Self-Help Options
These self-help options may be useful when you wish to do a little something on your own. Sometimes that’s all you may need. If you find that you would like to explore a concern in more depth or would like to talk with someone face to face regarding your concerns, please call us 863.680.6236 or drop by our offices (Thrift Building, first floor) to schedule an appointment.
Applications
These apps are available for Apple and Android platforms. We are not endorsing any of the apps or their efficacy specifically and they are not partnered with this institution or maintained by the Florida Southern College Counseling Center. Most are free but some are available for a small fee or may have in-app purchases.
Anxiety
Anxiety Reliever
Relax, overcome anxiety and stress, and fall asleep faster with the help of Anxiety Reliever. Immerse yourself in a relaxing, supportive and soothing environment. Anxiety Reliever consists of a collection of calming audio recordings, helpful guides, insightful anxiety tracker, breath work, and supportive messages.
AnxietyCoach
A very important part of overcoming anxiety is identifying your triggers, tracking your habitual thoughts and noticing improvements. This app’s tracker is a useful daily tool that helps to identify and evaluate your thinking patterns and anxiety triggers. There are also calming audio sessions to help you overcome anxiety, relax, and fall asleep faster. Each session will guide you through stress and anxiety to feeling better and calmer. Use your headphones when listening to binaural audio recordings to experience 360° sound.
Breathe2Relax
Breathe2Relax is a portable stress management tool that provides detailed information on the effects of stress on the body and instructions and practice exercises to help users learn the stress management skill called diaphragmatic breathing. Breathing exercises have been documented to decrease the body’s ‘fight-or-flight’ response, and help with mood stabilization, anger control, and anxiety management. Breathe2Relax can be used as a stand-alone stress reduction tool, or can be used in tandem with clinical care directed by a healthcare worker. Breathe2Relax now uses HealthKit and your Apple Watch device to measure your heart rate throughout your breathing exercise to help provide an even more complete picture of the relaxation experienced.
iCBT App
CBT helps you manage stress and anxiety whenever and wherever you need to. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has been proven to be the most effective psychological therapy for a range of problems including PTSD, panic attacks, generalized anxiety, OCD, and some eating disorders, and is among the most effective for depression and some personality disorders. CBT focuses on correcting distorted thinking patterns and altering behaviors to relieve self-defeating attitudes, reduce symptoms, and improve well-being.
Live OCD Free
Live OCD Free is an interactive application designed to guide users through the only evidence-based treatment, Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Available now for the iPhone, this app functions as your personal pocket therapist, available to coach you as you work to manage OCD.
MindShift
Struggling with anxiety? Tired of missing out? There are things you can do to stop anxiety and fear from controlling your life. MindShift is an app designed to help you cope with anxiety. It can help you change how you think about anxiety. Rather than trying to avoid anxiety, you can make an important shift and face it.
Pacifica
Targeted to help those with anxiety and mood disorders and stress, this app teaches deep breathing, behavioral exercises, identifying cognitive distortions (negative thinking patterns) and replacing them with positive thinking patterns. Pacifica is a smartphone app for use with iOS 6.0 and above on Apple devices or version 4.0 and above on Android devices. The app provides tools for managing depressed mood, anxiety, and stress that are built upon principles of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), mindfulness, relaxation and health.
PTSD Coach
PTSD Coach was designed for those who have, or may have, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This app provides you with education about PTSD, information about professional care, a self-assessment for PTSD, opportunities to find support, and tools that can help you manage the stresses of daily life with PTSD. Tools range from relaxation skills and positive self-talk to anger management and other common self-help strategies. You can customize tools based on your preferences and can integrate your own contacts, photos, and music. This app can be used by people who are in treatment as well as those who are not.
Happify
Happify is a self-guided app that aims to increase positive emotions through exercises and games supported by positive psychology and mindfulness research. Whether you’re feeling stressed, anxious, or depressed, or you’re dealing with constant negative thoughts, Happify brings you effective tools and programs to take control of your emotional well-being. The techniques are grounded on evidence-based interventions in the fields of positive psychology, mindfulness, and cognitive behavioral therapy. The app can help you reduce stress, overcome negative thoughts, and build greater resilience. 86% of people who use Happify regularly report feeling better about their lives in two months.
