Using this with a therapist
Behavioral activation is often done with a therapist, who helps choose activities, looks at what got in the way, and adjusts the plan from week to week. The planner here and the app can hold the part you do between sessions.
Before a session, you can make a report for a therapist from the app’s Settings, or print one from the activity planner. It’s a PDF of one or two weeks of plans, how they went, what got in the way, and your ratings, with your values and avoidance notes if you choose. You decide what goes in and who sees it.
There’s room at the end for questions you want to bring. Writing them down during the week means they don’t get lost.
If your therapist uses a different form or different words, go with theirs. The method matters more than the app.
What a therapist does
Martell’s manual describes the therapist’s role as something like a coach. The two of you work out together what keeps low mood going in your life, choose where to start, and plan the week. The therapist doesn’t hand down a list of activities. They help you find ones that fit, keep the steps small, and figure out what went wrong when a plan doesn’t happen, without blame.
In the brief treatment by Lejuez and colleagues, sessions follow a set path. You write what matters to you in each area of life, build a list of activities that fit, rank them from easiest to hardest, and work through them week by week, adding new ones as the easier ones get done.
A typical session
Sessions vary, but many go roughly like this.
- A look at last week’s plans and how they went, often with the activity record or a report like this app’s.
- Time on what got in the way, and what to change.
- Planning the coming week, with specific days and times.
- Practicing a hard step, like the first lines of a phone call you’ve been putting off.
- Agreeing on what you’ll try before the next session.
Courses of behavioral activation are often fairly short, a few months of weekly sessions, though it depends on the person and the setting.
The work between sessions
Most of behavioral activation happens between sessions, in your actual week. Studies of cognitive and behavioral therapies have found that the practice people do between sessions is linked with how much they get out of therapy. That’s the part this app is built for.
With someone, or on your own
Many people do some of this work on their own, with a book, a website, or an app. Reviews of self-help have found that guided self-help, where a professional checks in even briefly, can do about as well as face-to-face therapy for many people. The largest review of behavioral activation found smaller effects when people worked through it entirely on their own.
So if you can get support from a person, even a little, it’s worth having. If you can’t right now, working on your own is still a reasonable start, and the app doesn’t require a therapist.
Who offers it
Behavioral activation is taught to psychologists, counselors, social workers, and other therapists, and it’s part of many cognitive behavioral therapy programs. In England, a large trial found that junior mental health workers with training and supervision could deliver it, and it did no worse than cognitive behavioral therapy delivered by experienced therapists. Some clinics offer it in groups.
Finding someone
Look for a licensed therapist who describes their work as cognitive behavioral therapy, and ask whether they use behavioral activation. It’s a fair question, and most therapists who use it will know the name right away.
In the United States, the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies and the American Psychological Association both have directories. Everyday Insight’s mental health resources page lists more ways to find someone, including lower-cost options.
Questions worth bringing
A few that often come up, and are worth asking out loud.
- Why do I keep moving the same plan?
- Nothing feels enjoyable yet. Is that normal at this point?
- How do I know if a plan is too small or too big?
- What should I do when a whole week falls apart?
References
- Martell, C. R., Dimidjian, S., & Herman-Dunn, R. (2021). Behavioral activation for depression: A clinician’s guide (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
- Lejuez, C. W., Hopko, D. R., Acierno, R., Daughters, S. B., & Pagoto, S. L. (2011). Ten year revision of the brief behavioral activation treatment for depression: Revised treatment manual. Behavior Modification, 35(2), 111–161. doi.org/10.1177/0145445510390929
- Kazantzis, N., Whittington, C., & Dattilio, F. (2010). Meta-analysis of homework effects in cognitive and behavioral therapy: A replication and extension. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 17(2), 144–156. doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2850.2010.01204.x
- Cuijpers, P., Donker, T., van Straten, A., Li, J., & Andersson, G. (2010). Is guided self-help as effective as face-to-face psychotherapy for depression and anxiety disorders? A systematic review and meta-analysis of comparative outcome studies. Psychological Medicine, 40(12), 1943–1957. doi.org/10.1017/S0033291710000772
- Cuijpers, P., Ciharova, M., Tong, L., Liu, Y., Sprenger, A. A., Miguel, C., Karyotaki, E., & Harrer, M. (2026). Behavioral activation for depression: A comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 128, 102783. doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2026.102783
- Richards, D. A., Ekers, D., McMillan, D., Taylor, R. S., Byford, S., Warren, F. C., Barrett, B., Farrand, P. A., Gilbody, S., Kuyken, W., O’Mahen, H., Watkins, E. R., Wright, K. A., Hollon, S. D., Reed, N., Rhodes, S., Fletcher, E., & Finning, K. (2016). Cost and Outcome of Behavioural Activation versus Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Depression (COBRA): A randomised, controlled, non-inferiority trial. The Lancet, 388(10047), 871–880. doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31140-0
- Simmonds-Buckley, M., Kellett, S., & Waller, G. (2019). Acceptability and efficacy of group behavioral activation for depression among adults: A meta-analysis. Behavior Therapy, 50(5), 864–885. doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2019.01.003
Helpful links
Everyday Insight’s tools are for education and personal reflection. They are not therapy or medical care, and they are not for emergencies. In an emergency, call 911. If you are in crisis in the United States, call or text 988. Mental health resources