Published on: 24 Aug 2023
We live in an era where technology is valuable in every industry — including mental health. Digital tools and apps offer a wealth of benefits for therapists today. From improved efficiency and organization to enhanced client management capabilities and streamlined administrative tasks — which apps stand out? We’ve rounded up some of the 13 best apps for therapists here, so keep reading to find out what you need to enhance your practice and make your job easier, more productive, and efficient.
Note: This is not a paid list of affiliates. These podcasts are recommended by Talkspace therapists with no particular order of preference.
“As every profession continues to get more digital, it’s important to figure out what will work you best. There are many options for apps and services available to therapists now to help with their own practice or to use in conjunction with being part of an agency.”
Scheduling appointments online has become more popular than ever over the last decade. What once took a call from a landline and often involved long hold times and waiting for call-backs can now be done with just a tap on the screen or a push of the button. One tool that’s paving the way for this shift is SimplePractice, an app designed with therapists in mind.
When you don’t need time and resources to schedule clients, you can dedicate more time to helping patients. Both HIPAA-compliant and HITRUST CSF-Certified, SimplePractice has changed the scheduling game.
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Features
- Scheduling and digital organization
- Documentation capability with customizable templates
- Billing for paperless payments
- Client portal
- Simple claim filing for insurance
- Fully-HIPPA compliant
- Mobile capability
- Easy-to-use website builder
- World-class support
Benefits of SimplePractice
SimplePractice is a practice management software that offers an all-in-one, fully integrated Electronic Health Record (EHR) and more. With additional learning opportunities available in on-demand CE courses, hour-tracking capability, and a robust directory that lets you list your practice, finding and keeping new clients is easy. It’s benefits like these that make SimplePractice a winning app for therapists.
TherapyNotes stands out in the mental health app world — and for good reason. The platform is designed with therapists in mind and offers an array of features to enhance your practice. From managing patient records to scheduling appointments, TherapyNotes is one of the best practice management apps on the market.
Features
- Scheduling and to-do list
- Notes and electronic records
- Electronic billing
- Payment processing
- Custom client portal
- Electronic prescription management
- Worry free security
- Stellar customer support
Benefits
TherapyNotes offers features that enhance and improve your practice. Created by an experienced healthcare IT consultant and clinical psychologist husband-wife team, this is one of the best apps for therapists because it was created to fill a critical void and need in the market for electronic storage of therapy notes that are easily accessible, secure, and organized.
Evernote is one of the oldest digital notebook tools out there, touted for its ease of use in note-taking capabilities. Accessibility is crucial for therapists and mental health professionals, and this app doesn’t disappoint. Evernote can be used on a phone, computer, or tablet.
Features
- Auto syncing
- Formatting options
- Usable interface
- Powerful search capability
- To-do and task manager
- Document scanner
- Web clipper to save content from the web
Benefits
Evernote is in a versatile class of its own. When used as a digital notebook, you’re not limited to text notes — photos and voice memos are great for capturing insights during or after therapy sessions when reviewing cases. Besides being an excellent tool for taking notes, Evernote can help you track patient progress and access information quickly with powerful search capabilities.
Therapists looking to streamline their practice and enhance client engagement should check out Quenza — for many, it’s the ideal mental health app. Quenza offers features that address many common issues for mental health providers. This client engagement platform has digital support that helps anyone trying to scale their practice and provide value to their clients. You can assign homework, offer psychoeducation, conduct assessments, and create online care paths.
Features
- Engage with multiple clients
- Activity builder with drag-and-drop functionality
- Automated intake process
- Access to a library of activities
- Automated reminders
- Track and manage client results
- Encrypted chat feature
- White label customization
Benefits
The core strength of this tool lies in its Activity Builder feature, which lets you craft interactive interventions using multimedia elements like videos, images, or audio files tailored to each client’s individual needs. The result? A more engaging and personalized therapy experience. Another stand-out feature includes the Assessment Builder, where you can use a template or quickly develop materials from scratch. Either option offers valuable insights into clients’ progress and makes data collection as efficient as possible. Therapists also love Quenza’s real-time tracking capabilities that let you monitor clients’ interactions with assigned tasks while gauging accurate progress reports.
