Happypillar

Our mission is to make families happier. Our vision is to democratize evidence-based mental health treatment for families and young people using emerging technologies. We want to improve behavioral and mental health outcomes for families everywhere. We’re excited about the good that our product is already doing, but we’re most excited about the future of our AI platform, the data that’s powering it, and the types of use cases to which it can be applied.

In the medium term, we will continue to focus on parent-child behavioral therapy and expand into modalities for kids 8+ and teens. In the long term, we aim to scale our services to the point where we can serve not just young children and their parents but also adolescents, couples, and all permutations of the family structure. Our company’s values are curiosity, integrity, hard work, and fun. Above all, we value equity–especially as it relates to making our work clinically effective and meaningful. Parenting is a highly personal endeavor, inextricably linked with identity, one’s family of origin, socio-economic status, location, and many more variables. Values are often linked to our culture, and ensuring that we provide a culturally competent and environmentally sensitive intervention will be an important part of accounting for the values-laden nature of parenting. We are constantly attempting to practice cultural humility in our work, purposefully seeking out continuing education individualized to our team members’ roles, as well as areas for improvement. 

We are following the lead of existing evidence-based behavioral treatments like PCIT (Parent-Child Interaction Therapy), SPACE (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions) and CPRT (Child Parent Relationship Therapy, or Filial Play Therapy), which are all supported by data on implementing their specific programs with culturally and ethnically diverse populations, and with a wide range of presenting issues. These programs also conduct research around their usage with special populations, including adoptive families, families who have experienced domestic violence and sexual abuse, neurodivergent families and more.

We also believe it’s important to maintain a diverse team. While our team currently includes mostly freelancers and contractors, we already endeavor to prioritize the inclusion of multiple perspectives, disciplines, and identities when selecting who we work with. Our clinical advisory board is currently 60% people of color, and 100% woman-identifying, and we want to continue with those trends. 

And finally, maintaining open, communicative relationships with our users and customers, and listening to and implementing their feedback, will remain an important check/balance in our quest to provide an inclusive experience. Providing and facilitating simple ways for customers to give feedback, and really prioritizing their feedback, is imperative for Happypillar.

Sam is the CEO of Happypillar, and coordinates clinical projects within the organization. Within Happypillar, Sam has been leading fundraising efforts, designing Happypillar’s product, championing Happypillar and the potential of technology to advance children's mental health at various events, and managing the operations for the company. She has a background in project management, customer success and consulting and is dedicated to Happypillar’s vision of democratizing access to evidence-based mental health support for families everywhere. She is keenly aware that while Happypillar was designed after strategies with significant research and evidence, there is no specific, reviewed research or evidence-base on Happypillar itself as a tool, and she’s excited to take the first steps to get Happypillar to that milestone. 

Sam will be supported by Chloe Picot-Jacobs, LCSW, who serves as Clinical Director at Happypillar. Chloe has been working with children and families for over a decade. As well as leadership and program management experience, she has provided mental health services in both school and outpatient settings working with children ranging from ages 3-17. Certified in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), Chloe has focused much of her career specializing in infant and early childhood mental health, including support for parents and educators of young children. She has extensive knowledge of trauma-informed care practices, chairing several committees for Trauma-Informed Care Consortium of Texas over the course of four years. Chloe earned her Bachelor’s degree at Northwestern University and her Master of Science in Social Work from the University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work. She and Sam are both committed to the necessary work of strengthening the evidence-base of Happypillar and creating pathways to obtain research and data for Happypillar itself. Doing this will open doors for Happypillar to be offered in more settings, and will allow clinicians, educators, and administrators to feel confident in recommending Happypillar to the parents in their communities. Because of this, working on the LEAP project will be a top priority within Happypillar.

Happypillar will improve mental health outcomes and parent-child relationships by supporting caregivers with evidence-based strategies and psychoeducation.

