Mac Audio for Online Therapy: Privacy, No Interruptions

You're in an online therapy session on your Mac. The conversation needs your full attention and a sense of privacy. Then Slack pings. A Calendar reminder chimes. A browser tab you forgot about starts playing audio. Each sound pulls you out of the moment.

Here's how to set up your Mac so the session is as quiet and private as you can make it.

1. Turn on a Focus mode

Do Not Disturb (or another Focus mode) is the first step. Turn it on from Control Center before the session starts. It silences most notification banners and alert sounds while it's on.

It isn't complete, though:

• Some apps play their own sounds outside the notification system
• A browser tab can start playing audio on its own
• An app you forgot about can still make noise

2. Turn off sounds for chatty apps

In System Settings > Notifications, select apps like Slack, Mail or Messages and turn off their notification sounds. Check the app's own settings too: chat apps often have a separate option for notification sounds. If you never need those chimes during the day, leaving them off is the simplest fix.

3. Close what you don't need

Quit music players, extra browser windows and anything else that might play sound. Fewer open apps means fewer surprises.

4. Use headphones for privacy

Headphones keep the other person's voice from being heard by anyone else in the room, and keep your speakers silent. If you share your home, a closed door and headphones go a long way.

5. Mute every app except the session

The steps above reduce interruptions, but there's still no built-in way to say "only this one app may make sound". That's where per-app volume helps.

SoundDial puts a volume slider and a mute button for each running app in your menu bar. Before the session:

• Your therapy platform (Zoom, another video app, or the browser it runs in): 100%, or boosted above 100% if the other person is hard to hear
• Every other app that might make sound: muted with one click each, for example Slack, Mail, Messages, Music and a second browser

The other apps keep running; only their sound is silenced. Their messages and notifications are still waiting for you afterwards.

A few honest notes:

• SoundDial works per app, not per browser tab. If your session runs in a browser, every tab in that browser shares the same slider, so close other tabs that might play audio.
• Apart from auto-ducking, it doesn't change levels on its own. Auto-ducking (on by default, can be turned off) lowers other apps while a call app such as Zoom, FaceTime or your browser uses the microphone, and restores them when the call ends. Mutes you set stay until you unmute them, so when the session ends, open the panel and unmute the apps you want back.
• SoundDial does not record anything. It only changes how loud each app plays on your Mac.

More on muting single apps: mute one app on Mac and mute everything except one app.

The same setup works for

• Medical video appointments
• Confidential work conversations
• Job interviews by video call
• Any call where you want fewer interruptions

Get it

SoundDial, a per-app volume mixer for Mac needs macOS 14.2 or later and costs €14.99 one-time purchase on the Mac App Store, no subscription.

Get SoundDial on the Mac App Store.