also limited data on the longer-term benefits – whether the tools people learn will stick over time, or whether the gains come from continuous use.

Perhaps the biggest difference from therapy is that apps remove the human element: having someone listen to your story is a crucial factor in mental health improvement.

Many studies have shown a sound, trusting relationship between therapist and client to be the key ingredient in moving forward.

For someone who is struggling, the benefits can come from feeling safe and heard, knowing someone ‘‘gets’’ you and your perspective, that they’re fully in your corner.

Therapy can also be helpful – and mentally healthy – in that people put their phones away for an hour, shut out the noise, and have rare time to themselves.

Clients will often say ‘‘It’s such a treat to be able to just focus on myself. It’s me time.’’ But it’s more than that – it’s about having someone validate your story, provide feedback and possibly guidance about how to do things differently.