1 in 5 kids have a mental or behavioral disorder, but only 15% have access to care. These diagnoses impact children at home as well as  in the classroom. Due to being at higher risk for suspension and expulsion, children with behavioral concerns may not reach their full learning potential. Said suspensions and expulsions, when they occur in an early childhood education setting, contribute directly to the preschool-to-prison pipeline. The preschool-to-prison pipeline is the process by which students are pushed out of school, beginning as early as pre-school, through out-of-school suspensions, expulsions and overly-punitive discipline and eventually into the juvenile justice and prison systems.  Compounding the issue, those who are neurodivergent are also more likely to develop a psychiatric disorder, such as anxiety or depression.

The significant brain development that takes place during early childhood presents an opportunity for solidifying healthy attachment relationships, setting a foundation of strong executive functioning skills, and adopting therapeutic strategies that can improve observed behavior and benefit kids of all abilities throughout their lives. Unfortunately, mental health supports that are high-quality, affordable, and practical are not readily available to most families. In many communities, mental health professionals specialized in working with children are difficult to access, or not present at all. 

Meanwhile, studies show that parent stress is negatively affecting both adult and child wellbeing. Interventions for children that include their caregivers are shown to have strong, lasting positive effects, but, without the proper support, parents may not know how or what to change in order for their children to thrive, or for their own parenting experience to improve. Happypillar addresses the significant need for child and family mental health support, while also ensuring that all parents who want access have it at their fingertips. 

Happypillar is a self-guided parent coaching app that caregivers use with their kids to help them improve communication, confidence, behavior, and social-emotional skills. The app was designed by licensed clinical therapists and incorporates aspects of evidence-based strategies like PCIT (parent child interaction therapy), CPRT (child parent relationship therapy), trauma-focused CBT, and mindfulness. The app trains parents on the skills of a play therapist using short, interactive instruction modules. It then encourages a daily 5 minute therapeutic practice between parent and child (using gamification to keep parents committed and accountable). We use AI, including speech recognition and natural language processing, to give near-immediate feedback on those daily 5 minute therapeutic sessions, much like one would get weekly from a PCIT therapist or family therapist. We use an evidence-proven psychometrically sound assessment to determine a child's progress, and utilize machine learning recommendation approaches to make personalized recommendations, that provide effective family-centered clinical outcomes for kids and their families.

Happypillar teaches parents the same evidence-based skills that are used by therapists in various therapy modalities. It also provides psychoeducation and strategies that are specific to early childhood development. For ages two through seven, it allows parents to gain information and tools that would typically only be delivered in settings that have numerous barriers to entry. For many families, therapy is inaccessible due to cost, time constraints, or locations. The Happypillar app can be used for free, from the comfort of home, with minimal time investment. Happypillar also seeks to solve for the challenge of parent accountability by presenting a consistent routine for families that is not overly demanding. The app provides reminders and encouragement to follow said routine. It can be used in any location, from home to the playground, It's convenient, and it is accessible to families of all socioeconomic levels. 

For several reasons, the Happypillar intervention could be particularly beneficial for neurodivergent families–either with neurodivergent caregivers, neurodivergent children, or families with both (like our co-founder’s family.) Firstly, it employs a multimodal approach, catering to diverse learning preferences by offering both video and text formats. This enables caregivers who may require multiple exposures to information to revisit content as needed. Secondly, the intervention provides concrete feedback, assisting neurodivergent caregivers in understanding their communication styles with their children and identifying areas for improvement. Importantly, the Happypillar maintains a positive and supportive atmosphere for all caregivers, ensuring that feedback emphasizes strengths rather than weaknesses.

With respect to neurodivergent children or those with learning differences, Happypillar also proves advantageous due to its parallel process. The intervention builds upon existing knowledge and skills in a warm and validating manner. Regardless of a child's specific learning needs or social-emotional abilities, the program fosters an environment in which parents celebrate their child's unique qualities and skillsets. Furthermore, it promotes strong relationships and social interaction opportunities for neurodivergent children who may be working on developing their social-emotional competencies with their parents.

