Free Mental Health Resources

 Most of what I talk about here on my blog is witchcraft, today I want to share something that is important to anyone who wants to stand in their power and become the best version of themselves that they can be. That is one of the goals of witchcraft, but it's also important to all human beings on the earth no matter what your path is in life, what I'm talking about is your mental and emotional health. I've noticed many of my online friends (are there any other kind in 2021?) are struggling, and I wanted to share some resources with you that might help. My blog just seemed like the easiest way to do that.

I know it's been the most challenging year that most of us have ever faced. The pandemic has made everything including big overreaching problems and little minor things that go wrong in our lives seem to be magnified. As someone who was diagnosed with PTSD shortly before the pandemic started and continued therapy remotely throughout this past 12-plus months I get it. So many of us are just completely overwhelmed and getting so tired.  

We've tried to do whatever we could to protect our communities, families, and ourselves. If you've decided to be part of the solution instead of adding to the problem, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. We've faced our inner demons, we've discovered implicit biases hidden inside and felt outrage at the hate, racism, willful ignorance, and violence that humanity seems to have been steeped in for far too long. We want to face the world with compassion and wisdom, but how can we help others if we haven't done the work to help ourselves? You can't pour from an empty vessel.

I know, you're tired, frustrated, tattered and torn. So am I. You miss your families, friends, and being together in the world. You're mourning the lives lost this year to the virus, to violence, systemic racism, suicide, and reasons too many to count. Sometimes life hurts. I get it.

The truth is, I'm concerned for all of us, dear reader. I can't tell you how many times I was so grateful after talking with my therapist about how I've been feeling. It really helps. I know that I really lucked out with her and that many people don't have the privilege to be able to get therapy, years ago I didn't either. With all that we as individuals and a society are facing right now, I'll tell you something, those feelings you're having...they're normal given the circumstances we're living in, you shouldn't have to face those feelings alone. You deserve better

To that end, I wanted to share some resources, most are free, some of the apps have in-app purchases, but if you’re on a limited budget you can get a lot out of the free versions. None of these apps or companies have paid me to share these with you, these are some that I found on my own or that were recommended. If you find one or more that helps you then you have another tool for managing and maybe you’ll share it with someone else in need. Let's destigmatize and normalize mental health treatment. Together, I hope we can go from simply surviving to eventually thriving.

Important Note:

These applications explicitly do not replace the diagnosis by a mental health care provider, but can aid treatment. These applications explicitly do not replace psychotherapy. I've provided links so that you can research these apps on your own, most (I think all) are available for iPhone and Android.

Resources For Mental Health

The Mighty- Free

The Mighty is the world's largest digital health community. We're people who talk about what health is really like — from mental health to chronic illness, disability, rare disease, parenting, neuro-diversity, care-giving and so much more. Find and foster the human connections that will help you navigate your health journey, no matter what you or your loved one is going through. We're here for you.https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-mighty/id1432324582

MindDoc: Your Mental Health Companion- Free

Top mental health app with over 3,000,000 downloads and 4.7 stars out of 26,000+ reviews.
Developed by clinical psychologists in close collaboration with leading researchers for those who want to learn about emotional well-being or who suffer from mild-to-moderate mental illness including depression, anxiety, insomnia, and eating disorders. https://mymoodpath.com/en/

7 Cups: Online Therapy & Chat- Free with in-app purchases, They also offer counseling with licensed therapists for $150 per month.

Thanks to thousands of volunteer listeners stepping up to lend a friendly ear, 7 Cups is happy to say, "We're here for you!" No matter who you are or what you're going through, this is a place where you'll be heard and cared for. We might be strangers on the surface, but underneath we're just the friends you haven't met yet. https://www.7cups.com/

 CPT Coach -Free

CPT Coach is for Veterans, Service members, and others with PTSD who are participating in Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) with a professional mental healthcare provider. This app contains support materials for a complete course of CPT to help you manage your treatment, including between session assignments, readings, PTSD symptom monitoring, and mobile versions of CPT worksheets. CPT Coach is not intended to be used as self-help without the guidance of a professional mental healthcare provider.https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=gov.va.mobilehealth.ncptsd.cptcoach&hl=en&gl=US

ACT Coach -Free

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) aims to help you live with unpleasant thoughts, ACT Coach was developed for Veterans, Servicemembers, and other people who are in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in consultation with a therapist. It offers exercises, tools, information, and tracking logs so you can practice what you’re learning in your daily life. In ACT, you are encouraged to commit to actions so that you can live your life by your values, even in the face of these unpleasant experiences.https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=is.vertical.actcoach&hl=en

 

CBT-i Coach-Free

CBT-i Coach is for people who are engaged in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia with a health provider, or who have experienced symptoms of insomnia and would like to improve their sleep habits. The app will guide users through the process of learning about sleep, developing positive sleep routines, and improving their sleep environments. It provides a structured program that teaches strategies proven to improve sleep and help alleviate symptoms of insomnia. CBT-i Coach is intended to augment face-to-face care with a healthcare professional. It can be used on its own, but it is not intended to replace therapy for those who need it. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=gov.va.mobilehealth.ncptsd.cbti&hl=en&gl=US

