CASE STUDY:
A platform that reimagines practice management software for therapists and enhances patient interventions.
Contributions: This was a team project and I was responsible for product design and content strategy.
The Context
According to a 2024 article by Mental Health America and the CDC, nearly 60 million Americans face mental health issues annually, with cases continuing to rise each year. When people seek therapy, the focus is often on managing symptoms, overlooking personal history and personality traits. Key details, such as a client’s upbringing or religious background, are frequently omitted. This, is the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy model that is most often used today.
The Problem
Treatment often prioritizes symptoms, like recurring alcohol abuse, while overlooking deeper issues, such as manipulative or irresponsible tendencies. This gap underscores the groundbreaking work of the ARCS Institute. Led by Tanya Freedland, ARCS is pioneering an approach that integrates personality traits and client history into diagnosis, supported by an innovative digital tool for therapists.
The Goal
Design a unified digital solution that empowers therapists to manage client panels, schedules, and profiles, integrates siloed tools and information, and incorporates the ARCS Precision Treatment Personality Profile tool to improve patient outcomes
The Research
To better understand these changes, we spoke with founder Tanya Freedland, and researcher Robert F. Krueger, PhD., at the ARCS Institute. We learned that ARCS has an innovative approach to therapy that emphasizes the importance of understanding and working with a client’s unique personality by embracing what makes them distinct. Tanya and Robert’s vision for the future of therapy includes the Precision Treatment Personality Profile, a scientifically validated tool that identifies detailed personality traits and drives meaningful advancements in the mental health space. Their approach represents a truly novel vision for therapy. But we wanted to learn more, so we spoke with key stakeholders, therapists, and researchers to understand what would help them improve patient outcomes and the management of their practices.
ARCS Institute’s approach represents a truly novel vision for therapy.
User Interviews
We interviewed five practitioners—a mix of researchers and therapists—to gather insights into the tools they currently use and explore the potential benefits of a new platform integrating the ARCS PTPP tool. These scripted, question-oriented conversations allowed ample space for participants to share freely about what works for them and what gaps they experience. The emerging vision centered on a dashboard designed for streamlined access to tools and client records at varying levels. Practitioners emphasized the need for quick, at-a-glance insights, with the option to delve into expanded information within just a few clicks.
“A perfect diagnostic tool would have super accessible language, non-pathologizing, and destigmatizing for the client.”
Robert Krueger, PhD., Researcher ARCS Institute
“[…] whatever tools are within the system need to make our job efficient, fast, and just to the point. It doesn’t need to be fancy.”
Rian Thibeau, Behavioral Therapist
“An AI agent could have access to a greater corpus
of information, making suggestions more encompassing or divergent from what a clinician might consider.”
Colin DeYoung, Researcher
Wireframes
Architecture Diagram
The Solution
With these insights, we designed a digital platform that re-imagines practice management software for therapists, improves patient interventions, and solves a problem that affects therapist and patients across the country. A practice management software solution for therapists that unifies previously siloed tools and information into a single digital solution called - Therapy Dashboard.
