The journal your therapist would recommend.
Structured journaling that bridges the gap between therapy sessions. Process what came up. Track your patterns. Use tools grounded in CBT, DBT, IFS, and somatic approaches. Everything stays on your device.
No credit card. Your entries never leave your device.
Your therapy doesn't have to disappear between sessions.
You leave your session with a breakthrough. By Wednesday, you can barely remember what it was. The insight that felt so clear on the couch fades into noise by the time real life takes over. Your therapist said to journal. But opening a blank page after a heavy session doesn't feel safe. It feels like homework.
Free-form journaling about difficult material can backfire. Writing about trauma without structure sometimes makes it worse. You spiral. You ruminate. You close the app feeling heavier than when you opened it. That's not therapeutic journaling. That's re-exposure without guardrails.
Most journal apps don't know the difference. They give you a blank page or a gratitude prompt. Neither one helps you process what your therapist just helped you uncover. There's no structure for CBT thought records. No somatic check-in when things get overwhelming. No way to track patterns across weeks of sessions.
So the cycle repeats. Breakthrough on Thursday. Forgotten by Monday. Your therapist asks what came up during the week. You say "I don't remember exactly, but it was something about..." and the session spends twenty minutes reconstructing what you already knew.
The gap between sessions is where the real work either takes hold or fades. And right now, nothing is holding the space.
That's what Conviction was built for.
A journal that holds the space between sessions.
Conviction is a structured journaling app with tools grounded in CBT, DBT, IFS, and somatic approaches. Process what came up in therapy. Track patterns across sessions. Everything stays on your device.
Instead of a blank page after a hard session, you get guided structure that matches your therapy modality. Conviction helps you capture session insights before they fade, notice emotional patterns across weeks and months, and use structured tools to continue the work between appointments. Your therapist gives you the breakthroughs. Conviction helps you hold onto them.
How it works
Capture what came up in your session
Write or talk about what surfaced. Voice or text. No structure required on your end. Conviction organizes the emotional content for you.
Use structured tools between sessions
The Mirror walks you through CBT thought records. Safe Harbor guides somatic grounding when things feel heavy. Pattern Lab traces behavioral chains. Real therapeutic tools, not generic prompts.
Track patterns your therapist can see too
27 emotion categories tracked over time. Behavioral patterns surfaced across weeks. Bring your journal to your next session or keep it private. Your choice.
Tools that support real therapeutic work.
27 emotions. Because "sad" isn't specific enough.
Every entry gets analyzed for 27 distinct emotional categories. Guilt vs. shame. Frustration vs. rage. Nostalgia vs. grief. Mood Flow shows how your emotional patterns shift over time, so you can spot what triggers what and track whether things are actually improving.
- Specific emotions Not a smiley face. Not a five-point scale. 27 categories that name what you're actually feeling.
- Mood Flow Watch your emotional patterns shift week over week. See improvement that's invisible from inside the experience.
- Your patterns After two weeks, Conviction shows you what keeps showing up. Visible patterns are workable patterns.
CBT tools built into your journal.
The Mirror reads your entries and identifies cognitive distortions: catastrophizing, mind reading, all-or-nothing thinking, emotional reasoning. Then it walks you through a structured reframe. Not generic advice. Analysis built from your actual words.
- Distortion detected "Everyone thinks I'm failing." The Mirror identifies this as mind reading.
- Structured reframe Find contradicting evidence. Build a balanced thought. Two steps, not a worksheet.
- Track which distortions repeat Over time, you'll see which thinking patterns drive your emotional experience.
Somatic grounding for when emotions flood.
When the thinking brain goes offline, body-based tools work. Safe Harbor provides guided exercises: paced breathing, cold water dive reflex, progressive muscle relaxation, body scan, and sensory grounding. Available immediately, no setup required.
- Four toolkits The Mirror, Safe Harbor, Pattern Lab, and The Council. Pick the one that fits what surfaced.
- Safe Harbor Paced breathing for immediate regulation. Slows the nervous system without requiring you to think.
- Sensory orienting Find something orange. Find something stable. Find something pleasant. Ground yourself in the room you're in.
- Notice what's solid A wall. A floor. A piece of furniture. Stability is already around you.
- Find something pleasant A plant. A window. A color you like. Simple tools that interrupt the emotional flood.
And so much more.
Guided prompts by therapy modality. Not generic questions.
Conviction offers structured reflections grounded in CBT, DBT, IFS, and somatic approaches. Not "What are you grateful for?" but "What thought came up in session that you want to examine further?" and "Where do you feel that in your body right now?" The prompts meet you where your therapy left off.
The Mirror. Structured CBT thought records on your phone.
Identify cognitive distortions in what you wrote and walk through structured reframing. The same thought record exercise your therapist might assign, built into your journal. Conviction highlights the patterns. You decide what to challenge.
Safe Harbor. Somatic grounding when it gets heavy.
Sometimes processing therapy material brings up more than you expected. Safe Harbor guides you through grounding exercises rooted in somatic principles. Body scan, breathwork, sensory anchoring. A safety net built into the journal itself.
27 emotions. Not just "good" or "bad."
