Delivering treatment is only one part of therapy, and real, sustainable results require dedication from patients. Despite obstacles, and past the initial ‘buzz’ from the first visible wins.
As a mental health professional, there are many patient engagement strategies that can help you build engagement and support others on their journeys. And to put them into practice, motivational apps can come in very handy. To learn how, read on.
Before you get started, we recommend trying out Quenza, our motivation app for therapists and coaches. Quenza has been specially developed to help you build ownership, accountability, and inspiring wellness journeys for your clients, and will give you everything you need to motivate them for the best possible results.
How To Engage Clients in Therapy & Treatment
Engaging clients in therapy is essential for successful, effective treatment, and frequently, it’s a critical decider of how satisfied patients feel about the whole experience.
With strong positive links to better outcomes, building client engagement involves:
- Establishing a strong, working patient-practitioner alliance
- Collaboration and commitment to treatment – both from therapists and their clients
- Clear expectations and alignment on therapeutic goals
- The education and empowerment of patients, and
- Ongoing motivation from both sides to positive progress and success.
With a wealth of extant research on patient health engagement and of course, years of practical experience, almost every therapist is already very familiar with how to motivate others in person.
When it comes to blended care, however, the idea of motivating others with technology can sound a little confusing.
Over the next few sections, we’ll introduce you to motivational apps and how they help e-practitioners foster engagement, maintain commitment, and drive others to achieve their goals.
5 Benefits of Using Motivational Apps
By automating routine tasks, or streamlining lengthy admin processes, motivation apps can make client engagement strategies more convenient and cost-effective to implement.
In a nutshell, motivational apps are digital tools that can be used to streamline many aspects of implementing a patient engagement strategy.
By automating routine tasks, e.g. client reminders, or streamlining admin processes like intervention design, motivation apps make engagement strategies more convenient and cost-effective to implement.
But motivational apps also have other advantages in therapy, for example:
- They can be used to establish goal clarity and direction, either through templates, activities, or check-ins with a therapist,
- Apps can be a highly effective way to make progress more visible in coaching or mental health treatment, by helping users track their daily activities
- Regarding patient engagement in healthcare specifically, they can be used to share educational material for greater patient informedness, and
- Motivational apps often make it easier for practitioners to provide the reinforcement, inspiration, or support required for better progress, by facilitating check-ins, messages, and other communication possible from a distance.
What Is The Best Motivation App & Software?
Teletherapy technology is often a motivational tool in itself for clients who receive treatment online, offering novelty and convenience while removing many of the obstacles related to sticking with a program.
But whether it’s coaching, therapy, or e-psychology you specialize in, encouraging patients to stay committed for long enough to see great results requires a little more effort.
This is precisely where motivation apps can come in very useful. For a closer look at how, the next reviews highlight some of their best features.
Best Motivation Apps for Therapy
Quenza, TheraNest, and Healthie are three motivation apps that can help different kinds of therapists inspire and drive those they help.
Here are some of their unique pros and cons.
