Sensa is a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) journaling app geared towards people with mild anxiety, acute stress, or depression. The personalized program features daily lessons, free-writing sessions, and other exercises intended to help users relax and manage symptoms.
Pros & Cons of the Sensa App
While Sensa offers three subscriptions to choose from, there is, unfortunately, no free version or trial available. There are many benefits to using the app, including quick and easy tasks that can be personalized according to your preferences. However, a lack of audio and video accompaniments makes the app very text heavy.
How to Sign Up for The Sensa App
To sign up for a Sensa account, you can download the Sensa app in the Google Play or Apple App Store. You can also download the app from their website.
What is The Sensa App?
The Sensa app is a journaling app that focuses on utilizing cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help a person manage negative symptoms associated with anxiety, chronic stress, or depression. In addition to the daily exercises provided, Sensa also offers a handy mood and activity tracker, so you can monitor your emotions and thoughts throughout the week. You can open the journal at any time and free-write at your leisure. Sensa has three subscription options to choose from–a one-month, three-month, or six-month plan–ranging in price from $29.99 to $104.88.
Sensa comes equipped with four pages: the main screen, mood journal, activities, and user profile. Daily CBT lessons, journal entries, mood check-in’s and activities can be quickly accessed on the main screen. Lessons are self-paced and designed to help you understand how your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are connected. These daily assignments may include a combination of reading lessons, an easy quiz, and other various activities. The “Quick Relief” section of the main screen is a unique component, featuring deep breathing techniques, five-senses tasks, and grounding exercises for when you are feeling especially anxious.
In the mood journal hub, you will find your personalized calendar that is color-coordinated based on your daily moods–for example, black for “very bad” or yellow for “very good.” If you tap on a certain day, you can review what time you finished your mood check-in, what your mood was, and re-read past journal entries. This is a great way to monitor the frequency of negative or positive emotions and what may cause them to occur.
The activity section features tasks from different training categories such as overall health, mindfulness, relaxation, and physical exercise. In addition to pre-assigned tasks, you can also choose other activities to complete. Exercises include fun incentives like “Take a Break Every Hour,” “Deep Breathing,” and “Walk Around the Block.” One perk to using Sensa is you can easily upload your own custom activities!
Who Is the Sensa Health App Right For?
The Sensa app is a useful tool for people who are looking for interactive ways to manage unwanted anxiety and uneasiness. If you’re looking to explore the benefits of CBT practices, enjoy text-based learning, or want to make self-care a priority, Sensa might be worth the download for you.
Explore What CBT Apps Offer
CBT apps encourage people to explore how their thoughts, feelings, and actions are connected in fun and engaging ways. Sensa makes understanding CBT methods easy and approachable for everyone.
You Learn Best by Reading
If you retain information best through reading, the Sensa app would be a great fit for you. All of the provided lessons are strictly text-based and can be revisited at any time!
You Want Reminders to Practice Self-Care
There are numerous benefits of self-care, and the Sensa app can help you incorporate these practices into your daily routine. Sensa reminds you to keep track of healthy habits like drinking water, eating breakfast, journaling, and meditating. If needed, you can add custom self-care activities to your schedule in the activities hub.
Who May Want an Alternative to The Sensa App?
The Sensa app may be perfect for some, but not for everyone. Those who prefer audio or video lessons, writing prompts, or professional online support may want to seek out an alternative platform.
You Need More Video & Audio Based Guidance
The Sensa app is text-heavy, which could pose a problem for users who are visual learners or have disabilities that make reading difficult. A great alternative to Sensa is Bloom – a CBT app that features expert-guided video lessons and interactive journaling.
To learn more about their self-guided program, please read our detailed Bloom app review.
Journal Prompts Are Needed
Journal entries on the Sensa app rely entirely on free-writing sessions. There are no prompts provided other than “write about your day.” If choosing topics to write about is tough for you, you’ll likely want to find an alternative to Sensa. You can find journal prompts for anxiety and depression online, or you might enjoy an app like Prompted.
