What To Know About Therapy Apps—And How To Make Sure You Interact With A Human
Therapy apps existed well before the pandemic, when the field pivoted to a mostly virtual world. But they marketed heavily during quarantine and the time following, for obvious reasons, and don’t seem to be going anywhere.
They’re a double-edged sword, experts agree. While the apps can be helpful resources for finding and connecting with a therapist, and they offer a level of unmatched convenience, “there’s a real quality issue, as there’s no way of knowing how much experience a clinician has or how many clients they might be packing into one day,” says Lynn Bufka, PhD, a licensed psychologist and head of practice for the American Psychological Association (APA). Plus, some apps don’t even offer live support with a licensed human and might be spitting out chatbot info instead.
Making matters worse, some apps have been sued for overprescribing medications or for sharing user data with third parties, which makes them even more questionable as an alternative option.
That’s not to say they’re all pill pushers and scammers, but unfortunately, the onus falls on you to do a little extra research, says Natalia Macrynikola, PhD, a clinical psychologist and staff scientist at Harvard Medical School’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and former clinical director at the Division of Digital Psychiatry at Harvard Medical school.
Enter: The mindapps.org database, created by Macrynikola’s digital psychiatry team at Harvard to sift through apps and rate their quality and safety, in conjunction with the American Psychiatry Association’s App Evaluation Model. The goal of the database is to “help you sift through to find app options with the features you want,” says Macrynikola. So, maybe you’re looking for apps with a live therapist add-on option or a particular standard of privacy that’s really important to you.
It's worth noting that because most apps offer more affordable routes to accessing therapy, they generally don’t pay clinicians well, says Macrynikola. But in her opinion, there isn’t really a need to worry about their bandwidth to support you, as even though they may be more tired, “most therapists still practice ethically and will observe their limits.”
Instead, give them the benefit of the doubt and make sure you’re putting in the effort you’re asking of them too, Macrynikola adds. “It’s not just about connecting with a therapist,” she says. “Change happens when we not only become more aware of our learned ways of reacting to difficult situations in our lives, but also consistently practice new ways of thinking, acting, and relating to our own emotions that can add up to feeling better over time.”
If you just can’t get past your skepticism (fair), follow Bufka’s advice and use apps only to discover a provider versus conducting actual therapy through them. And if you hit a wall with your app-supplied therapist and feel like it’s just not working out, we’ll help you move on to someone better in The Right Way To Break Up With Your Therapist.
Next Article: Should You Bring Your Fam To Therapy?
Photography by Lauren Coleman. Prop Styling by Jenna Tedesco.
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