| App | Details |
|---|---|
 | TheraNest is primarily a treatment planning tool, EHR, and practice management solution for e-therapists, but it includes a variety of features that make it a handy motivational app for clients. One of the few practice management solutions that comes with free client apps, it allows for self-scheduling, making therapy more accessible, while also offering a Client Portal for a more personalized and thus engaging treatment experience. The software comes fully equipped with custom form creators that can be used to create feedback surveys, goal-setting templates, and intake documents, and it also allows therapists to send personal communications to support clients between sessions. As data from forms can be synced into the system, professionals can have better insight into how to motivate and engage their patients. |
| Name | TheraNest |
| Price | $39+ monthly |
| Good For | e-Mental Health, Coaching, Online Therapy, Online Psychiatry |
| More info | TheraNest |
| App | Details |
|---|---|
 | Ideal for mental health coaches, online psychologists, physical therapists, and other telehealth practitioners, Quenza is an extremely user-friendly blended care software that comes with a suite of powerful client engagement and motivation tools. This robust app leverages intrinsic motivation from the get-go, by making it easy for psychologists, coaches, and other therapists to create highly individualized client programs. Once a patient or client knows their treatment goals, Quenza can be used to create personalized interventions from scratch, based on their unique goals, needs, and capabilities. These can be shared as-is with automated regular updates and reminders for motivation, or therapists can send personalized video, audio, or email messages with positive reinforcement along the way. To maximize accountability, Quenza comes with real-time results tracking, which gives practitioners constant updates on their clients’ progress and improvement. Available with a $1 trial, the client engagement tool comes with free client smartphone apps. |
| Name | Quenza |
| Price | $1+ monthly |
| Good For | Mobile Coaching, E-Therapy, Online Psychiatry, Online Psychotherapy, CBT Apps |
| More info | Quenza |
| App | Details |
|---|---|
 | Healthie is tailored for physical therapists, occupational therapists, and other wellness practitioners who want to engage clients actively on their wellbeing journeys. It can be used to set personalized health goals, which clients can check in with on their mobile devices, and includes a host of tools for food, activity, and progress tracking. With the app, PTs, personal trainers, and OTs can message inspirational daily quotes to clients, send out email blasts, and comment on their shared posts or pictures. By combining positive reinforcement with awareness-building on the client side of things, this app can be a highly valuable way to drive positive progress toward individualized fitness goals. |
| Name | Healthie |
| Price | Free+ |
| Good For | e-Coaching, Life Coaching, Online Therapy |
| More info | Healthie |
Top Apps for Online Coaching
Motivation apps can be a useful tool within a larger coaching plan by providing the insights that you need to engage your clients.
With features for monitoring progress, automating follow-up, and sending personal communications, these motivation apps for coaches can help you better support others on their coaching journeys.
| App | Details |
|---|---|
 | Satori is a feature-rich, powerful motivational app that works great for life coaching, with CRM tools that also make it a useful motivational app for engaging clients. As well as the standard billing, calendar scheduling, and payment processing features of a coaching management system, it includes functions for sharing session prompts and questionnaires, tracking and follow-up automation, and email marketing. Satori also allows for client notifications and can easily be used as a communication tool to send inspirational messages that create accountability and encourage progress. |
| Name | Satori |
| Price | $39+ monthly |
| Good For | Business Coaching, Executive Coaching, Mobile Coaching, Life Coaching |
| More info | Satori |
| App | Details |
|---|---|
 | Nudge is a very popular fitness coaching app for group and individual coaching. As a motivation tool, it works by creating client accountability through progress tracking, while also offering extrinsic and intrinsic motivation through insights and user forums. Once remote coaches and their clients have decided on relevant goals, Nudge syncs conveniently with wearables such as smartwatches, nutrition apps, and other devices to monitor key metrics. Both parties can then view the insights and reports to gauge their performance and make amendments where necessary. |
| Name | Nudge |
| Price | Free+ |
| Good For | Health Coaching, Wellness Coaching, Fitness Coaching, Mobile Coaching |
| More info | Nudge app |
| App | Details |
|---|---|
 | Power Diary is a lightweight coaching management app for professionals, and also works for counselors, e-therapists, and entrepreneurs. As the app uses SMS for coaches to communicate with clients, it can also be a clever way to keep them engaged in their programs, and motivate progress between sessions. Coaches can send daily notifications such as self-reflection prompts, positive affirmations, or reminders to practice a habit, and the motivation software even offers customizable templates for new updates, special offers, and feel-good pick-me-ups on its blog. |
| Name | Power Diary |
| Price | $5+ weekly |
| Good For | Life Coaching, Fitness Coaching, Health Coaching, Wellness Coaching, Executive Coaching, Business Coaching, e-Therapy |
| More info | Power Diary |
Motivation Apps for Clients
Whether you’d like to kick a bad habit or make some positive change in your life, these free apps can help you set goals, track your progress, and stay accountable along the way.