MY3 App
With MY3, you define your network and your plan to stay safe. With MY3 you can be prepared to help yourself and reach out to others when you are having thoughts of suicide. My3 Allows you to define a support network and reach out/stay connected when you’re struggling with thoughts of suicide.
iCBT App
CBT helps you manage stress and anxiety whenever and wherever you need to. Manage stress and anxieties with iCBT, a personal-use tool for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy that is always with you when you need it. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has been proven to be the most effective psychological therapy for a range of problems including PTSD, panic attacks, generalized anxiety, OCD, and some eating disorders, and is among the most effective for depression and some personality disorders. CBT focuses on correcting distorted thinking patterns and altering behaviors to relieve self-defeating attitudes, reduce symptoms, and improve well-being.
MoodTools
MoodTools is designed to help you combat depression and alleviate your negative moods, aiding you on your road to recovery. MoodTools contains several different research-supported tools. They include: Thought Diary, Activities, Safety Plan, Information, Test, and Video.
Pacifica
Targeted to help those with anxiety and mood disorders and stress, this app teaches deep breathing, behavioral exercises, identifying cognitive distortions (negative thinking patterns), and learning how to replace them with positive thinking patterns. The app provides tools for managing depressed mood, anxiety, and stress that are built upon principles of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), mindfulness, relaxation and health.
Depression CBT Self-Help Guide
Cognitive-behavioral self-help for depression. The natural management of depression involves understanding depression and the factors that contribute to the symptoms. Learning to manage stress in your life and engage in self-care behaviors can improve your symptoms. This app contains a depression severity test with graph, audios, articles, a cognitive diary, and a motivational points system to help you learn and follow the cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) methods.
Positive Thinking
Leverage the power of positive thinking to improve your overall mental health. This app offers positive quotations to help you keep your mind focused on positive thoughts. An in-app tool also lets you program the positive messages to appear on your phone as a pick-me-up during your day.
MoodKit
Whenever you’re in a bad mood, you can use MoodKit to try to get out of that funk. With more than 200 mood improvement activities, a journal and thought tracker, and help to modify distressing thoughts, this app is designed by mental health professionals to help you feel better.
Mindfulness Meditation
This meditation app includes a five-day guided meditation practice, reminders for when it’s time to relax, and other options based on individual meditation habits. It can also be integrated with other health apps if you enjoy using this type of device. If you want to be more mindful and incorporate regular meditation into the day, this app is a good choice for you. You can purchase more features with a premium subscription.
Headspace
Get out of your head or more into it with Headspace, a meditation app for people just starting a meditation routine. Its free trial includes ten exercises geared toward beginners that can help you learn more about meditation as well as applying it to your life. There is a personalized progress page, reward system for continued practice, and buddy system that lets users connect with others to stay on track. The animations add a cute, light-hearted touch to help you understand meditation. More features are available as part of a premium subscription.
Calm
Calm offers a wide range of guided meditations to assist you in adding more relaxation into your life. The selections range from 3-minute to 25-minute sessions. It also includes a feature called Daily Calm, a 10-minute program you can practice at the beginning or end of your day—a great routine to get into. There are also breathing exercises, unguided meditations, sleep stories, and more than 25 soothing sounds to help you improve your sleep. You can purchase more features with a premium subscription.
Insight Timer
Check out more than 4,500 free guided meditations from over 1,000 meditation practitioners with this app. It also gives you access to 750 meditation music tracks. Customize your meditation using the background sounds and meditation tool intervals to create a unique experience that works best for you. To listen offline, you can also purchase a monthly subscription.
Stop, Breathe & Think
This meditation app boasts more than 55 options for guided meditation selections, so you’ll never get bored with your practice. It also segments exercises according to topics such as sleep, compassion, depression, and anxiety. You can tailor chimes and sounds to your preferences, and record your daily meditation practice to track progress throughout the year. Even more content is available with a premium subscription.
10% Happier
Not sure if you should try meditation? This app is designed for skeptics who want to try meditation, but want to simplify the process with practical, easy-to-apply content. The exercises aim to help users with anxiety and sleep, and the app adds new content each week. Apple Health App integration is also available. Users can also get the premium version of over 500 videos and additional content. This was created by well-known news anchor Dan Harris to help others find more peace in life.
Breethe
More meditation tools these days are aimed at beginners because meditation isn’t as common in some areas of the world as others. Breethe has mindfulness and meditation techniques to get people meditating more regularly. The developers say it takes just 10 minutes a day to get into a meditation routine, and the app brings you content for mornings, sleep, and other tailored topics. You can use it for free, forever, or unlock all content with premium subscription.
Omvana
In a specific mood and want to find the perfect meditation for it? Or want to meditate based on your stress levels via HealthKit? Choose from a wide range of specialized meditations taught by a variety of instructors. Programs vary in length and you can tailor the background music to your preferences. Omvana also features programs to help you become more mindful. The appealing graphics make it easy to choose a track that suits your needs and your mood.