My guest this week is Dr. Stephen Schueller, who’s been working in the field of digital interventions for the past fifteen years. I’ve been really interested in this area because of my own work with a mental health app called Bloom, so I was excited to talk with Stephen about his experience and perspective. One of the coolest things from our conversation was thinking about how to really get the most out of digital interventions—not just trying to recreate the standard therapy experience through a phone, but taking advantage of the unique possibilities that come with the digital world, like being able to find help no matter where we are, exactly when we need it.

Topics we discussed included:

• The potential of digital technology to provide mental health interventions to more people
• The evolution of digital therapy
• The unique advantages of digital mental health interventions
• The relative benefit of digital interventions with and without human involvement
• The effectiveness of digital interventions vs. traditional therapy
• Why human support with digital interventions doesn’t have to involve a mental health professional
• The importance of engagement (or “stickiness”)
• The role of artificial intelligence
• What the ideal mental health app would look like, vs. the typical mental health app
• The popularity of tracking features and psychoeducation
• The major challenge of leveraging the unique advantages of digital interventions
• The phenomenon of skeuomorphs
• Creating more modular and personalized interventions: “Therapy as a LEGO set”
• Rob Morris and a crowdsourced platform for cognitive restructuring
• Using digital sensors and passively collected data
• The therapeutic alliance formed with digital technologies
• Stephen’s role as Executive Director for One Mind PsyberGuide
• How to gauge the quality of a mental health app:
  • Credibility
  • User experience
  • Transparency of data security and privacy policies
• Considering both depression and happiness in the context of optimal mental health
• Finding motivation for positive change, beyond simply fixing a deficit

Stephen Schueller, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Psychological Science and Informatics at the University of California, Irvine.

He received his BA in Psychology from the University of California, Riverside, PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and completed his clinical internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco.

At UCI he leads the Technology and Mental Health (TEAM) Lab, is a faculty member in the Connected Learning Lab, and the Jacobs CERES Center, and leads the implementation evaluation core for the Help@Hand Evaluation Team.

He is also the Executive Director of One Mind PsyberGuide, a project that aims to empower consumers to make informed choices around digital mental health products.

As a clinical psychologist and mental health service researcher his work broadly looks at creating more scalable mental health resources that make treatment more available and accessible, especially through technology. He has developed, evaluated, and disseminated various web- and mobile interventions for the treatment and prevention of mental health issues, especially common ones like depression and anxiety.

Stephen’s research has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the Jacobs Foundation, One Mind, Pivotal Ventures, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Learn more about Stephen and his work at the One Mind PsyberGuide website.