| App | Details |
|---|---|
 | Habatica is great for coaching clients, or anyone keen to set and accomplish daily goals while improving their productivity. By gamifying day-to-day tasks through a variety of challenges, rewards, and prompts, Habatica creates accountability while helping users set firm, positive habits for the long term. With this app, users can create their own avatars for a fun twist. |
| Name | Habitica |
| Price | Free+ |
| Good For | Mental Health Coaching, e-Coaching, Life Coaching, Online Therapy |
| More info | Habatica |
| App | Details |
|---|---|
 | Habitbull works by making users more aware of their habits and behaviors, with a simple tracking system and regular notifications. The app offers several life domains for you to choose from, including family, health & fitness, work & study, money, arts, and more, as well as an easy-to-use dashboard with calendars for tracking your habits. |
| Name | HabitBull |
| Price | Free+ |
| Good For | e-Coaching, Life Coaching, Online Therapy |
| More info | HabitBull |
| App | Details |
|---|---|
 | Coach.me lets users select their own goals based on habits they want to build or break, with paid options for one-on-one coaching available. There’s plenty of peer support available in Coach.me’s active online community for clients who want an extra push. To use this straightforward motivation app, users simply decide on a goal frequency for their habit, and receive reminders throughout the day. |
| Name | Coach.me |
| Price | Free+ |
| Good For | e-Coaching, Life Coaching, Online Therapy |
| More info | Coach.me |
How To Use Quenza To Increase Clients’ Motivation
Regardless of your specialty, choosing an app for your practice involves considering the extrinsic and intrinsic motivators that make it effective.
To help your clients achieve the maximum possible results for their efforts, highly effective motivation apps will often use a combination of both.
In practice, this works a few ways – here, we’ll use Quenza’s motivational software tools to illustrate.
Involving Clients
By involving clients in goal-setting, practitioners create clear expectations from the very start of a treatment or program, as well as ownership of those targets. In teletherapy or e-coaching, this can be easily achieved by collaborating on the goal-setting process and co-creating milestones or timeframes for different objectives.
Even for practitioners without prior e-therapy experience, goal-setting frameworks are an effective, efficient way to kick-start the process. As shown below, these can even be sent out before an intake session to get started before your first appointment:
Clients who set their own clear expectations are more likely to accept their role as active agents in their own development or mental health, a fact that therapists can leverage to bring them better results.
Whether you choose to design your own forms or use a goal-setting template from motivational apps like Quenza, involving patients makes a huge difference.
Providing Positive Reinforcement
Positive reinforcement is perhaps the best-known way to keep clients motivated and maximize their chances of sustainable behavior change.
By offering encouragement, acknowledging wins, and giving personal advice along the way, therapists can make treatment much more rewarding in terms of results.
By checking in with clients through chat, email, or even personalized video messages, mental health professionals can use motivation software to help them overcome obstacles, find new solutions, and ultimately, make better progress toward their goals.
Reminding and Notifying
Updates, notifications, and reminders are often valuable extrinsic motivators when it comes to behavior change, and easy to deliver with motivation software that’s designed for the purpose.
With Quenza, for instance, therapists can pre-schedule reminders or send them manually if an app’s live data indicates that patient progress has tailed off.
With Quenza’s client app, above, these are sent straight to a patient’s smartphone or tablet, making them even more visible and useful as behavioral prompts.
Recommended: Creating Motivational Programs: Your Guide For Success
Final Thoughts
Practicing blended care for the first time can seem daunting, and with so many apps, tools, and solutions on the market, knowing where to start can often be the hardest step.
Motivation apps, however, are a particularly great illustration of how many familiar therapy concepts can be applied using technology. Hopefully, our review will help you know what to look for in a good app so that you start implementing them in your own virtual care models to inspire, motivate, and encourage others to succeed.
To start motivating your own clients more effectively, don’t forget to start your 30-day trial of Quenza’s online tools.
Our user-friendly blended care toolkit includes everything you need to involve, activate, and reinforce positive progress online, so that you can enhance your patients’ goal achievement for even better results.