Every entry gets analyzed across 27 specific emotion categories. Guilt vs. shame. Nostalgia vs. grief. Anxiety vs. fear. Mood Flow shows how your emotional landscape shifts between sessions, so you and your therapist can see what's actually changing.
Pattern Lab. Trace the behavioral chains.
Chain analysis adapted for self-guided use. Trace the sequence from trigger to thought to emotion to behavior. See which links keep repeating across entries. Bring the pattern to your next session with evidence, not guesswork.
Everything stays on your device. Therapy content deserves that.
Your session notes, your breakthroughs, your shadow work. All of it stays on your phone. Encrypted. No cloud processing. No server ever sees what you write about your therapy. Your journal is locked with the same encryption banks use. Only you hold the key.
Miss a session. Miss a week. Your progress holds.
Conviction uses a Momentum System that cools gradually when you're away. It never resets to zero. No streaks. No guilt notifications. Therapy isn't linear. Your journaling tool shouldn't pretend it is.
Voice or text. Whatever works after your session.
Sometimes after a heavy session you don't want to type. Just talk. Your voice becomes a structured entry on your phone. Emotions captured. Patterns noticed. Everything transcribed and analyzed on your device. Nothing leaves.
One plan. Everything unlocked.
Full Access
or $49.80/year (save 17%)
- Structured tools grounded in CBT, DBT, IFS, and somatic approaches.
- The Mirror for thought records. Safe Harbor for grounding. Pattern Lab for chain analysis.
- 27 emotion categories tracked across entries and sessions.
- Pattern detection that reads your full history, not just today's entry.
- Everything stays on your device. Encrypted. No cloud processing.
- Voice or text input. Transcribed and analyzed on your phone.
- No streaks. No guilt. Miss a week and your momentum holds.
30 days free. No credit card required. Your entries never leave your device.
Complementary choices for different needs
Best for acute needs, diagnosis, and deep clinical work
Great for accountability and structured goal-setting
Daily self-reflection practice that supports both
Frequently asked questions
Can journaling replace therapy?
No. Conviction is a self-reflection tool, not a therapist. It doesn't diagnose, prescribe, or provide clinical guidance. The structured tools are exercises you can practice between sessions to reinforce what you're working on with your therapist. If you're in crisis, please work with a licensed professional.
Is journaling safe for trauma?
Unstructured writing about traumatic material can sometimes increase distress rather than reduce it. That's why Conviction includes Safe Harbor, a grounding toolkit rooted in somatic principles. If writing brings up more than you expected, Safe Harbor guides you through body-based regulation before you continue. It's not a substitute for a trauma-informed therapist, but it's a guardrail that most journal apps don't have.
What should I write between therapy sessions?
Conviction gives you structure so you don't have to figure that out on a blank page. You can capture what came up in session while it's fresh, use The Mirror to examine a thought pattern your therapist identified, run a chain analysis in Pattern Lab to trace a recurring behavior, or simply talk through what you're feeling. The prompts meet you where your therapy left off.
Is it better to write or type a journal?
Research supports benefits for both. Conviction lets you do either. Voice input transcribes your words on your device. Typing works too. After a heavy session, some people prefer to just talk. The format matters less than having structure and consistency. Use whatever gets the words out.
How does journaling help with anxiety?
Journaling externalizes anxious thoughts so you can examine them rather than loop on them. Conviction adds structure to that process. The Mirror helps you identify cognitive distortions in anxious thinking. Pattern Lab traces what triggers the anxiety cycle. Mood Flow tracks how your anxiety shifts over time. It turns the loop into something you can see and work with.
What is therapeutic journaling?
Therapeutic journaling is structured writing used as a complement to therapy. Unlike free-form journaling, it uses specific frameworks like thought records (CBT), chain analysis (DBT), parts work (IFS), and body-based check-ins (somatic). Conviction provides these frameworks as guided tools so you can practice them between sessions without needing your therapist to walk you through each one.
Can I show my journal to my therapist?
That's entirely your choice. You can export entries to share with your therapist, or keep everything private. Some people bring their emotion tracking and pattern data to sessions. Others use it purely for personal processing. Conviction doesn't share anything with anyone. You decide what leaves the app.
Do I need to journal every day?
No. Conviction uses a Momentum System that cools gradually when you're away. It never resets to zero. There are no streaks to break, no guilt notifications. Many people journal after sessions and when something comes up during the week. Some weeks that's five entries. Some weeks it's one. The tool adapts to your rhythm.
Is my journal data private?
Yes. Everything Conviction does happens on your phone. Your entries never touch a server. Your journal is encrypted and only you hold the key. iCloud backups are locked before they leave your device. Therapy content is some of the most private writing you'll ever do. It stays on your device. Run a network monitor and verify it yourself.
Do I need the latest iPhone?
Conviction requires an iPhone with Apple Intelligence. That's iPhone 15 Pro or later. Apple Intelligence powers everything from pattern detection to emotion recognition to voice transcription. It all runs on your device. It's not an add-on. It's how the app works.
Your therapy doesn't have to end when the session does.
Structured journaling that holds the space between appointments. 30 days free. Every tool unlocked.
30 days free. No credit card required. Your entries never leave your device.