Introducing Myndgard Discover

Waiting for a first counselling appointment can feel like a long time. For many students it is also the point at which they have decided to ask for help and have nothing yet to do with that decision.

Myndgard Discover is our answer to a narrow question: what could a student on the counselling waitlist usefully start straight away, on their own, without taking up counsellor time? This week the Discover privacy policy took effect, on 14 September 2026, and we want to set out plainly what the programme is and what it is not.

What it is

Discover is a short daily programme about how emotions work, made available to students by their university.

Each day has a few short reading modules, most of which students can also listen to as audio. Alongside the reading there is an optional check-in, where a student notes how they are feeling and can write a short private reflection, and a practical exercise to try.

The programme moves from noticing emotions to working with them. It covers the difference between emotions, thoughts and moods; stress responses and early signals; what different emotions are signalling; thought traps and balanced reframes; small actions for getting unstuck; and sleep, movement and habits. It ends with students putting together their own toolkit from what worked for them.

It is self-paced. The next day opens once the current one is finished, so students can move through it steadily or take longer. Short quizzes along the way help them check what has stuck, and they can set an optional daily reminder for a time that suits them.

Who it is for

Discover is for university students on the counselling waitlist. It is a low-intensity first step that a student can take on their own, and it sits alongside the counselling service rather than in place of it.

Ireland's National Student Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Framework, published by the Higher Education Authority in 2020, recommends that institutions give students "multiple service access points for support", including self-help resources alongside in-person, remote and out-of-hours services. Discover is designed as one of those access points, for a specific moment.

How students join

The counselling service lets students on its waitlist know that Discover is available to them. Students then create an account themselves with their college email address, and the address connects them to their university's programme. The first day opens straight away.

Students can only create an account if their university is using Discover. There is no public sign-up.

What the university sees

The university sees anonymous, cohort-level figures only: how many students have registered and how far, on average, the group has progressed.

University staff cannot see which students have registered, cannot read anyone's check-ins or reflections, and cannot see an individual student's progress. This is deliberate. A student on a waitlist should be able to use Discover without wondering who is reading over their shoulder.

Privacy

Because the programme asks students to record how they are feeling, some of what it holds is sensitive, and the privacy policy treats check-ins and reflections as health data. In summary:

Check-ins, reflections and exercise responses are encrypted in the database, with keys held separately from the data, and all traffic is encrypted in transit.
Each university's data is kept logically separate from every other university's.
There is no advertising and no third-party analytics or tracking software in the app, and student data is not sold or shared for marketing.
Reminders are scheduled on the student's own device; we do not send push notifications from our servers.
Students can export their data or delete their account at any time from Settings in the app.

What it is not

Discover is an educational programme. It does not diagnose or treat any condition, and it is not a substitute for professional care or for the university's counselling service. A crisis support screen with helpline numbers is available from every part of the app.

Discover is also separate from Myndgard Share, our tool for students who are already in counselling. The two are independent products, and using one does not involve the other.

What this means for counselling services

For a counselling service, Discover offers something concrete to tell a student at the point they join the waitlist: a programme they can start that day, at their own pace, with their privacy protected. It does not change the waitlist itself, and it does not give the service any information about individual students.

If you lead a counselling or student-wellbeing service and would like to talk about offering Discover, you can read more about Discover or get in touch through our contact page. Students looking for help with the app can visit Discover support.

If you're struggling: Samaritans 116 123, text 50808, or 112/999 in an emergency.