Box of feels

For doctors, psychologists and therapists

A patient or client may show you Box of feels. Here’s what it is, what it isn’t, what they keep, and what you’ll see only if they choose to show you.

What it is, and what it isn’t

Box of feels is a place to practise noticing and naming feelings. A person catches a feeling as a box, names it with a feelings wheel and a body scan, writes what happened, uses a calming or skills tool, and then puts the box where it goes: kept, worked on, put away for later or let go. What they learn about themselves goes into a list of things they know.

It is

  • A practice tool to use alongside your work and between sessions
  • Private by default, kept on the person’s own device
  • Plain words, with kid and teen modes for younger people
  • A way to arrive at a session with something to talk about

It isn’t

  • Therapy, or a replacement for it
  • A crisis service. Nobody watches what is written and it alerts no one
  • A diagnostic tool. It never names a condition or a disorder
  • Medical advice about medication or treatment

Made by Dave Bolt, a chaplain, author and illustrator in Western Australia. It is in a test version, by invitation.

What a person keeps, and where

  • On their device. Boxes, notes, photos, voice notes and everything they’ve learned about themselves stay on the device they use. Without an account, nothing leaves it.
  • With an account, boxes are scrambled on the device before they’re sent, with a key only the person holds, so they can move between their own devices. The people who run Box of feels can’t read them. Photos and voice notes are scrambled the same way.
  • Locked if they choose. They can set a PIN or a passphrase, and an Exit tab on every screen hides the app in one tap.
  • Sending is their choice. A box only goes to someone they pick, and they see exactly what is going before it does. Photos and voice notes are never sent.

What you see, and only when they show you

Nothing reaches you by itself. There is no clinician login, dashboard or report sent to you. If a person wants you to see something, they open it on their device in the session, or copy, print or save it and hand it to you.

Appointment summary, on Plan

A one-page summary of the last one, two or four weeks: what changed, what tends to go together in their own entries (sleep, mood, energy, the patterns and labels they picked), and a box for things they want to raise. It’s worked out on the device from what they logged. It points things out; it doesn’t diagnose. They can copy it, save it as a file, or print it or make a PDF.

For my next session, on Me

Inside any box, a person can switch on Keep this for my therapist. Those boxes gather on Me, under the Keep tab, in a card called For my next session, newest first, each with a line of what happened. They can go through the list with you, copy it, or open a box together. It stays private to them until they choose to show it.

The words they use are their own. Labels like “People will leave” or “I have to be perfect” are lines the person picked, not findings, and the app keeps clinical model names out on purpose.

Practitioner mode: keeping client records private

If you use Box of feels with the people you see, practitioner mode lets a client make boxes on your device during a session, and files them in that client’s record rather than leaving them in the app.

  • Their own passphrase. Client records are locked with a passphrase of at least 12 characters, separate from your device lock, and scrambled on your device.
  • A Recovery Key. You’re given one when you set the records up, in case the passphrase is forgotten. Keep it somewhere safe and separate.
  • Locked when idle. Records lock themselves after a few idle minutes, or soon after the app is put away. Any cloud copy is scrambled before it leaves the device.
  • Sessions need the device lock. A client session only starts on a locked device, so if the app is closed mid-session it opens to your passcode, not your own boxes or anyone’s records. You end a session with your own exit PIN of 4 to 8 digits, and wrong guesses make it wait longer each time. Nothing a client sees says how to get out.
  • Sealed straight in. Boxes from a session are sealed into your records and only open when you unlock them. They never sit in your own boxes.
  • Dave can’t read them. Nobody who runs Box of feels can open client records.

You’re still responsible for the device itself: keep it locked, use a longer PIN or a few words, and follow your own organisation’s rules for keeping client information. The app doesn’t alert you to anything a client writes outside a session, and your duty of care, safety planning and reporting obligations are unchanged.

Crisis lines

The app shows these to the person whenever they tap Need help now? In Australia:

More

For practitionersSet up client records, run a session, file the boxes, and kid mode for home. About two minutes.

Questions people ask: getting in, privacy, safety, kids and practitioners.

To try it with the people you see, or for a talk to your team, email David@tenxed.community.