The method
The Deep Anchor method in brief
Be the person you want to be.
In one sentence: DeepAnchor meets you in everyday life where your behaviour is now and clarifies with you the inner state you want to strengthen — your vision. Through observation, insight and anchoring you carry it, step by step, into your behaviour.
Where the method starts
What you can simply do differently in your head needs no process. The method begins where resolutions are not enough: with reactions that are faster than any thought. Mostly this announces itself as pain — a situation, a feeling, a behaviour that keeps coming back. Sometimes as longing — something that already works and may become more. Both point to the same place. In the app they are two doors of equal standing to the same goal.
The Deep Anchor Circle
The vision is at the centre. Around it lie three areas, and the path leads once around the circle — and then one turn deeper.
1 · Vision
Orientation. The inner state you want to strengthen — composure, clarity, dignity, courage. A way of being, not a to-do.
2 · Journal
Sensing and analysis. Recording what happened: the burdensome as well as the successful, with the feeling that goes with it. You look for the pattern, not the symptom.
3 · Insights
Insight. Condense what you observed into one sentence — and note what you want to change from now on.
4 · Anchor
Anchoring. An if-then resolution in your own words: “When my jaw tightens, I take three breaths before I answer.” The app reminds you; you check in briefly.
What the anchor sets off in everyday life goes back into the journal. Development happens at these transitions: an entry becomes an insight, the insight becomes an anchor, everyday life with the anchor becomes a new entry. You take each transition on your own, step by step, directly — or together with your coach.
The check-in
Two answers, no third: Anchored and lived — or Re-anchored. Anyone who didn’t manage it today but looked at it keeps their streak. What counts is looking, not succeeding.
The foundation: regulating feelings
Some reactions sit in the nervous system and can’t be thought away. Three short exercises make you able to act: box breathing, a tapping technique as guided self-soothing, and The step back, which names a feeling and creates distance. They’re open as long as you have access, DeepAnchor Free included. The pointer to a crisis line is always there, even on the “Access ended” screen.
What carries the way over months
Waymarks
A ticked-off anchor falls into the water with a splash, the last one of the day brings fireworks. At certain streak lengths a seal appears — without a performance tone.
The protected day
Two protected days in every fourteen days hold the streak, even on two days in a row. It is never announced: a buffer you know about gets used more readily.
Letters to yourself
A goal, sealed to your later self, that comes back on the day you set.
On your own or accompanied
Anyone without a coach can have the AI coach ask them a question at the transitions: tightly limited, marked as a machine, without interpretation and without diagnosis. Anyone with a human coach finds them in the same place. The coach feeds the circle with insights, prepared anchors and material. They see who is taking part, but not what anyone writes — only what the client releases to them for a conversation. The method works best when a coach conveys it and the app then carries it through everyday life.
Confidentiality
Journal, anchors, check-ins, letters and media are end-to-end encrypted. The key stays on your device, not with us. The only exception is what you yourself release for a conversation. Everything can be exported and deleted at any time. More in the questions →
What is supported — and what is not
DeepAnchor is not a tested therapy. It is a combination of building blocks that have each been studied — some well, some hardly.
| Building block | What the research says | How robust |
|---|---|---|
| The anchor as an if-then plan | 642 individual tests; effect on behaviour d = 0.27, about 0.15 after correction (Sheeran et al. 2025) | robust small effect |
| Recording progress | 138 experiments, d = 0.40; stronger in writing than without a record (Harkin et al. 2016) | robust |
| The protected day | A buffer that only applies once something goes wrong works better than one you know about in advance (Sharif & Shu 2019) | robust the strongest building block |
| Slow breathing | 26 randomised studies, g ≈ 0.35 on stress and anxiety (Fincham et al. 2023) | robust moderate effect |
| Naming and distance | over 230 studies, g = 0.52 (Moran & Eyal 2022) | robust moderate effect |
| A vision instead of a to-do | well founded, not tested causally | open |
| AI coach | The design decisions are supported (questions instead of advice, your own words), the effect is not | open |
| Tapping technique | no added benefit shown compared with active comparison methods | weak |
What we do not claim
DeepAnchor is not a medical device and replaces neither diagnosis nor psychotherapy. The effects of the building blocks are small to moderate, and whether their combination does more than the parts has not been tested. An app works less strongly than a person. Anyone who knows the weak points can believe the strong ones.
As of October 2026.
Well-studied building blocks, carefully put together — no promise of effect.