In today’s fast-paced and digitally connected world, taking care of our mental wellbeing has become more important than ever. During Mental Health Awareness Week, it is crucial to remind ourselves of the power technology holds in supporting our emotional and psychological well-being.
With a myriad of options available at our fingertips, finding the right mental wellbeing app can make a significant difference in our lives. Whether you’re seeking meditation guidance, stress management techniques, or simply a supportive community, we’ve curated a list of 10 remarkable mental wellbeing companies that deserve your attention. These programmes offer valuable resources and tools to help you prioritise your mental health and embark on a journey of self-care and self-discovery.
Moonbird
While the number of people dealing with burnout, anxiety disorders, and insomnia continues to peak, breathing as a way to relax and find inner peace is growing in popularity. And because breathing exercises are more effective if you do them correctly and regularly, Moonbird has developed a tool that guides you intuitively, like a breathing coach in your hand. Relaxing has never been so easy. And fun.
The innovative, sleek, and compact tool guides your breathing slowly, whilst providing feedback on your heart rate and how your body relaxes via a connected app.
The founders of moonbird, brother and sister duo, Stefanie Broes (PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences) and Michael Broes (Economist), saw a gap in the market to make the benefits of breathing more widely accessible and understood, via an easy to use, accessible handheld breathing device that allows people to track their progress and manage their stress more efficiently.
Wysa
Wysa is a mental health app with a conversational AI therapy chatbot that guides you through life’s stresses and helps you cope with mental challenges. Leveraging behavioural techniques, you can identify, design and work towards your goals. Wysa is empathetic, helpful, and will never judge. Your identity will remain anonymous and your conversations are privacy protected.
Wysa is used by more than 5 million people from all walks of life. Wysa guides you through research-backed, widely used techniques of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and meditation exercises, to support you with depression, stress, anxiety, sleep and a whole range of other mental health and wellness needs. Wysa is clinically proven to reduce depression and anxiety by up to 40%.
Wysa’s research shows a third of employed British people have anxiety and depression but an astonishing 51% have never spoken to a professional, with 31% saying they’re too embarrassed. Don’t let poor mental health get the better of you, with clinically validated and engaging support from Wysa. And best of all, because it’s in your pocket, you can turn to it any time, anywhere, and get stigma free help when you’re struggling the most.
Balance
The free balance app was founded by GP and renowned menopause specialist Dr Louise Newson, and provides evidence-based and unbiased information to help users become better informed, prepared and empowered during the perimenopause and menopause.
The app allows users to track their symptoms, access medically-approved, expert content and download a personalised health report they can take to their GP and help them access the treatment they need. Dr Louise, alongside a team of dedicated and passionate experts, are on a joint mission to make menopause support inclusive and accessible to all.
Through their carefully curated content – from podcasts to masterclasses to workshops on every subject from HRT to nutrition to exercise – the app allows everybody to get the guidance and support they need. The platform also provides a safe space for the menopause community, encouraging users to connect, share stories, and support each other to break menopause taboos.
The balance app is the only menopause app certified by ORCHA and recognised as safe, accredited, compliant, and trusted to feature in digital health libraries for the NHS and other national health bodies around the world.
thymia
thymia is a mental healthtech startup revolutionising how mental health is assessed, diagnosed and treated using AI-powered video games. Founded in 2020 by neuroscientist Dr Emilia Molimpakis and theoretical physicist Dr Stefano Goria, they have built a platform that uses AI to identify symptoms of mental health conditions, including depression, and to monitor stress and wellbeing.
The thymia tool analyses voice, video and behaviour to track invisible “biomarkers” which can flag signs of mental ill-health, fatigue and burnout. It is already being trialled in clinics around the world and is being developed to help assess ADHD, Alzheimer’s, dementia, Parkinson’s and schizophrenia.
Oliva
Oliva is the mental health platform that offers employees on-demand, specialist mental health support, paid for by employers. Co-founded by Javier Suarez (who previously founded TravelPerk) and Sançar Sahin (former marketing lead at Typeform) in 2020, Oliva has helped widen access to mental health support for thousands of employees globally.
