This Dominican Founded a Mental Health App for POC in Mind
Credit: Elias Gelpi
Pabel Martinez is trying to change the way POC approach their mental health, and he’s doing it with technology. The Dominican launched Plurawl, the first AI-powered mental health app geared towards the Black and Brown community, last year. The app looks to give users insight into negative emotions that might be holding them back, both personally and professionally.
“I think a lot of underrepresented communities are scared of clinical academic language. If you say the words therapy or mental health, people run away,” Martinez told Remezcla. “I want to redefine that. So I learned early on that talking about authenticity and redefining professionalism is a sneaky and effective way to get people to open up about their mental health.”
The aim for Martinez is to create something that helps our communities be more authentic. The app has features like “Reflect with Plurawl,” which uses AI to analyze your journal entries and highlight what limiting beliefs you’re holding onto. It sounds like fortune-telling, or trying to predict the future, but it’s just using technology to help you figure yourself out.
“We include that clinical rigor, but use language that is way more approachable. And the conversational aspect, when you’re having a conversation with the AI, people have told me that it feels like you’re talking to a friend. And that’s intentional; it’s built to mirror whatever language you’re using.”
In the future, the app will expand to launch voice-to-voice. “I don’t want the voice to just be some old British white lady because that happens often. I wanted to have a strong, heavy New York accent that people would call unprofessional. I want one to sound like my abuela. I want one to sound like me. I want all of these voices to sound like people in my life. I don’t want it to sound like a therapist. I don’t want it to sound academic or clinical or corporate, because, again, I think that scares people.”
He also wants to include gamification in Plurawl. For example, every entry that you submit, a star map will be created in your night sky. And eventually they’re going to form like constellations based on themes. Martinez called it a “Duolingo for mental health.”
Plurawl is now available for iPhones, with the Android version launching in October.
