Mental health brands and platforms are harnessing technology and digital spaces to make quality care, support and resources more accessible. 

While the past few years ushered within the rise of telehealth platforms like Hims & Hers, in addition they instilled a requirement for mental health resources. In line with a survey by Verywell Mind, eight out of 10 consumers said therapy was a very good investment, but 40 percent said they needed financial support to attend. 

With therapy prices starting from $60 to $250 an hour or more and insurance not entirely covering costs, mental health care will be inaccessible for a lot of. In an effort to satisfy these ongoing needs, a slew of apps have launched aiming to offer supplemental care to traditional therapy. 

In line with Grand View Research, the pandemic expanded the worldwide mental health app market, increasing 54.6 percent between 2019 and 2021, and estimated to be price $5.2 billion in 2022. Expansion is anticipated to proceed with an estimated 20 to 22 percent year-over-year growth in the subsequent five years. That is backed by consumer usage; in keeping with a survey from McKinsey & Company, 64 percent of consumers use a wellness app every day. McKinsey & Company also sites the category as a serious opportunity for businesses to speculate in worker wellbeing by offering discounted app access as a part of their advantages.

Apps “are an excellent addition for people who find themselves in therapy. Those that aren’t in therapy, they’re still purposeful. They will still be helpful because the most important thing about self-help, health and mental health is access to care… A variety of these apps and web sites provide that access because they’re cheaper,” said Alyssa Mancao, a Los Angeles-based licensed clinical social employee. While these platforms will be helpful, she emphasized that these options are usually not comparable to one-on-one or group therapy.  

Headspace, which was founded in 2010, was an early adopter of the digital mindfulness space and continues to be a preferred option inside the category with a 4.8 out of 5 stars rating on the Apple app store. Through each its direct-to-consumer and business-to-business models, the platform reaches 100 million people. 

Headspace provides every day mindfulness exercises and guided meditations for ongoing mental care. The important thing draw for users to check out Headspace is convenience. Through the app, a user can implement a every day practice that only takes just a few minutes. This form of every day use might help people hold themselves accountable, Mancao said. 

In an effort to create a more holistic mental health offering, Headspace acquired mental telehealth company Ginger in 2021, which provides text-based chats, self-guided activities and video-based therapy. 

“What we realized when talking to our members is that they were using a broad array of mental health services with the intention to achieve the outcomes desired,” said Leslie Witt, Headspace’s chief design officer. “A part of our recognition was to say, we will do higher if we actually formally bring these systems together, in order that the dimension of personalized care that we’re delivering through the app is admittedly working in tandem with the personalized care that a human care provider is capable of bring.” 

Real, founded by Ariela Safira, launched with a mission to offer reasonably priced and accessible mental wellness take care of all. Safira aimed to create a platform that will reach consumers where they’re and promote mental health services so that folks aren’t only in search of help once they enter right into a crisis.

Real features guided check-ins to trace the user’s journey, virtual therapist-led events, live group therapy sessions and interactive mental health programs called pathways. The power to be anonymous in group sessions on Real is enticing to many users, who could also be more comfortable sharing something on this environment than they might in one-on-one therapy, in keeping with Safira.

“When I believe of the world in 10 years, 2032 mental health care goes to look rather a lot more just like 2022 fitness. What I mean by that’s without delay our only type of mental health care is essentially one-on-one therapy, and that will be analogous to a world where the one type of fitness is one-on-one personal training,” Safira said. Nevertheless, this just isn’t the case, as today’s fitness landscape includes a whole ecosystem of digital and in-person offerings. “When I believe of where Real is, it’s dedicated at the start to constructing that entire ecosystem,” Safira continued. 

To harness creativity’s useful impact on overall wellbeing, mental health advocate J Balvin launched Oye, a bilingual wellness app specifically developed to empower the Latinx community. The platform houses a collection of features including emotional check-ins, creative wellness videos, goal setting, generative art, mindful notifications and tailored content based on the user’s current mood. 

“We did this as a method to create a community that feels more open to search for a greater quality of life,” Balvin said. The app is heavily focused on creativity with guided dances and meditations, as Balvin relies on the concept of turning emotions into creative actions. 

J Balvin isn’t the one celebrity to become involved within the space. Megan Thee Stallion launched a mental health website called Bad Bitches Have Bad Days Too, which offers a slew of resources, hotlines, therapy platforms and supportive content. 

Selena Gomez brought Wondermind to market in April 2022, together with Mandy Teefey and The Newsette founder Daniella Pierson. Wondermind is referred to by the brand as “the world’s first mental health ecosystem,” because it provides content, resources and a three-times-weekly newsletter for readers. With greater than 270,000 lively newsletter subscribers, the platform secured a $5 million Series A fund led by Serena Williams’ VC firm Serena Ventures in August 2022. 

Much like Wondermind, Amy Keller Laird, former editor in chief of Women’s Health, also took an internet site approach with Mental, which launched in October 2022. Keller Laird began serious about the chance within the space in 2016 when Women’s Health did a feature on 14 women who each discussed their mental illnesses. On the repeatedly years later, she felt there was a white space when it got here to a lifestyle-focused media site that was targeted to those with mental health illnesses.

Keller Laird noted when someone has a mental disorder “that doesn’t mean they’re not fascinated by beauty or fashion or other hobbies or they’re not musicians. They’re full humans, they’re dating, they’ve relationships, they’ve kids.” 

On Mental, readers can categorize content based on specific conditions like anxiety, bipolar disorder, depression and trichotillomania, a disorder wherein one pulls out their hair. Or they’ll browse different verticals like beauty and good buys, knowing that the content will likely be mental health focused and validated by a source. 

Silk + Sonder, founded by Meha Agrawal in 2017, combines physical and digital for a holistic approach to mental health with its guided journaling offerings. The app includes personalized every day prompts, guided audio modules, affirmations and weekly planning sessions, where users can engage with one another, prompting “peer-to-peer driven support and accountability,” in keeping with Agrawal. She also noted the app is a “big retention driver of our users.”