With lockdown after lockdown restricting access to the sort of experiences, environments and practitioners many wellness seekers would usually turn to in times of psychological distress, there’s been a renewed need to test digital alternatives. What they lack in terms of experience, they make up for in accessibility.

Megan Jones Bell, chief science officer of one of the most popular mental health apps, Headspace, said there’d been a 19-fold increase in people downloading stress-relieving meditations when the first shelter-in-place rules were brought in, with a 14-fold jump in those intended to relieve anxiety. In fact, research by Sensor Tower found that downloads of the 15 most popular mental health apps in the UK jumped by a third between February and March last year, with continued uptake as the pandemic wore on. For many consumers, this shift has been facilitated by their employers. Brands such as Twitter have started offering mental health days and subscriptions to mindfulness apps like Happify, while PR and advertising agency Havas started hosting Wellness Wednesdays, which include guided meditation, reiki and the opportunity to have a livestream session with a psychotherapist.

Whether for prevention or remedy, such services should be taken seriously. Over the last couple of years both the FDA in the US and the NHS in the UK have approved several mental health apps for prescription. ‘People want support now,’ Ross O’Brien, programme lead for the NHS’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme, told The Independent. ‘A digital app gives direct and rapid help and is instantly available.’ The form that help takes varies from service to service. Headspace offers meditation courses on everything from self- esteem to creativity to coping with pregnancy, while Calm boasts a range of celebrity-voiced sleep stories. Sanvello is based on tried-and-tested cognitive-behavioural-therapy methods, while Happify quite literally turns your wellness journey into a game. ‘Apps have a range of use,’ says O’Brien, ‘both as a tool while someone is on a waiting list to see someone, or if someone’s condition isn’t serious enough for them to be referred for talking therapy.’

Cover image and above: Piggybacking on Minecraft and designed to deinstitutionalize healthcare, Bianca Carague’s Bump Galaxy includes a hypnotic snowfield and a mediation-focused forest. Visitors can also meet mental health professionals from around the world.

Designed by The Liminal Space, Life Support offers grief assistance via a smartphone portal. ‘This year has made conversations about death and dying even more challenging with people more likely to be distanced from their loved ones,’ says Professor Sir Robert Lechler, president of the Academy of Medical Sciences, which supported the project. ‘Life Support shows that we can use digital space to enable and support those conversations to take place.’

Here O’Brien hints at the limitations of many of the most popular digital therapies. Even at a time when artificial intelligence allows apps like Wysa and Woebot to talk back to you, they can’t replicate the benefits of a traditional consultation. Notably, that’s not just because of the lack of a human factor, but an environmental one too. Last year MIT Technology Review interviewed a user who had been forced to switch to teletherapy during the pandemic. One of her key complaints was her inability to block out her home life, as well as having trouble feeling engaged in the session. ‘I didn’t feel the safety I typically feel in their office,' she said. ‘It wasn’t a bad [Wi-Fi] connection, it was just difficult to get the connection you get in person.’

For those championing digital forms of therapy, this historical lack of attention to the therapeutic potential of virtual space feels like a missed opportunity. But it’s one that some innovators are quickly seeking to address. In some instances this is simply a case of building on real-world precedents. Launched last June, AORA is an online platform that looks to re-create the psychological benefits of viewing art in a digital setting. As the website outlines: ‘Art, architecture and music have proven health benefits from alleviating pain, increasing relaxation, and shortening recovery periods.’ The venue is divided into three halls collating work by artists that address ‘the healing notions of meditation, landscape and environment’. Each room is further enhanced by a bespoke musical composition, while subscribers benefit from a virtual live programme tied to each exhibition that includes movement classes, panel discussions and concerts.

Enhanced by bespoke musical compositions, online venue AORA looks to re-create the psychological benefits of viewing art in a digital setting.

Piggybacking on the wildly popular – and, importantly, highly accessible – world-building sim Minecraft, Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Bianca Carague’s Bump Galaxy shows the power of being able to manifest a care-giving community in three dimensions. The landscape is designed to give each activity its own biome or ‘Care Commons’, such as a meditation-focused forest, sand dunes where visitors reflect on their dreams, and an underwater temple that helps you uncover trauma through ‘deep hypnotic visualizations’. Bump Galaxy also acts as a meeting point where the public can engage with mental health professionals in a more interactive setting. According to Carague: ‘Bump Galaxy deinstitutionalizes healthcare by bringing people together across national borders, care practices and knowledge worlds, blurring the lines between care giver and care receiver.’

The gaming context has been further legitimized by initiatives like mental health organization Rise Above the Disorder’s (RAD) recent collaboration with e-sports company Skillshot, which encouraged players to partake in therapist-guided sessions in-game. ‘Gaming has always been a home to me,' RAD’s CEO Jason Docton said in a statement. ‘It’s where I met the greatest friends I’ve ever known, where I turned when I felt my anxiety and depression were becoming too much to endure. I’ve always believed in the ability of gaming to change and even save lives.' 

This article is taken from Frame 139's Lab on the relationship between mental wellbeing and design. Look out for a new article on the subject every day this week. Get a print copy of Frame 139 here.