You Want a Journal + Online CBT Program
CBT can be incredibly helpful when treating symptoms of anxiety or depression. Unfortunately, Sensa does not offer live therapy sessions. For live treatment options, you may want to consider checking out Online-Therapy.Com. Along with the option to work with a real therapist, you can also make use of guided worksheets and journal space.
To learn more about this online CBT therapy program, please read our in-depth Online-Therapy review.
What Users Are Saying About the Sensa Health App
The Sensa App has a 3.2-star rating from over 240 reviews in the Apple App Store and a 4.2-star rating from over 880 reviews in the Google Play Store. Additionally, Trustpilot lists Sensa as having a 4-star rating from over 100 reviews.
Confused About Billing
Like other mobile apps and online therapy platforms, the Sensa app advertises as a low-cost alternative to traditional treatment. However, this can be confusing, as the actual costs of using the services are vague at the time of sign-up. Users state that a discrepancy in prices can be misleading, as they assume the app is less expensive at first. Even though Sensa does state the subscription terms and prices on their platform, the small print can easily be overlooked.
Marketing May Have Missed the Mark
There are several negative reviews on Trustpilot regarding the way Sensa is marketed. For example, the app has advertised itself as a platform specifically for users with ADHD and ADD who are seeking impulsivity management exercises. However, users report that when prompted to sign-up for the app, a 30-minute timer appears requiring them to choose a subscription plan. Many argued this was counterintuitive, as it definitely doesn’t encourage impulsivity control.
Sensa representatives have responded to these comments with a promise to forward the complaints to their marketing team. However, when I investigated further, I found that this timer was still active.
Not Hard to Use
Of course, there were also positive reviews about the Sensa app. Many users enjoy that everything included in the app–the mood check-ins, journal, activities, and learning lessons–was easy to navigate.
I agree with these reviews and found the lessons were quite simple and quick to complete. In addition, I did not encounter any glitches or lagging in the app either, making for a better user experience overall!
How Much Does the Sensa App Cost?
The Sensa app costs between $29.99 and $104.88 depending on which subscription you choose and app store you use; Sensa doesn’t offer a free version. All plans include 84 self-paced learning lessons, daily habit and mood tracking, a free-write journal space, weekly symptoms assessments, and various daily activities.
Sensa’s premium app subscription options are:
- Monthly: $35.99 monthly on Android and $29.99 on Apple
- Three Months: $69.96 on Android and $59.99 on Apple
- Six Months: $104.88 on Android and $89.99 on Apple
We noticed that the prices on the Sensa website were different from the costs in the app. The website lists the prices as:
- Monthly: $29.99 monthly, advertised as $0.99 per day
- Three Months: advertised at a discounted price of $59.97, every three months.
- Six Months: advertised at a discounted rate of $59.97, every six months.
In order to get the best deal, we recommend signing up on the website before downloading.
How Do I Cancel My Sensa Subscription?
To cancel your subscription, you can visit the Sensa website and click the “Manage Subscription” tab. When in doubt, Sensa recommends you email them at [email protected] with any questions or concerns about your subscription.
Does Sensa App Offer Refunds?
Yes, the Sensa App will offer you a refund if you ask for one within 14 days of purchasing a subscription. You must be able to provide proof of purchase, which will be sent to your email after your initial payment.
Please visit the Sensa App website for more on their Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
How To Get Started With the Sensa Health App
To start using the Sensa app, you can go to their website or download their app. However, in order to get the best price, we recommend signing up on the Sensa website first.
- Visit the Sensa website to begin a short depression, anxiety, and stress quiz, which will also determine your goals for the program.
- Receive your personal symptom summary and read about how Sensa can help you.
- Select which of the three subscription options you would like to purchase.
- Create your account by entering your email address and choosing a password.
- Download the app in the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.
- Begin your first mood check-in and view what activities the app has selected for you to do.