 

What’s Up? A Mental Health App - Free- In-App Purchases

What's Up? is a fantastic free app utilizing some of the best CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) and ACT (Acceptance Commitment Therapy) methods to help you cope with Depression, Anxiety, Anger, Stress and more! With a beautiful, modern design, simple heading and easy-to-follow methods, you can get to what helps you the most in seconds! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jacksontempra.apps.whatsup&hl=en&gl=US

Bloom- Free- In-App Purchases

Bloom is the easiest & most affordable way to do therapy. Train your mind with over 500+ exercises from cognitive-behavioral-therapy (CBT). Do therapy yourself and get personalized daily mental health coaching sessions to manage stress and anxiety, improve sleep, build better habits, foster stronger relationships and improve the quality of life. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bloom-cbt-therapy-self-care/id1475128511

Calm Harm- Free

Calm Harm is an award-winning app developed for teenage mental health charity stem4 by Dr Nihara Krause, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, using the basic principles of an evidence-based therapy called Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT). Calm Harm provides tasks to help you resist or manage the urge to self-harm. You can make it private by setting a password, and personalize the app if you so wish. You will be able to track your progress and notice change. https://calmharm.co.uk/#row1

 

DBT Coach - Free- In-App Purchases

This is the most comprehensive DBT app that exists today with easy to follow visual tools.
Learn and practice DBT skills using video lessons and fun animations which helps you to remember skills longer. Features over 100 videos and 200+ animations. You can also take notes on these lessons for future use. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.swasth.dbtcoach&hl=en_US&gl=US

SuperBetter -Free

Join nearly a millon people who have played SuperBetter so far to build resilience, achieve goals, and tackle challenges including anxiety, depression, stress, chronic pain, concussion recovery, and more. This app is fun and encouraging and backed by science. Created by game designer Jane McGonigal, SuperBetter is powered by the Live Gamefully® method; a framework that activates the psychological strengths of game play to build resilience and success in real life. Proven results in just minutes a day. https://www.superbetter.com/

 

Meditation Apps

Waking Up: Guided Meditation - Free- In-App Purchases

Waking Up is a guide to understanding the mind, for the purpose of living a more balanced and fulfilling life. Join Sam Harris—neuroscientist, philosopher, and New York Times best-selling author—as he explores the practice of meditation and examines the theory behind it. https://wakingup.com/

 

Insight Timer Free- In-App Purchases

Insight Timer offers 90,000 free guided meditations. We believe everyone deserves access to a free daily meditation practice. Which is why we publish the world's largest collection of free guided meditations, with over 90,000 titles. There are meditations for almost any topic you can imagine and even meditations for children. https://insighttimer.com/

Liberate -Free- In-App Purchases

Liberate is the meditation app for us, by us that is Black-owned. We’re not only just a meditation app, we’re a safe space for the Black community to develop a daily meditation habit. Anyone is welcome to use Liberate, we just want to be clear who we’re here for.

With popular meditations and talks like The Joy of Gratitude, Mindfulness of Healing, and For The Ancestor In You we offer a meditation journey that speaks to the realities of being Black in the modern day. Our carefully-curated library of over 260+ titles is led by teachers of color representing a wide range of experiences and lineages in their practice. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/liberate-black-meditation-app/id1451620569

The Tapping Solution Free- In-App Purchases

After 540,000 plays of our “Releasing Anxiety” Tapping meditation the average reported reduction of anxiety was 41% in just 9 minutes. Tapping, also known as EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), is a powerful stress relief technique. Tapping is based on the combined principles of ancient Chinese acupressure and modern psychology. This is because stress is linked to anxiety, weight gain, sleep problems, lack of motivation, chronic pain, stomach issues, and depression. Tapping is proven to reduce stress, lower cortisol, improve sleep, reduce anxiety, relieve pain, increase productivity, and so much more! https://www.thetappingsolution.com/tapping-101/

 

Headspace -Free, In-App Purchases

Headspace makes meditation techniques available online so more people could experience the benefits of meditation anytime, anywhere. With this app you’ll find: guided meditations, animations, articles and videos, all in the distinct Headspace style. There are also useful articles on the website and a show on Netflix about meditation. https://www.headspace.com/

 

Calm - Free, In-App Purchases

Sleep, Meditation and Relaxation, with over 100 million downloads and over 1.5M+ 5-star reviews. We’re honored to be an Apple BEST OF 2018 award winner, Apple's App of the Year 2017, Google Play Editor's Choice 2018, and to be named by the Center for Humane Technology as "the world's happiest app". https://www.calm.com/

I hope you find some resources here that are helpful. It might also "break the seal" on the idea of looking for help. You might even find more if you search for apps on your phone. If you want to get in person mental health treatment (and many are doing telehealth these days too.) You can visit Psychology Today https://www.psychologytoday.com/ and they have a great search where you can find all kinds of mental health professionals in your area. If you're on a tight budget some even offer a sliding scale. I know it's scary, but if you've read this far then I know you're thinking seriously about it. It's going to be ok. If you had a broken arm, you would go to the doctor, this is no different. I believe in you!

Love and Blessings,

Mickie