These Are The Best Mental Health Apps For On-The-Go Self-Care

Packages start at $69 a week and may vary depending on the number of sessions and the number of access points to treatment. Talkspace is in-network with many major medical plans.

Talkspace currently offers three therapy plans for individual and teen therapy:

• The Messaging Therapy plan includes unlimited messaging with guaranteed therapist responses five days a week and starts at $69/week
• The Video + Messaging Therapy plan includes video sessions and messaging. Send messages and schedule video calls starting at $99/week
• The Video + Messaging + Workshops plan access to everythign talkspace offers. Send messages, meet live, and attend weekly workshops starting at $109/week
  

Talkspace hit web browsers in 2012 with the goal to assist patients in leaping over the financial, geographical, and social obstacles that have often plagued the accessibility of quality mental health services. Talkspace understands that key deterrents to seeking mental health treatment include financial strain and fear around both the stigma of seeking treatment and lack of understanding of what that treatment will entail. For this reason, Talkspace makes the pursuit of professional therapy affordable, discreet, and safe for all.

Talkspace offers online therapy for individuals, couples, and teens with the availability of psychiatric medication management. Beginning with a personal assessment, the app analyzes each user’s personal needs in order to match them with a provider; taking the guesswork out of picking a provider at random. Additionally, the app allows you to speak directly with your matched therapist one-on-one and provides the option to message them at any time for their review and feedback. Talkspace therapy packages can differ, but many include video sessions, messaging, and workshop content.

Headspace provides a focus on meditation, mindfulness, and happiness which results in the end goal of increased mental health. Offering thousands of different meditation exercises, Headspace has gathered a diverse library for every individual’s needs and preferences. For those of us who are new to meditation or if the goal is to build upon existing skills, Headspace is our number one pick for any age and level of achievement, including the more experienced. Headspace founders Andy Puddicombe and Rich Pierson aren’t just the brain trusts behind the mental health venture, they are also clients!

Affordable and accessibility is a mission at Headspace, with generous free trials allowing for heaps of sampling before buying, monthly and yearly plans, free access for teens, and discounts for students and families. Not only is Headspace easily affordable, but it’s also all-inclusive, catering to every need and community. Headspace also promotes accessibility by accommodating all schedules and comfort levels. Mini meditations are available starting at one to three minutes in length, assuring mental wellness is prioritized within the busiest schedules.

Packages are offered at $12.99 a month or $69.99 a year.

Calm offers something for everyone and every style. The app provides guided meditations, sleep tracks, and tools for mindfulness similar to other apps on the market. What sets the Calm app apart are the additional options and categories that are not available elsewhere. Some of these features include calming classical tracks for pets, workplace vibes to help with focus, and short daily videos aimed at building positive habits, such as movement videos conducted by a Calm professional. 

Fully capturing the benefits of a zen and restful mind by speaking to the mental benefits of movement, Calm acts in a manner that’s unlike other mental health apps. Be it simple stretches from the quiet of your bedroom or a break in the stillness from your office chair, Calm brings an awareness, as well as the physical techniques that aim to serve the mind-body connection. Calm offers an array of starter videos to assist in addressing your mental health from multiple vantage points at an affordable price point, and from the convenience of nearly any device and location. 

Calm continues to innovate and accentuate how we discover, address, and treat mental health concerns. With daily offerings to promote mindfulness, stress relief, focus, better sleep, movement, and tranquility for kids, Calm provides a robust program for individuals, families, and colleagues that can be utilized throughout your day. From nearly any location, even from the comfort of your office chair, Calm allows access to their comprehensive list of exercises anytime the need arises.

Calm offers an annual subscription for $69.99 a year and a monthly package valued at $14.99 a month. A seven-day free trial is also available if you would like to test the waters prior to committing.

Circles was founded in 2020 to help create a virtual support group between individuals who share a common struggle or issue. While many of us prefer a one-on-one environment in which to discuss our mental health struggles, the team at Circles builds upon the idea that group therapy for many can be just as, if not more, effective than individual therapy. Groups on the Circles app offer support with addiction, divorce, grief, stress management, parenthood, illness, and more. The premise is to create an alliance of support with other individuals who truly get the pain and/or situation you are going through. Each group holds weekly meetings facilitated by a licensed professional. In addition to a private weekly video meeting, members also have access to a 24/7 group chat and live audio conversations available between your scheduled meetings. 

Circles offers many different programs and groups. A 12-week  program is offered at $49 a month and includes a video meeting package, a vetted group of an additional 10 participants, and one mental health professional facilitator. Circles also offers a more flexible monthly plan as well as a free option. The free option is more limited and does not include a mental health professional as a facilitator.

Twelve-week support programs are offered at $49 a month. Circles offers a free 14-day trial for all monthly and annual subscription plans, as well as limited group sessions at no cost. The free option is more limited and not facilitated.

Smiling Mind is a mental health not-for-profit organization that provides mindfulness tools and exercises to children and adults at no cost. Since first launching in 2012, Smiling Mind is now considered to be one of the world’s leaders in the preemptive mental health space, per the company's website. Smiling Mind brings the conversation and prioritization of mindfulness to the table at an early age, with programs available to children as young as 3 years old. The app is designed specifically to appeal to children, with a bright, colorful interface and easy-to-read data tracking. 

