The Agency's Posts

BEAUTY; PRICES: OUT OF SIGHT: Does beauty have a price? A casual spin through a department store reveals that it does, and....
Read More>

Is There Danger Lurking in Your Lipstick?: A soft pink, a glowing red, even a cyanotic purple — millions of women and girls apply....
Read More>

Richard Dreyfuss: A lesson in civics, and civility: The actor expounds on the state of education, filmmaking and John Gielgud. Richard Dreyfuss....
Read More>

Will 'The World's End' be 'the most entertaining movie of the year'?: Labor Dayis almost here and we're deep enough into the calendar year that when a film critic....
Read More>

Acting Workshop: The Crazy Teacher: Shark Week 2013: Acting with Sharks - watch more funny videos
Read More>

Disney's 'Planes' allows John Cleese's inner Bulldog to soar: The Monty Python alum talks voice-overs, technique, his return to London and getting together....
Read More>

Oscars Outdoors goes back to the drive-in with 'American Graffiti': George Lucas' 1973 ode to youth and rock marks its 40th year with an Oscars Outdoors screening....
Read More>

Ben Stiller's 'Secret Life of Walter Mitty' to be NYFF centerpiece: At CinemaCon this April,20th Century Foxwas the rare studio that showed its award-season....
Read More>

'We're the Millers' Subverts Family to Construct It: NEW YORK — The cast of "We're the Millers" didn't exactly immerse themselves in....
Read More>

Matt Damon On 'Elysium,' Turning Down 'Avatar,' And The State Of Hollywood Today: It's startling that even Matt Damon -- who very few people would argue against being the....
Read More>
Putting the app in therapy
Posted on: 03/25/12
Share/Save/Bookmark

Smartphone applications offer to help lift your mood.


Your smartphone: It's not just for texting, tweeting, waging war against little green pigs and — oh, right — calling people. It's also for making yourself a happier, less stressed-out, more self-aware person.

Really, there's an app for that. Any number of apps.

They come with names like Mood Swing and CBTReferee and BrainFreqz, and at their best, they offer users "'treatment' in the palm of their hand," says Dr. John Luo, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA. Many are free, many more cost 99 cents and none will set you back more than, say, a minute or two on a therapist's couch would.

Apps may help, but couch those expectations

In short, it's a "don't worry — be app-y" world we live in now. Here's a sampling of what you can find at Apple's App Store, Microsoft's Windows Phone Marketplace and other sites, or by using the Amazon Mobile App to comparison shop.

Mood-minder apps: These require that periodically, usually at least daily, you record your mood and whatever is going on in your life that may be affecting that mood. The app organizes the information and presents it in charts, graphs and calendars to give you a handle on when, where and with whom your moods slide up and down.

The Moody Me website suggests you'll "Have more happy days!" if you use it. With this app, you can create a gallery with pictures of what makes you happy and play a slideshow "for an instant lift."

The MoodPanda website maintains: "Over time, you can become more aware of your feelings, and the things that cause them. ... Just the simple act of showing people what has made them, and others, happier in the past is a sure fire way to make them happier in the future."

Examples: Moody Me (Apple App Store, free), MoodPanda (Apple App Store, free), Mood Swing (Apple App Store, free, or Windows Phone Marketplace, ad-supported version free, ad-free version, 99 cents).

Therapy Apps: These also keep tabs on your moods but go a step further by providing the sorts of mood-improving strategies that patients often learn in therapy, most often via cognitive and behavioral strategies.

MoodKit, for instance, provides three other "tools" in addition to a mood tracker: five categories of mood-improvement activities (productivity, social, enjoyment, physical, healthy habits), a thought checker (to weed out negative thoughts) and a journal.

The iCouch CBT app ("CBT" stands for cognitive behavioral therapy) guides you through a step-by-step process of changing a negative, distorted thought to a better, not-distorted one. For a fee, you can send the whole shebang to iCouch and a licensed psychologist will evaluate how you're using the app and make suggestions.

Live Happy provides eight activities intended to increase happiness, including savoring the moment, remembering happy days and keeping an acts-of-kindness journal. For savoring the moment, for instance, you take a picture of something special and write a short account of why you appreciate and value it.

Examples: MoodKit (Apple App Store, $4.99); iCouch CBT (Apple App Store, $1.99; psychologist evaluation, $7.99); Live Happy (Apple App Store, 99 cents).

Other approaches: Some mood apps seem pretty far off the wall. Consider BrainFreqz (don't worry —"Freqz" refers to frequencies, not to any freaking out that app users might do). This app employs audio techniques intended to bring your brain wave frequencies into alignment with the frequencies of electromagnetic impulses traveling between the Earth's surface and the ionosphere — a condition the BrainFreqz website calls "natural" and "very therapeutic."

And should you ever have trouble deciding exactly what mood you're in, there are apps for that too, such as Mood Scanner and Mood Finger Scan. These generally arrive at a verdict after scanning a convenient body part — finger or thumb — but their purveyors refrain from claiming that the verdict so rendered bears any relation to reality.

Examples: Mood Scanner (Android Market, free); Mood Finger Scan (Apple App Store, free).

By Karen Ravn, Special to the Los Angeles Times

health@latimes.com


COMMENTS
Be the first to post a comment!


Post A Comment:




  • It's 2020! Start booking roles in commercials, fashion, films, theater and more with The Agency Online!

  • NEW WORKSHOP with Barbara Barna & Sean De Simone!

    Hi Everyone and Happy Summer! Sean at Sean De Simone casting and Barbara Barna are teaming up for a super informative and fun Hosting for Home Shopping workshop. A great opportunity for established or experienced TV Hosts and Experts interested in learning how to get noticed and how to get in....
  • MASTERCLASS W. Robin Carus & David John Madore

    A Special Offer for the Agency Community, from one of our favorite NYC Casting Directors! EMAIL FacetheMusicWithUs@gmail.com Or Eventbrite To Sign Up! Class Size is Limited.
  • Don't Fall Into The Comparison Trap

    Hi Everyone! As the second installment in an ongoing series of features by the Agency's amazing community, here's some sage advice from our own Regina Rockensies; a humble (& awesome)veteran we've had the pleasure of working with for a long time. Have an excellent week! : ) - The Agency....
  • One Model's Agreement

    Hi Everyone! As the first piece in an ongoing series of original articles by the Agency community, here's a short reflection on some of the values of professional acting & modeling that we can all keep in mind for our next casting. Good luck on your castings &shoots this week! : ) -....




 
home       castings&news       privacy policy       terms and conditions      contact us      browser tips
Official PayPal Seal