Built by a clinician, for the work you do.
“The connective tissue between sessions kept slipping. So I built something to hold it.”
The Observing Ego is a private mood tracker built by a clinical psychologist, with the validated screening tools your clients already use. It helps a client notice patterns between sessions, then hand you a clear, exportable report so they arrive with the full picture instead of a hazy recollection of the week. No accounts. No servers. No AI advice. Their data stays on their device.
Made by Casey Simon, Psy.D., M.S., LMFT · A psychoanalytic psychotherapist
Your client arrives with the full picture.
Memory is unreliable and the hardest weeks are the easiest to skip. This is the tool that keeps an honest record between sessions.
A clinician report you can read in 30 seconds.
Clients can generate a structured “Show Your Doc” summary drawn entirely from their own data: mood trends, assessment scores over time, key correlations with sample sizes, and an optional psychodynamic formulation. The full report surfaces Clinical Flags and critical-item context so the discussion-worthy material is on the first page. Generated on-device. Exportable as a PDF.
The validated screeners you already use.
PHQ-9, GAD-7, WHO-5, DERS-16, SCS-SF, C-SSRS, ASQ, and STIPO-R, each scored to published thresholds with no approximation and no machine learning. Every assessment shows “this is a screening tool, not a diagnosis” before and after. Longitudinal scores are charted, so a client on a biweekly PHQ-9 can show you three months of trend in seconds.
Associations, never causes.
On-device correlations link mood to sleep, activity, weather, medication adherence, and Apple Health metrics, with deliberate guardrails: a minimum of 7 data points per group, only associations of moderate strength or stronger surfaced, sample size shown alongside each one, and language that always says “associated with,” never “causes.” The aim is to bring a real pattern to a real conversation.
Trauma-informed, and safety is always free.
Warm, supportive language throughout, with no gamification, no points or rewards, and no dark patterns. The C-SSRS screener, the safety plan, the 988 Lifeline, and the crisis-resource library are always accessible regardless of subscription. When the app detects elevated risk it interrupts. None of this can be paywalled or toggled off. That is architectural, not policy.
Scored to the published thresholds.
Deterministic scoring, no approximations, screening disclaimers before and after every assessment.
Every scoring algorithm follows the published clinical manual exactly. Cutoff scores and severity bands are not modified. Each screener is presented as a screening tool, not a diagnostic instrument, and scores are meant to be interpreted within your clinical judgment and the client's overall presentation.
| Instrument | Screens for | Age range |
|---|---|---|
| PHQ-9 | Depression severity | 13+ |
| GAD-7 | Anxiety severity | 13+ |
| WHO-5 | Well-being index | 7+ |
| DERS-16 | Difficulties in emotion regulation (dimensional) | 13+ |
| SCS-SF | Self-compassion, short form (dimensional) | 13+ |
| C-SSRS | Suicide-risk screening, with skip logic | 7+ |
| ASQ | Ask Suicide-Screening Questions | 7+ |
| STIPO-R | Personality organization (used under ISTFP guidelines) | 18+ |
PHQ-9 and GAD-7 were developed by Drs. Robert L. Spitzer, Janet B.W. Williams, and Kurt Kroenke, with support from Pfizer Inc. STIPO-R is used under guidelines from the International Society of Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (ISTFP). The Clinician Guide details the severity bands, the narrow safety triggers, and how the data is structured.
The client brings the data to you.
This is the client handing their own data to their own provider. It is the point of the app, not a social feature.
They log between sessions.
Feelings, habits, medications, journal entries, and assessments, on their own schedule. Mood logging and the screeners are free, so there is no barrier to keeping an honest record.
They generate a report.
One tap builds the “Show Your Doc” summary from their existing data. It is created on-device. Nothing passes through a server during export.
They share it with you.
AirDrop, Files, print, or an email the client chooses to send, as a PDF or a machine-readable JSON export. You read it in under a minute and the session starts from data instead of recall.
The family and multi-profile angle. The app supports multiple local profiles on one device, each isolated and protected with Face ID or Touch ID. A parent can track alongside a child, with each profile's data kept separate, and a parent advocating for a child can hand that child's report to a pediatrician or child therapist. These are local profiles on one device, not networked accounts.
Evaluate Premium, free.
Before you recommend it, use it yourself. We are glad to set licensed clinicians up with complimentary Premium access to evaluate the app.
How it works.
We think the fastest way to decide whether the app belongs in your practice is to live in it for a while. So we offer complimentary Premium access to verified, licensed clinicians who want to evaluate it. No catch, no sales call.
- Email us from your practice or institutional address, with your license type and jurisdiction.
- We confirm your license (license number, NPI, or institutional email all work).
- You get Premium access to evaluate the full Insights, the clinical formulation, and the “Show Your Doc” report at your own pace.
A clinician using the app personally is not lost revenue, it is the best possible evaluation. Use the subject line “Clinician Inquiry” so it reaches the right inbox.
A privacy posture you can stand behind.
What you can honestly tell a client when you recommend it.
Honesty in a log requires a locked door. The most sensitive data a person has is the data they share with themselves, so the privacy model is built to make that data safe to write down.
- On-device by default. All analysis runs on the device. There are no servers that receive or process client data.
- No account required. No email, no username, no identifying information collected to use the app.
- End-to-end encrypted sync. iCloud sync is optional and uses end-to-end encryption via Apple CloudKit.
- Apple Health, on your terms. The app reads health metrics on-device and, on iOS 18 and later, can write State of Mind entries and PHQ-9 / GAD-7 results back to Apple Health with the user's consent. Health data is never transmitted to any external server.
- No third-party trackers. No analytics SDKs, no advertising, no data resale.
- Safety data minimization. A safety check records only a structured audit event (type, source, outcome), never the specific feeling labels, assessment responses, or verbatim text.
- Deterministic, not AI. No machine learning is used for scoring or safety logic. Every calculation is rule-based and reproducible.
- We cannot access client data. This is architectural, not policy.
Full detail is in the Privacy Policy and the Clinician Guide.
Simple, transparent pricing.
Core mood logging and every safety feature are free forever. Premium unlocks the longitudinal insights and the clinician report.
Mood logging, the screeners as screening tools, the safety plan, and all crisis resources.
Full Insights, correlations, the clinical formulation, and the report.
Everything in Premium, with a 7-day free trial to start.
Questions from clinicians are read.
Feedback on clinical content, integration questions, and Premium-evaluation requests all welcome.
Premium evaluation access, integration with your practice, partnerships. Subject line “Clinician Inquiry.”
Suggestions on the instruments, the report, or new clinical content. Read regularly.
Casey's psychotherapy practice is separate from the app. In person in California, telehealth in Oregon.
Email is not a clinical channel and is not monitored for crisis. The Observing Ego is a self-tracking instrument that can support the work, not replace therapy, diagnosis, prescribing, or crisis care. If a client is in crisis, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available by call or text, 24/7.
See it for yourself.
Download The Observing Ego, then email us to evaluate Premium free. On iPhone, Apple Watch, and Mac. 7-day free trial for Premium. Safety features free forever.
iOS 17+ · watchOS 10+ · macOS 14+ · Privacy-first · No account required