Smiling Mind has numerous different programs for children, including The Bubble Journey, Snow Globe, Smiling Starfish, and Thrive Inside. Developed via a collaborative effort between psychologists and educators, studies have shown that the Smiling Mind mindfulness program results in improved sleep, enhanced well-being, and improved behavior in children. Program results have been shown to be beneficial for teachers and parents as well.

The app is completely free, though a device and an email are required in order to participate.

Colorfy takes your favorite coloring book and places it in the palm of your hand. The app is much more than a coloring book, allowing users to resolve emotions and thoughts using a visually therapeutic outlet. Art therapy has been shown to provide benefits as it relates to stress, anxiety, trauma, and depression. Coloring allows children, teens, and adults to focus, pass the time, and decompress. Coloring on the app allows the user to slow down their busy thoughts and focus on visually stimulating pages to ease anxiety and restlessness. It also helps that coloring is a ton of fun too! 

Colorfy’s paid subscription allows the use of the app offline, access to over 1,000 different pictures, and the ability to share and view drawings with the entire Colorfy community. The app even allows you to upload your personal drawings and color them using its color palettes and effects. The app is free to download with a limited selection of no-cost drawings. To access a deeper range of coloring pages, a subscription package is required.

A subscription to Colorfy costs $7.99 a week.

Insight Timer provides an impressive array of content focused on mindfulness, mental health, and relief from daily anxieties. This app provides access to the world’s largest library of guided meditations, with over 150,000 tracks available completely free of charge. Offering more than meditations, the app also helps tackle anxiety via guided contemplation exercises, breathwork, sleep stories, and yoga for a small monthly or annual fee. Daily mood check-ins and journaling capabilities allow you to track your anxiety triggers and note what works best for your personal needs. 

Insight Timer promotes a deep engagement with its activities, helping users develop consistency and maintain a commitment to their mental health journey. The app is free to download and offers a substantial amount of free content. For a more complete experience and access to all of the features Insight Timer has to offer, a paid subscription is recommended.

Subscriptions start at $9.99 a month or $59.99 a year.

TIDE prioritizes physical and mental care, aiming to tackle sleep issues from all angles. The look and design of the TIDE app is intentionally uncluttered to create calm and relaxation. The team at TIDE believes that to engage in proper rest, your mind needs to be free of clutter and distraction, not busy, noisy, or hectic. TIDE is not just for the sleep-deprived but also the procrastinator, the distracted creative, and the anxious-minded. 

When it comes to TIDE, you have four basic mindfulness options: sleep, focus, meditation, and breath. Put these pillars together, and you are setting the stage for an ideal night's rest and building the pathway to your overall mental health. Additional features of the TIDE app include: sleep analysis, connectivity to Healthkit, and the ability to synchronize your TIDE data to your iPhone health app as well as the TIDE Diary to keep track of your favorite peaceful and restful moments.

The subscription plan costs $11.99 a month or $59.99 a year.

Breathwrk doesn’t set out just to get you breathing, it aims to get you breathing correctly.  Through proper breathing techniques called breathers, users are able to reduce stress and anxiety, stimulate energy, and promote increased mental health. Studies have shown that “voluntarily regulated breathing practices can significantly improve symptoms of anxiety disorders, trauma- and stressor-related disorders, depressive disorders, and other conditions.” Breathwrk incorporates these fundamental concepts to help guide and support users to find their breath and peace of mind in a personalized way. 

The app features numerous classes and exercises, as well as Apple Health Integration, a breath counter, and Mindfulness Minutes. Free updated exercises are available daily, as well as a variety of health-based exercises, some of which include exercises for Covid support, pregnancy and labor, asthma, migraines, hiccups, and beyond. While a majority of the available exercises are only available through the paid version of the app, Breathwrk provides many discount options, including those for students, families, first responders, and military members.

A variety of subscription packages are available. The monthly packages begin at $3.99, with the annual offerings starting at $49 a year.

Simple Habit’s mission is simple: “ to empower humans to stress less, achieve more, and live better.” The app offers over 2,000 guided meditations and a wide variety of programs. Top meditation and mindfulness teachers, licensed psychologists, and coaches from all over the world guide the app’s users to find their zen, overcome stress, and sleep better. The variety and offerings of meditation topics and subcategories are impressive. Meditations are neatly categorized and easily identified, removing any unnecessary stress as you navigate through the app. 

Simple Habit provides more than 25 different categories containing hundreds of different exercises overall. This app includes topic varieties not otherwise found, such as exercises for intimacy, athletes, holiday stress, and commuting. The app, of course, provides the classic topics of anxiety, health, spirituality, and self-improvement. For variety in a mental health app, Simple Habit simply can’t be beat.

Simple Habit offers free access to a portion of its content, but a lot of meditations and sessions are kept under lock and key for paid subscribers. Subscription packages range from $11.99 a month to $89.99 for a year.