While our solution is not designed specifically to support a neurodivergent or disabled population, parents and children with disabilities and learning variabilities do benefit in various ways from the way Happypillar is implemented. With our focus on accessibility, the program is easy to use, practical, has a low time commitment, and was designed to be used by parents at all levels. While people with disabilities may not specifically be a target population for our solution, we definitely recommend Happypillar to neurodivergent families, including those with neurodivergent children–our founder herself is neurodivergent as are some of her children.

So far, we have conducted foundational and formative research. We conducted hundreds of comprehensive interviews with potential users to explore if our product was something parents and caregivers would be interested in engaging with, as well as what particular challenges they would hope to address with Happypillar. Once we had established that our app met a significant need, we performed feasibility (alpha) and usability (beta) studies. Alpha and beta tests are essential components in the technological sector. The alpha test involved parent users utilizing a simplified version of our app to determine if parents would commit to using it regularly, and tracking their self-reported outcomes. The beta testing involved many users experimenting with a version of our app to determine their usage patterns and areas for usability improvement. 

Within the app, every user completes a weekly questionnaire regarding their child’s behavior, their own parental stress, and progress on the specific goal they selected in the app. This questionnaire functions as a pre/post measure. 

Though the Happypillar team has not yet conducted its own research or collected data specific to the effects of our program, we have made a concerted effort to ensure that all of our content is grounded in evidence-based practices. Our team has engaged in thorough desktop research, familiarizing ourselves with a wide range of therapeutic modalities that inform Happypillar's approach. Among these modalities, we have read over twenty articles on Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), which boasts decades of empirical support. Additionally, we have surveyed research on Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) and studies pertaining to healthy interactions between caregivers and children within the context of parent-child relationships. Finally, we have delved into research demonstrating the efficacy of early childhood interventions and prevention strategies for facilitating positive outcomes in child development due to the critical nature of brain growth during this period.

Our early interviews with potential users showed that nearly every parent had a goal for their family that could be addressed with Happypillar. Parents who had sought therapy for their children consistently expressed that the search was difficult and lengthy, or that they were still searching. We also learned that the most common challenges parents shared about their children were related to temper tantrums, aggression, fear and worrying, sleep habits, and stress. These significant challenges affirmed our company’s mission and vision. Learning about the common challenges faced by parents also inspired us to create content specific to those challenges, such as psychoeducation videos and an FAQ page on our website and within the app. Because parents often stated that they were dealing with more than one major challenge with their children, we also updated our app to allow them to select multiple goals when signing up. 

From our alpha and beta research, 100% of parents who reported outcomes had a decrease in stress after using the app for 1 week or more. This was extremely encouraging, as it indicated that the app was functioning as intended, and could ultimately benefit the entire family system. 

Our desktop and literature review research revealed that, because of the therapeutic modalities Happypillar is based on, the app could successfully address a range of parent concerns, including improving communication and interpersonal relationships within the family unit. Research supported that parent-child interventions like Happypillar could improve numerous aspects of behavior, including the reduction of tantrums, argumentative tendencies, dawdling, noncompliance with instructions, and aggression. This holds significant potential for enhancing the quality of life for families facing diverse challenges.

Finally, we found that a considerable body of evidence supports the idea that a decrease in parental stress positively affects children and the overall family system. Our findings indicate that at-home or non-traditional therapeutic modalities are equally effective as those conducted in professional therapy offices. However, due to the lack of a truly autonomous, self-guided version of this treatment, no concrete data can be found yet on a program like Happypillar.

We are at an optimal moment in Happypillar's growth to conduct and apply our own research. We have a solution that is usable and available, but we are early enough in the app’s lifespan that we can make significant enhancements by utilizing the knowledge gained from research. We also have existing interest from funders and potential research partners. What we lack is a well-defined research plan and the required expertise for designing a study. We also have the capacity as a team, which we did not until recently, as we have a full-time clinical director and availability from the CEO to make conducting research a top priority.

