MindShift claims that it is geared toward adolescents, and therefore, its functionality and appropriateness should be evaluated through the psychosocial development of adolescents. According to Laser (2010), it is important for adolescents to have an ample vocabulary to be able to identify their emotions beyond “tired” or “fine.” Adolescents experience complicated emotions during this time of life, and it is crucial that they are able to identify and name these feelings, especially so they can have control over their behaviors and learn to self-regulate. MindShift does a fine job of supporting this necessary development of adolescence, as it provides the user with an in-depth list of emotions tied to their anxiety and specific symptoms they may be experiencing. While MindShift allows users to share progress with whomever they please, it does not allow for interaction among users. According to a recent study conducted through a social media website for adolescents with depression and anxiety, one of the most liked features was the ability to write on blog posts and see positive quotes and stories (Radovic, 2018). Adolescents oftentimes use social media to feel connected to one another, therefore, MindShift should consider enabling a feature that allows adolescents struggling with anxiety to share their stories with each other.

After reviewing and critiquing MindShift CBT, I rank the app a 4 out of 5. While the app has many strengths such as providing a simple and user friendly preface that allows its users to very easily use it as a positive tool, I feel that if there was a social aspect with the app, it would attract more users. Especially given that the adolescent population thrives off of forming connections and having a social network. MindShift CBT is very informative without being intimidating or overwhelming. I feel if the app incorporated additional videos and/or other visuals, it would be more appealing to adolescents as the app is primarily filled with just text. Many adolescents are visual learners and this is a weakness I see within the app. I would highly recommend this app to adolescents I plan to work with in the future as well as recommend it to adults looking for another outlet to help explore their own anxiety and mental health.

It’s not a bad app at all. I do enjoy tracking my anxiety throughout the day though I wish it could go beyond three entires and maybe up to five becuase some days fluctuate for me more than others. Also I have been using this for almost a month now and have found that you can only look back on entries from the past two weeks leaving me to believe that all of my other tracking and mini journal entries have been deleted. That is a bit frustrating as I intended to use this to show my therapist during our sessions but now seeing as I can’t access some of my past data entries I am unable to do so. I wish there were a few more visuals and less text because that can be overwhelming alone and sometimes reading something during a panic can just make it worse. I really like the overall concept I just wish for more flexibility and the ability to look back on past entries.

In all, I give the Mindshift CBT app a 4 out of 5. It is a helpful tool for building self-regulation skills and managing anxiety. The approach that Mindshift CBT takes is structured, and goal-oriented which underlines the structure of CBT well. There are multiple different strategies and coping mechanisms provided to fit a range of users' specific needs. In addition, a user-friendly digital platform makes it a practical resource for adolescents. However, the app’s restricted community access to users under the age of 18 highlights an area for improvement. Because adolescents tend to use social platforms to express themselves, integrating a section that the younger group of adolescents can access would add more benefits for that group of users. Overall, I would recommend this app to struggling adolescents, as well as to adults.