Halifax Entrepreneurs Create Online Platform To Support In-Person Mental Healthcare
HALIFAX — Six years into his career as a stock analyst in Halifax, Joel Muise finally burned out.
For a long time, he felt like his body was breaking down on him: he was tired, he couldn’t concentrate, he couldn’t remember things, his muscles ached, his head ached, he had digestion problems.
“You name a symptom, I had it,” Muise recently recalled.
His doctor sent him for test after test, with no results. Muise tried to fix things himself: he went on a strict no-sugar diet, he got tested for ADHD. At one point, he shipped a stool sample to Chicago for tests.
But none of it brought him any closer to understanding what was happening.
Finally, a doctor referred him to a psychologist. Muise had been on antidepressants for years, so he thought his emotional health was fine. But with help, he realized he was wrong.
He was never angry. He was never sad. But he was also never happy. Most of the time, he was “just anxious and numb.”
He had been suppressing those feelings, and that was causing his physical symptoms.
“I wasn’t excited to do my job, but I wasn’t even self-aware enough to realize that. So I started to develop a bunch of different physical symptoms,” Muise said. “I’m probably a much more creative person than I was giving myself credit for. And that job didn’t allow me to use my creative muscles.”
Once he realized what was going on, it didn’t take him long to leave his job.
But Muise’s experience reinforced an idea that had first bubbled up when he was trying to get help for his depression in high school: our public health system is broken, and it’s not serving the needs of people with mental health challenges.
It was that thought that eventually lead to him found Tranquility.
“I thought, there’s a problem that needs to be solved, first of all—and second of all, if no one else is going to do it I guess I’m going to do it myself,” he told Huddle.
Muise, who grew up in a small village outside of Yarmouth, said he figured he had two options: he could become a politician or tackle the problem through the private sector. He didn’t want to get involved in politics, so he got to work creating a company.
The gold standard for treating anxiety and depression is cognitive behavioral therapy, a treatment that helps patients understand, and eventually counter their negative thoughts.
Muise, who has used CBT himself, said the therapy lends itself well to an online platform because once you have the exercises and information it’s mainly about putting it into practice in your own life.
He had used a few online resources but thought he could make something better.
Around the start of 2017, he began searching for a partner “on the scientific side” to help him develop an online CBT treatment.
Eventually, he found Dr. Alissa Pencer, a registered psychologist and instructor at Dalhousie University. Together they co-founded Tranquility and began developing a treatment program.
They participated in a few pitch competitions, did a pilot study to test their product, and found a developer to create an app to deliver their program.
“And four years later, here we are,” Muise said.
Today, Tranquility is a platform that aims to help people better manage their mild to moderate anxiety and depression. Since its inception, the company has grown to six full-time staff, three part-time staff, and six coaches.
Delivered online — through an app or on a computer — clients are matched with a coach who supports them as they go through a series of CBT exercises.
Muise said they’ve developed the exercises to be as close as possible to the work Dr. Pencer does in person with her own clients.
“We often say… these are the things that I would teach the clients, this is the worksheet that I would give the clients, and then this is some of the work that the client would do in a self-help way,” Muise said.
He also argues that, through Tranquility, people can get help fast and without the “stigma” that often comes with visiting a traditional therapist.
Muise said he sees Tranquility fitting into a “continuum of care” for people seeking mental health treatment in the public healthcare system, even if the platform’s not necessarily right for everyone.
“We’re filling in a gap today,” he said. “I’m going to be very black and white about it [but] in a very simplistic way, your choices are either wait six months… or an expensive therapist in the private system.”
Right now, users pay a fee to use Tranquility, but Muise hopes eventually the platform will be available for free to everyone through the public health system.
“I personally believe that when Canadians talk about having free health care that we actually mean we have free health care. I think dentistry and prescription drugs and mental health all should be free. Basically, our dream is that we have as many clients as want to use it and that none of the actual end-users ever have to pay for this,” he said.
With the Covid-19 pandemic ushering in a new era of online medical treatment, Muise is optimistic about the prospects of that happening.
The pandemic has also fostered more conversations about mental health, and people are looking for treatment options. He said his ultimate hope is that people who are struggling find some form of support, even if it’s not his platform.
“There are more people than ever that are struggling right now. You can take a look at Tranquility, but if you’re out there reading this article and you’re struggling it’s really important if you feel like you need help, to not be shy about asking. It doesn’t even have to be professional, just tell your loved ones that you’re struggling. We all deserve support,” he said.