iThrive: The Pacifica App

1.9K

In Balanced Achievement’s ‘iThrive series’, we aim to present you with a variety of useful iOS and Android Apps that you can utilize to accelerate your personal growth and improve the quality of your life. We meticulously select innovate Apps that are designed to help individuals make the personal changes needed to move their lives in the direction of happiness, success & fulfillment. In this article, we look at the Pacifica App which has gained worldwide acclaim for being an indispensable mental health tool. 

---

iThrive App Profile:

App: Pacifica

Cost: Free Basic Version & Paid Premium Subscriptions
($5.99/monthly or $35.99/annually)

App Focus: Mental Health

Pacifica Overview:

Since the 33rd President of the United States Harry S. Truman signed the National Mental Health Act into law on July 3rd, 1946, healthcare providers across the country have spent innumerable hours researching mental illness and developing treatments for debilitating mental health disorders. Yet still, even with this unremitting 71-year commitment, statistics show that prominent forms of mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression haven’t dissipated in the least.

In fact, because stress largely contributes to the expression of mental health disorders, and because America’s levels of stress remain on the rise, mental illness continually affects a substantial amount of the population. Fortunately, world-class medical professionals have more recently developed a breakthrough treatment strategy that’s shown to be effective for treating stress, anxiety, and depression, and this new therapeutic approach is brought to life in the equally groundbreaking iOS and Android App Pacifica.

It was in 2014 when Pacifica’s co-founders Dale Beermann and Chris Goettel set out to develop a mental health App that was built upon concepts found in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), the highly acclaimed therapeutic technique we just discussed. Although Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and the practice of mindfulness, which is rooted in Eastern spirituality, have for some time been separately considered effective mental health treatment strategies, it was only within the past two decades that medical professionals began developing a therapeutic approach that combined the two together. More recently, findings from a variety of scientific studies have suggested that MBCT is one of the most effective methods for treating mental health disorders. While one may think that it would be impossible to utilize MBCT without visiting a therapist, Beermann and Goettel have proven otherwise by integrating the approach’s life-affirming strategies and tools into the highly acclaimed Pacifica App.

For either individual suffering from a mental illness or those who want to take preventive mental health measures, Pacifica, which translates to mean tranquil in Spanish, offers users three helpful strategies. By being able to simultaneously monitor their mood, learn beneficial mental health practices, and connect with others in the Pacifica community, individuals are able to take surefire steps to increase their levels of subjective well-being.

These three strategies of monitoring, learning, and connecting have been creatively integrated into the App’s five primary features. Individuals can rate and monitor their health, mood, thoughts, and goals in the ‘Home’ and ‘My Progress’ featured areas. Users can learn about a variety of useful mental health strategies and mindfulness practices with the ‘Guided Paths’ and ‘Relax’ features. And individuals can connect with others facing similar challenges by clicking on the App’s ‘Community’ tab.

While there is a lot to like about Pacifica’s user interface, what really makes the App stand out is the meticulous efforts made to offer an array of life-affirming tools, practices, and exercises within a framework designed to keep individuals moving toward their mental health goals. Not only are there 28 Guided Path activities covering the topics of mental health, CBT, and mindfulness, for example, but also over 25 Relax Now exercises specifically created to help users in a variety of different ways. Pacifica’s developers also made certain that users will continually be moving in the right direction by integrating goal-setting, self-monitoring, and an inspirational hope board into the App’s framework. Additionally, by allowing users to send data to their therapists, and offerings therapists the opportunity to measure the Apps effectiveness with their patients, the team at Pacifica ensured themselves that they can continue to make the already great App even better.

With an easy to use interface that was creatively built upon a detailed framework of one of the most effective treatment strategies for mental health disorders, it’s easy to see why Pacifica has won numerous awards and even been lauded as the world’s best mental health App. When considering the App’s life-affirming potential alongside the extremely reasonable price, it should become even easier to see why Pacifica is a must have App for both individuals suffering from mental illness and those who want to continuously improve their mental and emotional self-care.