Zoom for Healthcare is a secure telehealth platform that helps therapists streamline virtual care securely and effectively, so you can meet clients whenever and, wherever they are.
Features
- Secure transfer of sensitive data
- Scalable
- Intuitive platform
- Integration with Google Calendar and Outlook
- HD video and audio
- Integrations with telehealth charts, medical devices, and EHRs
- Live transcription, multi-pinning, and keyboard shortcuts
Benefits
Zoom for Healthcare is a video conferencing app with features tailored for therapy sessions. It offers a range of elements to facilitate therapeutic conversations, and instant messaging allows continuous communication between you and clients outside of scheduled sessions. Screen-sharing capabilities enable visual demonstrations during therapy, and Zoom’s user-friendly interface makes connecting effortless, so you can focus your energy where it matters most — helping your patients navigate their mental health issues effectively.
“I use Zoom to conduct sessions as I have found it to be more consistent in connections. Every therapist will have their reasons for using different apps. Be sure it’s going to work for what you need.”
Ivy Pay is an instant pay mobile app that simplifies the payment process for therapists and mental health professionals. Ivy Pay is HIPAA-secure and swipe-free, making it easier than ever to store and process clients’ payments with the tap of a button. It’s perfect for therapists who manage all aspects of their practice, including the timely and often stressful billing component.
Features
- Easy charge
- Swipe-free
- Instant transfer of funds, no waiting
- Takes payment from debit, credit, HSA, or FSA cards on file
- HIPAA-secure and PCI-protected
- Integration with practice management tools and electronic medical records (EMRs)
Benefits
The administrative task of managing payments can quickly overshadow your primary focus — offering mental healthcare to your patients. Ivy Pay will take this burden off your shoulders by providing a secure and efficient platform for handling payment transactions. Ivy Pay ensures you have more quality therapy sessions with clients without worrying about unpaid invoices or complicated payment systems.
The Round Health app is highly recommended for its ability to help address common issues related to medication compliance. With reminders and tracking capabilities, it supports clients in maintaining regular medicine schedules that are often crucial for effective treatment. This comprehensive medication management tool is a healthcare solution every therapist will want to recommend.
Features
- Effortless medication scheduling
- Dose reminders
- Patient adherence reports
- Intuitive interface
- Scheduling flexibility to accommodate various doses and schedules
- Apple Watch app compatible
- Refill reminders
- Streak counting
- Backup and syncing between devices
Benefits
Round Health makes medication management simple so clients can keep track of and stay on top of their meds. The app is aesthetically pleasing and organized, with pleasant reminders that are unobtrusive or jarring, unlike phone notifications and reminders often. The app helps combat the stress of managing medication, even with daily life’s distractions.
Fostering open communication during therapy sessions can be challenging, but it’s easier when you share The Gottman Institute’s research-based Card Decks’ relationship question prompts with couples. These cards help facilitate discussions between partners or family members, which can be integral to many therapeutic interventions (like cognitive behavioral therapy).
Features
- 14 decks
- 1,000 flashcards
- Quick tap-to-favorite feature
- Helpful questions and ideas for improving your partnership
- Free resources from The Gottman Institute
Benefits
The Gottman Institute’s Card Decks is the relationship app every couples therapist should share with their clients. Stemming from more than 40 years of experience and intense research, The Gottman Institute offers apps and tools that are the first of their kind.
Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), initially created as a therapy treatment for people with borderline personality disorder (BPD), has been an effective way to help people learn to regulate emotions and enhance impulse control. The DBT Travel Guide app offers information about this therapeutic practice, with over 200 mindfulness skills and exercises. The diary card provides an accessible, easy way to track agreements between you and your client.
Features
- Provides tools to help learn emotional regulation and impulse control
- 200+ skills and mindfulness exercises
- Offers support in crises
- Skills training manual
- Chain analyses sent to email
- Export capability (to another device)
Benefits
This free app is loved by therapists and clients alike for its ease of use. It’s great for daily use as well as during focused times of crisis. Highlights of the app include the library of recorded guided meditations and the clickable, targeted Crisis Section, where users can access skills designed to help at the moment based on their experience. The behavioral chain analysis function is the only one like it on the market.
