LifeWell

LifeWell is a 'personal mental health companion' that includes a selection of simple tools for managing your mental health.

• You can send messages about your mental health to the generative AI chat bot Wellness Coach and receive useful, evidence-based advice about what you can do to help yourself (limited to 15 messages in free version).
• You can track your mood and sleep in a diary to help you work out what events and situations affect these.
• You can use the safety plan template to make an individualised plan to keep yourself safe from urges to self-harm or end your life. The plan includes removing harmful items and a list of who to contact for support.
• The online platform provides 3 simple breathing exercises, including simple deep breathing, box breathing and ”478” breathing. These exercises may be useful during times of stress or high anxiety to help calm your nervous system.
• The platform includes links and contacts for national mental health resources for extra support and help at any time. This includes general mental health support as well as more specific support, eg, for young people or members of the rainbow community.
• The goal setting template allows you to note down a particular goal and how often you want to do it (eg, go for a walk every day). It also allows you to make record each time you achieve a goal.

For the complete online platform description, go to the website(external link) or, for a more detailed review, see Reviews.

Clinical review

Reviewer: Kris Garstang, Clinical Psychologist, Life Mind Psychology
Date of review: September 2025
Platform: Online programme
Comments: This online platform has some good simple tools which some people will find useful, especially if used in conjunction with professional help. In particular, I thought the safety planning template was very good. The mood tracker and breathing exercises, although simple, could be really helpful for some.
I had mixed feelings about the AI wellness coach. On one hand, it gave me some very good, sound advice about managing stress, depression and unhelpful thinking patterns. On the other, its advice about managing suicidal thoughts was too vague and didn't provide the necessary contact numbers for people to reach out to local help quickly and easily.
LifeWell appears to be still in development and I expect some of the current bugs, such as the journal entries not working, the forum being inactive and the wellness programmes having only minimal content, to be improved over time.
Safety concerns: Yes, the AI Wellness Coach is not New Zealand-based but is the first section a user comes to when using this online platform. The Wellness Coach doesn't provide useful advice in the case of users experiencing suicidal urges and doesn't give specific, local telephone numbers to contact unless provided with very specific prompts.
In other parts of this online platform, the advice regarding who to contact in an emergency is very good and specific to New Zealand, however, this isn't the case with the AI Wellness Coach function.
New Zealand relevance: Yes. LifeWell is a New Zealand-based online platform, however, the AI Wellness Coach is not New Zealand based. The Wellness Coach doesn't provide useful advice in the case of users experiencing suicidal urges and doesn't give specific, local telephone numbers to contact unless provided with very specific prompts. In other parts of this online platform, the advice regarding who to contact in an emergency is very good and specific to New Zealand.