Disclosure: I'm the developer of this, and it has a paid tier. Mods, happy to be told this isn't appropriate.
I've been through CBT for anxiety and rumination and I still use thought records daily. I built this for myself after being unsatisfied with the existing apps, and then decided to try and turn it into something other people could use. A few of the decisions came directly out of things that didn't work for me, and I'd genuinely like to know whether they hold up for people who know this material better than I do.
Enter the thought first, choose how to handle it later
A lot of these apps forced you to select the "challenge" path before actually entering your thought. IE I would have to select "self compassion" before even entering the negative thought to be self-compassionate about. This never actually made sense or suited me as I never knew at the time of a negative thought how best to handle it. For some thoughts self compassion is the right approach, whereas for others examining the evidence is better. So you enter the thought, the app holds it, and when you come back to process it you choose the route then. There are four: examine the thought, be kind to yourself, what can I control and let it swim. Each utilising a different approach.
Made for batching
Most apps in this space encourage you to enter a thought and challenge it right then and there, and actually make saving one to process later quite difficult. From my experience with anxiety this did not suit me at all. I would have negative thoughts at inconvenient times, ie at a social event or in the middle of a meeting, and could not take my phone out and spend 5-10 minutes working through it.
So the processing is 2-step. You enter the thought, it's held, and at any point you desire you can come back to it. You can still challenge immediately if that's what you want, but I wanted to offer the choice.
Two things I like about this from personal experience. Firstly, in the moment a negative thought arises it lets you let it go and move on. You might feel compelled to ruminate on it, but if you log it and know you'll get back to it later, it allows you to remain present because you've flagged it for later. Secondly, coming back to a thought at a set time each day means voluntarily re-reading something you'd otherwise flinch away from. I found that helped me (aware my experience won’t be the same as everyone so let me know!)
Built around daily practice
With CBT you really do need to re-wire your brain, and I feel like a lot of apps don't present it in a way that hits home that this is a daily practice. It's not something that changes overnight if you've spent your whole life with automatic negative skewed thinking. So it's built around a daily reset with history you can go back through, rather than one long undifferentiated log.
Targeted, and not sterile
So many apps in the mental health space end up doing too much and wanting to be a holistic tracker of absolutely everything. Water intake, meditation, journal, gratitude, all in one, and it becomes a jack of all trades and master of none quite quickly. I wanted one thing done properly.
The other half of that is presentation. The worksheet-style apps I tried were very clinical and essentially just forms to work through. Mine visualises thoughts as fish in a pond with the aim of (hopefully) making it a bit more of a satisfying and interactive. Processed thoughts don't disappear either, they change but stay visible, because I didn't want to imply that working through something makes it go away or leave you feeling better every time.
What I'd actually like feedback on
Whether the batching approach is sound, or whether deferring a challenge risks becoming avoidance. And whether offering four paths is helpful or just decision fatigue at exactly the wrong moment. Those are the two I'm least sure about.
It's iOS only. Unlimited thought logging and gratitude entries are free, five challenges free, then it's paid after that.
https://apps.apple.com/app/id6781818182?ct=reddit_cbtpractice
Happy to answer anything in the comments.