This includes self-guided content and resources, as well as one-to-one coaching and therapy. Specifically, Oliva provides evidence-based psychological therapies, meaning all treatments are backed by rigorous research. Additionally, therapists are matched with employees based on individual needs. This creates a faster route to the right support, empowering employees to navigate everything from anxiety and depression, to PTSD. The platform is currently active in over 70 countries around the world and customers include Marshmellow, Leapsome and Sifted.
Paired
The world’s no.1 couples app Paired aims to build intimacy in relationships to make them happier and healthier in just ten minutes a day. It combines tips from leading therapists and academics with fun daily questions and quizzes to answer with your partner.
New research from Paired reveals a staggering 58% of couples are battling mental health challenges in their relationship. Since 2020, Paired has helped more than 4 million couples, with four in five agreeing they had a better emotional connection thanks to Paired. A recent independent study on Paired found that 98% of Paired users agreed that they openly communicated with their partner, with 81% of users crediting the app for improving their communication as a couple, increasing to 85% for those using Paired daily.
Rethinkly
Founded in 2013, Rethinkly – powered by ProReal – is a unique development and coaching visualisation tool that provides a safe digital space for teams and individuals to explore problems, relationships, conflicts and dynamics.
Based in the UK, Rethinkly is helping organisations to build the skills and cultures needed in today’s dynamic business environments. Currently used in 16 NHS Trusts across the UK for educational support, the management of common mental health problems, and mentalisation-based treatments in group and 1:1 settings, the platform is now being used to address issues associated with poor wellbeing at work, from trouble expressing one’s feelings to feeling supported by employers when dealing with anxiety.
The VR software enables patients to enter a digital 3D world and create virtual people, known as avatars, to explore their feelings in different scenarios.
Thrive In Mind Ltd
Thrive In Mind Ltd is a female founded tech company. Their mission is to eradicate poor mental health in the workplace. They believe that approximately £8billion a year could be saved by UK businesses investing in their workforce’s mental health.
The team have over 40 years experience working in mental health services. They have taken what works in psychotherapy and created a digital training programme, making research based interventions much more accessible for businesses and their staff. Managers are able to provide an intervention that is effective and staff can access this in a timely manner.
The programme mirrors a therapy format, broken down into four sessions with home tasks between. Algorithms create bespoke worksheets alongside over 2 hours of videos, animation and experiential exercises all aimed at building psychological resiliency and good mental health. All worksheets are downloadable as well any notes the client makes as they go along. The programme is adapted for different learning styles and each individual can go
at their own pace. It is accessed via laptops, PC’s and tablets.
Multiple rounds of testing have shown that clients enjoy the programme and develop the skills needed to have better mental health now, and going forward.
Me helping me
Me helping me is a mobile app designed to be an essential tool for anyone experiencing stress and anxiety, proving a wide range of energy practices to help them feel better and take back control of their lives including techniques to improve emotional well-being and overall quality of life.
These practices are all designed to help users calm their nervous systems. By harnessing the power of energy practices in video form me helping me app aims to provide a supportive resource empowering the user to love their life and achieve a greater sense of well-being an emotional balance.
Enable a positive change with more ease, more inspiration and more momentum. Start to see, enjoy and create more positivity around you in your everyday living.
Feel the change around you, the ripple effect of feeling positive energies that soothe and settle you allowing you to feel the best you can in every situation. Encouraging the opportunity of clarity in understanding from work stress to family conflict.
This app gives you time and space to find the answers from yourself without waiting for your environment to change. Embark on a journey to embrace positivity in every aspect of your daily routine.
The Zensory
The Zensory is a scientifically backed wellbeing and productivity app designed to transform mood in a matter of minutes. Supported by over 200+ research papers and world-leading experts, the app combines cutting-edge neuroscience techniques with immersive sensory practices to help users discover personalised ways to use their senses to work at their best, helping to maintain a healthy work-life balance and reduce burnout.
Additionally, The Zensory helps users turn down the noise, tune into their senses and tap into their ideal mood state, whether that’s focus and productivity, positivity, creativity or recalibration and calm. The app achieves this by concentrating on the five key senses. From interactive touchpads to binaural beats, there’s something for everyone! Users have reported that, after using the app, they felt 5x more focused and 5x more relaxed, depending on which activity they tried.