The Doxy telemedicine communication app is free and ensures safe and secure communication between therapist and client. Doxy is HIPAA-compliant telemedicine software available on mobile devices, making convenience at the forefront of the app’s benefits.
Features
- Sign up and get started in under 1-minute
- Trusted by more than 1 million providers
- Functional dashboard and insightful analytics
- Works on desktop or mobile browser
- No download or installation
- Clinic-optimized workflows
- White label capable
- Dedicated landing page and virtual room
- Superior analytics to track usage, trends, and areas for improvement
- Personalized subdomain
Benefits
Doxy changed the game of telemedicine, offering easy access to communication with no complicated downloads or installs necessary. It is a simple but effective option for care providers, patients, or clients to connect.
“Doxy is a quick and easy way to connect with clients online. It’s also very affordable.”
Insight Timer helps people build healthier habits that contribute to well-being. Creating routines that work specifically for the user means someone is more likely to use the app actively. Insight Timer has more than 150,000 guided meditations, thousands of free nature sounds, and ambient music tracks for sleep. Certified and experienced experts teach breathwork techniques to help create a sense of calm and peace. The yoga and contemplation spaces allow users to pause and reflect.
Features
- Most extensive free library of guided meditations
- Deep and high engagement
- Ability to personalize
- 5 well-being apps in 1
- Mood check-in and journaling features
- Yoga and breathwork
Benefits
People use this well-being app consistently, partly due to the ability to customize and personalize features. Insight Timer users spend more time on the app than any other meditation app on the market.
“Insight Timer allows me to play a starting and ending sound, and I can play mindful music or nature sounds during the session.”
Calm is one of the market’s most well-known meditation and sleep apps. With years of experience in the space, millions of users love and regularly use Calm to reduce anxiety and stress, improve sleep, and enhance mindfulness — beginner to advanced-level meditations. This app is great for therapists to share with clients as a tool to use in between sessions.
Features
- Long and short meditations
- Evidence-based
- Offers meditation, relaxation, and sleep tips
- Unique audio content
- Offers “The Daily Calm” with fresh mindful themes daily
- Free to download
- Expanding to offline products, including a book and a natural sleep aid
Benefits
Calm is a universal, non-religious meditation app that’s long been touted as the “world’s happiest app.” The app also was named App of the Year by Apple (2017) and received the esteemed “Editors’ Choice” accolade by Google (2018). Calm aims to enhance “mental fitness” and help users learn to manage some of the most prevalent mental health challenges today — including anxiety, stress, insomnia, and depression. While the app is free to download, users should know they need a paid subscription to access the entire library.
“I love its variety of tools, from sounds to stories to calming the mind.”
As a therapist, you constantly seek ways to improve your practice and give superior care to those in need. Talkspace is an online platform designed specifically with mental health professionals in mind — it’s truly one of the best apps for therapists on the market today.
Features
- Video, messaging, and workshops
- Weekly expert-led mental health workshops
- Peer support groups
- Flexible scheduling
- No need to deal with billing or payment
- Higher compensation than our closest competitors
- Free CE opportunities
Benefits
A user-friendly interface shows the platform’s dedication to delivering a superior experience to users every step of the way. The flexibility in modality options makes it convenient for therapists and clients to deliver and receive therapy.
Whether you’re looking to start your practice or better it, look into any of these apps for therapists to see if they’ll help.
Talkspace articles are written by experienced mental health-wellness contributors; they are grounded in scientific research and evidence-based practices. Articles are extensively reviewed by our team of clinical experts (therapists and psychiatrists of various specialties) to ensure content is accurate and on par with current industry standards.
Our goal at Talkspace is to provide the most up-to-date, valuable, and objective information on mental health-related topics in order to help readers make informed decisions.
Articles contain trusted third-party sources that are either directly linked to in the text or listed at the bottom to take readers directly to the source.
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