Our ultimate goal is to make Happypillar a trusted, highly recommended tool among pediatricians, mental health professionals, and schools. We also hope to establish various partnerships with educational institutions to broaden accessibility to families. Specific data and evidence supporting the app would significantly enhance these partnership discussions. We are currently engaging with academics and practitioners who acknowledge that our methods are evidence-based, but we are interested in reviewing Happypillar’s own data or controlled randomized trials. It is crucial for us to be able to fully back Happypillar's claims with empirical evidence and emphasize the positive impact it can have on families instead of mentioning possibilities alone. At this stage of our journey, possessing a robust, well-evaluated and credible evidence base would expand our reach and our impact.

• How does Happypillar’s effect compare to no intervention?

• If a parent uses Happypillar at home 4 or more times per week, do the outcomes for behavior in the classroom improve? (What are the best in-class outcomes to measure?)

To distribute Happypillar to potential users, we are pursuing two approaches. One is a consumer product for individual use, and the other is as an educational solution offered by school counselors, administrators, or teachers for parent-child use at home. To instill confidence in our users, and in order to ensure we can continually improve our product, we want to conduct separate studies for each context. One would be a quasi-experimental study on the app's effectiveness and its positive outcomes. The other would focus on classroom performance when students utilize Happypillar at home with their parents.

Our desired output from LEAP would be a thorough research plan that considers our current capacity and budget, including a description of how to organize, prepare for, and conduct these studies and what the studies would look like. We would also like to know what size, population, and environments would be best for Happypillar research. Having an outline for these studies would enable us to approach research organizations with a plan for them to implement these studies. Although we see interest from researchers, they need a better understanding of what questions they should be seeking to answer and how best to conduct the study. Because we do not currently have the expertise on our team to provide them with this information, the LEAP program would prepare us for such partnerships. We would also appreciate any input on how to refine the existing questions we have so that they can lead to measurable results, as well as what gold standard measurement tools apply to our work.

We will utilize strategic and informed planning from LEAP to pursue partnerships with reputable research collaborators, such as universities or nonprofits that align with our mission, vision, and values. Moreover, we will initiate the process of fundraising if necessary, and begin conducting research. With this research, we can make improvements to the app itself and communicate our findings to larger systems like school districts or policymakers.

Once we’ve conducted these studies, we will be able to transform our findings into comprehensive reports. These reports can be shared through marketing materials, discussions with educational institutions, on our website, and within our application. Having our own data and reports will give parents and trusted recommenders greater confidence in our app and method. If trusted individuals like pediatricians or school counselors feel empowered to recommend Happypillar, they will share it more widely within the communities they serve. Ultimately, our goal is to ensure that a larger population gains access to Happypillar, and having reputable research behind our tool can help us reach this goal.

In the short term, having a well-defined research plan would increase our knowledge and understanding of how to approach research institutions and organizations for potential collaboration around conducting studies. The Happypillar team would be prepared to seek out, lead research efforts. One outcome of collaborating with LEAP would be that we are a fully credible product to our prospective funders and would ensure our collaborators of our commitment to procuring reliable data and completing relevant studies. 

Long-term, one desired outcome is that our experience with LEAP would equip the Happypillar CEO and Clinical Director to make the most out of the data yielded from future research studies on the app. LEAP would also facilitate the acquisition of essential partnerships for conducting the aforementioned studies and prepare us to engage with organizations interested in participating in these investigations. 

Across Happypillar’s growth as a company, we could apply the insights gained through both LEAP and the research that comes from it to make intentional, informed decisions about improving and expanding our offerings. Our research may encourage us to pursue specific therapeutic modalities, for example, or guide us in what new content for parents will have the greatest effect.