My Sensa Health App: Detailed Review
The Sensa app is a user-friendly CBT journal app with daily CBT lessons, mood logs, and free-write journal entries. Lessons usually take less than 10-minutes to complete, but daily activities vary in length. There are no video or audio lessons available on the Sensa platform.
Sensa offers three subscription subscriptions–a one-month, three-month, or six-month plan. Costs range from $29.99 – $104.88, depending on which plan you select and app store you use. There are no free versions or trials, so you won’t be able to test out the app before purchasing.
Your Individual Plan
The goals you choose to focus on during the signup process will determine what your personalized treatment plan will look like. However, it can be difficult to assess if these plans will be accurate, as you need a subscription prior to reviewing them. When I checked in the app and on the website, there was no option to change my objectives and preferences, leaving me with more questions than answers.
My personalized treatment plan featured daily reading exercises, mindful journaling sessions, and a daily cardio workout. I am not sure why I was assigned cardio exercises; it could be because I selected a goal to “Sleep Better” or that cardio is a standard part of every plan. I do feel that physical activity is a great element to incorporate, as studies have shown that there are multiple mental health benefits to exercise.
I particularly enjoyed the “Quick Relief” section, which features deep breathing techniques, five-senses tasks, and grounding exercises. These are found on the main screen and are useful when you need to calm anxieties quickly.
Activities
In addition to daily learning lessons, you’ll also receive other activity assignments. In my personalized plan, my first week included tasks such as mindfulness journaling and quick workout sessions of my choice. I love the addition of physical activities into a CBT program; I always find that getting my body moving helps decrease my anxiety.
You can always introduce more activities into your plan if you want to! A really awesome perk to the Sensa app is a user’s ability to create custom exercises. Additionally, you can schedule specific days on which you’d like to focus on a particular task. Unfortunately, you can’t set up an alarm in the app to remind you to complete them.
Mood Journal
Unlike other mood-tracking apps, the Sensa app does not include a graph displaying how your moods have changed over time. Rather, users are provided with a calendar view, with days marked in colors that represent specific moods. You can see what your mood was and what you wrote in your journal by clicking on a specific day.
The mood journal would definitely be more useful if it offered statistics or a graph view of mood changes. However, I did like that I could click on any day and re-read my journal entry. Self-reflection can be a key component to identifying personal negative thoughts and learning to reframe them, a central element of CBT methodology.
History of The Sensa App
The Sensa App was created by Inno Diets UAB, a company known for its health and fitness apps such as Cardi Health and Fitter. Within my research, I discovered that Inno Diets UAB is backed by a similar brand, Kilo Health. Kilo is a European-based company that funds wellness products and services. The Co-Founder of Sensa, Dainius Jakucionis, encouraged us to connect with the Head of the Business Unit at Kilo Health, Justina Kinduryte. We have emailed Kinduryte and are waiting to hear back from her with more information about the founding of Sensa and the driving force behind it.
Sensa Health App VS Noom Mood
Noom Mood and Sensa are very similar in that they are both grounded upon CBT methods of treatment and mood tracking. Neither app includes video or audio learning lessons, making both rather wordy. The Sensa app does appear to be more customizable, with the option to select from pre-loaded activities or create your own. Noom Mood offers one daily lesson plan, but a mental health coach is also assigned to everyone. Sensa is the cheaper option of the two, at their discounted rate of $104.88 for six months; Noom Mood charges $149.99 for four months.
To find out more about this CBT-based program, please read our detailed Noom Mood review.
Final Thoughts on Sensa
Overall, the Sensa app does what it promises to, by allowing users to track moods, engage in daily exercises, and complete various activities. However, I found the lack of a free trial unfortunate. On top of that, with no visual accompaniments, the lessons can be a bit too text-laden. Moreover, I felt that the mood-tracking tools could be improved by offering journal prompts for daily writing sessions. In short, Sensa is a good base platform so far, but could greatly benefit from some updates.
