Can Mental Health Apps Really Help?

The answer to this question is an unequivocal ‘yes!’ Self-help books have shown that many people can benefit from information which supplements, and sometimes even replaces the advice they would get in a professional’s office. Apps of course offer much more than information, and can actually interact with a person to do an ever-increasing number of tasks—including changing one’s behavior.

Breathing Lessons 

Our mission at Talk to an Expert, Inc. is to help people like you help others, and we would be remiss if we did not consider apps for mobile devices as a new way to help people cope with and overcome their emotional, social, and behavioral problems. To this end, we’ll be compiling a list of mental health apps that you can recommend in your practice. In the future, we hope to develop our own apps, and also  help others to develop apps that can be used by your clients, or even people from all over the world.

Apps are typically inexpensive to download, usually costing just a few dollars, and yet just like recommending self-help books, you will want to be careful when advising your clients. The last thing you want is to recommend an app that will not be helpful.

There are thousands of apps now available which are promoted as self-help tools, making it impossible to review them all. But we will review ones that look promising, and give you an objective evaluation from a mental health perspective. That being said, we strongly urge you to try an app out for yourself before recommending it to someone else.

App Name:  Breathing Lessons

Developer/Author: Susan Bosworth is listed as the seller and the developer. Carla Melucci Ardito is the author. The introduction to the app explains that Ms. Ardito has helped people explore the relationship between the body and the breath for 20 years, and was inspired to do this by her own healing process.  Her background is as a vocal instructor and yoga teacher.

Possible Uses:  Anxiety Disorders, General Health

Comments:  The app provides a simple and informative way to present the virtues of appropriate breathing from a physiological perspective. The core of the app consists of 8 videos which teach the basics of good breathing, with an emphasis on postural alignment. Practice sessions, which would be particularly useful for clients who need to learn deep breathing to calm down, cannot be accessed until at least four videos are watched, which underscores the author’s intention for people to understand that appropriate “healthful”  breathing is not quite as simple as one might think.

Cost:  $4.99

Platform: iPhone and iPad

What Do You Like?

Do you know of any other apps that teach breathing techniques? Tell us about them or other apps you have used to address mental health issues. You can either post a response on this blog, write to us on Twitter or Facebook, or make your recommendation to us directly by writing us at:  info@talktoanexpertinc.com.