OrbitsWell

Orbit Boundaries guide

What Orbit Boundaries can and cannot do

A plain-language guide to using the app for relationship reflection, boundary planning, and pattern noticing, without confusing it for therapy, crisis support, legal advice, or a truth machine.

Updated June 23, 2026 Educational resource Citations checked

Quick read

Orbit Boundaries is a private reflection app. It helps you map relationship distance, write down boundary plans, notice repeated patterns, and keep sensitive context close to you. It does not decide what a relationship means, diagnose anyone, tell you whether someone is safe, provide therapy, or replace help from trusted people or professionals.

The healthiest use is simple: record what happened, name what you need, choose one small next boundary, and revisit it after real interactions. If there is immediate danger, coercion, self-harm risk, or abuse, leave the app and get live support.

What a boundary is

A boundary is a limit or expectation that helps define what access, behavior, time, emotional labor, or physical space is okay for you in a relationship. Healthy boundaries are not punishments. They are a way of making needs visible so the other person can respond with respect.

The National Domestic Violence Hotline describes healthy relationships as communicative, respectful, trusting, honest, equal, and able to include time and space apart. Their guidance also frames boundaries as something people communicate about: what they are and are not comfortable with.1

Boundaries can change. Consent and comfort are not one-time events. The Hotline's consent guidance emphasizes ongoing conversation, asking clear questions, and respecting the answer when someone states a physical, emotional, sexual, material, intellectual, or time boundary.2

What Orbit Boundaries can do

Help you see relationship distance

The orbit map is a visual metaphor for closeness, access, and energy. Moving someone farther away in the app does not end a relationship; it helps you name the distance that feels appropriate right now.

Help you record what happened

Private notes, interaction logs, and boundary events can help you separate an observed event from the story your nervous system tells after the fact. The app works best when entries are specific: what happened, when, who was involved, what you asked for, and what happened next.

Help you practice a small next step

Scripts and plans can make a boundary easier to try. A useful plan is usually concrete: "I can talk for 20 minutes," "I am not discussing this tonight," or "I need a day before I answer."

Help you notice patterns over time

A single hard conversation may not mean much. A repeated pattern matters more. The app is built to make those repetitions easier to see without grading, diagnosing, or scoring the people in your life.

What Orbit Boundaries cannot do

It is not therapy

Psychotherapy is treatment delivered by a trained mental health professional, often to help people identify and change troubling thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.3 Orbit Boundaries is not treatment and does not create a clinical relationship.

It is not diagnosis or medical advice

The app is a low-risk wellness and reflection product. FDA guidance draws a line between general wellness software and software intended for diagnosis, cure, mitigation, prevention, or treatment of disease.4 Orbit Boundaries stays on the wellness side of that line.

It is not crisis support

The app cannot monitor danger, intervene in an emergency, or contact help for you. If you might hurt yourself or someone else, or you are in immediate harm or danger, use live crisis resources instead.

It is not legal advice or evidence review

Notes can help you remember events, but the app cannot tell you what counts as evidence, what to disclose, or how to handle custody, employment, harassment, or safety documentation. For legal or safety planning, talk to a qualified advocate, attorney, clinician, or local support service.

It is not a truth detector

Your logs reflect your observations and interpretations. They may be useful, but they are not proof of another person's motive, intent, diagnosis, or character.

It is not a cloud backup

Orbit Boundaries is local-first. That protects privacy, but it also means you are responsible for your device, exports, and backups. If you delete the app, lose your device, or erase local data, OrbitsWell cannot restore a private cloud copy that it never held.

How to use it safely

  1. Start with one relationship. Pick the person or situation that feels most active right now. Do not try to map your whole life in one sitting.
  2. Describe observable behavior. Write what happened before you write what it means. "Called six times after I said I was working" is more useful than "does not care about me."
  3. Name one boundary. Make it specific enough to act on: time, topic, place, money, contact frequency, privacy, physical space, or emotional labor.
  4. Choose a small script. Try language you could actually say. The best boundary script is often boring, clear, and repeatable.
  5. Review what changes. After the next interaction, log whether the boundary was respected, tested, ignored, or no longer fit.
  6. Ask for human support when the stakes rise. If you feel unsafe, trapped, threatened, isolated, or pressured, an app is too small for the job.

Privacy is part of safe use. The FTC's mobile health app guidance starts with data minimization, limiting permissions, authentication, and security by design.5 HealthIT.gov's Model Privacy Notice project likewise treats clear privacy communication as part of helping people make informed choices about apps.6 That is why Orbit Boundaries is local-first and does not require an OrbitsWell account.

When to get help now

Use live support instead of the app if you are in immediate danger, feel at risk of hurting yourself or someone else, are being threatened, are being pressured sexually, are being prevented from leaving, or need a safety plan.

  • Immediate danger: call local emergency services. In the United States, call 911.
  • Suicidal crisis or emotional distress in the U.S.: call or text 988, or use 988 chat. The 988 Lifeline says people do not have to be suicidal to call, and lists relationship distress and intimate partner violence among reasons people may reach out.7
  • If you are contacting 988 by web form: their site says the form is not for crisis counseling and urges 911 for immediate harm or danger.8
  • Relationship abuse or coercion: contact a local domestic violence resource, advocate, shelter, or hotline appropriate to your country or region.

Sources checked

These sources were reviewed for the claims above. OrbitsWell is not affiliated with these organizations.

  1. The National Domestic Violence Hotline, "Healthy Relationships". Used for healthy relationship qualities and boundary communication.
  2. National Institute of Mental Health, "Psychotherapies". Used for the distinction between psychotherapy and a self-guided reflection app.
  3. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, "General Wellness: Policy for Low Risk Devices". Used for the general-wellness boundary around non-diagnostic lifestyle software.
  4. Federal Trade Commission, "Mobile Health App Developers: FTC Best Practices". Used for privacy and security design principles.
  5. HealthIT.gov, "Model Privacy Notice". Used for transparent privacy communication expectations for consumer-facing health-related apps.
  6. 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, "Get Help". Used for 988 availability and examples of reasons to call, text, or chat.
  7. 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, "Contact Us". Used for immediate-danger and crisis-contact guidance.